"In the last days I talked about closeness to god. I would say that the aim of each prayer is getting close to God. A prayer is successful if you feel more and more close to God. A prayer can be in any form. Different religions suggest different ways of praying and those who did not learn any way of praying like children, they have their own way of praying.

Many people think of God as a very distant high power which is unreachable. For them God is not close and their prayers seem very formal, they follow what they learned. A prayer is something special and can be in many forms. It is not a certain ritual that you perform or certain words that you have to say. But you need closeness, your heart should be in your prayer.
This doesn’t mean that I am against any ritual. I say that in a ritual, too, you need to have your heart. If you only follow the rules of the ritual, doing one thing after the other and if you are not really there and enjoying it, it is not coming from your heart and it is a dry ritual. I don’t know how effective that prayer will be. But each ritual that is done from your heart, with your love, is an effective prayer. It doesn’t matter if this ritual is praying with a Mala, a rosary or while sweeping or while cooking. When you do it with love, this ritual is a way of getting close to God and a wonderful form of praying. It brings you close to God."

From http://www.jaisiyaram.com/blog