Does God expect anything?

By N. Gopi Krishna on 13 Jan 2026

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Rituals and pilgrimages may soothe our mind but do they please God? Does God need flowers, chants, bargains? What pleases Him is our smile as prayer and our joyous living as ritual. He is less concerned with how often we bend before idols and more with how kindly we rise to serve the living. We think we are pleasing God with rituals..?? Are we?

We think He bends His will because we walked around a temple a hundred times or broke a coconut at His door..?? Does He? These acts may soothe our restlessness, and may give our mind the illusion of having done something for God, but do they reach Him at all?

What we are failing to understand is, God does not need our flowers, for He made the garden before we were born. He does not need our chants, for He gave you the very breath that utters them. He does not need our bargains, for He has already placed before us what is due.

What, then, pleases God..?? Not the sound of our lips, but the fragrance of our life; and not the length of our ritual, but the depth of our joy. Our smile is the prayer He longs for, because it tells Him we have understood the rhythm of His design.

Our joyous living is the ritual He waits for, because it reflects gratitude for what He has already given us. When we laugh with contentment, when we live with dignity, and when we rise each day with thankfulness, we have worshipped God more than a thousand pilgrimages could ever achieve.

We bend before idols made of stone, yet rise with arrogance towards people made of flesh. Does this please God..?? I don’t know . He is less concerned with how often we fall at His statue, and more with how kindly we rise to serve the fellow humans, all children of His creation.

When we wipe a tear, when we feed a hungry mouth, and when we forgive instead of retaliate, that is puja, that is pilgrimage, and that is the incense that reaches Him which he enjoys..

Look at the noble sages and personalities who lived before us. True devotion has always been service to life, service to humanity, and service to the least among you.

We may journey a thousand miles to touch the sanctum of a shrine, but if you cannot journey a single step to touch the heart of the suffering, we have not reached God. The temple is only a reminder, but the real sanctum is the heart that beats within us and around us.

So instead of bargaining with God and drowning Him in our noise, offer Him what He Himself gave us; our joy, our kindness, and our humanity. That alone is the prayer that pleases Him the most and not what we have been doing all these years. Shed them, you shall notice peace; persist with them, you live with restlessness.”
Our rituals may end at the temple gate, but true devotion begins when we step out of it.