A Prayer / Japa are aids to see myself as i am. That is to see "I am the Self".

But when a person tries to use them to "escape" from situation that is where it goes wrong. When Hanuman chalisa says Hanuman is very strong... That strength is not strength to change the situtation ; though one may change the situation. That strenght is to remain "untouched" irrespective of what the situation. 100% control over situtation is never possible and we all agree. So the Strength that is talked abt in these prayers is 1) our own strength 2) it is the strength to remain untouched by external situtations and not the strength to change the external situtations. so now. In morning prayer/meditation or practise session one sits down and performs japa/prayer/meditation to see oneself as the Self, Consciousness,Awareness,Witness or Being. And then throughout the day, all activities are test for this ... I Remain as the Self ... and the Self, i am untouched by situtations. So, i do not do anything to escape any situtation ... i just allow situtations to come as they may. Doing my duty, or tasks as i should. So this is facing the situtation. And One has to remain anchored to the Self as one does this. So remaining anchoredto the Self, see how the self is not affected by the thought world ... and also see how it is we ourselves who are picking up wrong identities and suffering mental states. The whole essence is to not get identified with the non-self, mind. Attempts to change mental state are actually because we have already identified with mental entities. So, one may do japa or prayer to disidentify with mental states ... and then most important is to see how we are unconsciously picking up identifications with mental states and stop doing this! This is what is facing the situation without japa/prayer ... coz here no attempt to control mind ... here we try to see how the Self that we are need not bother abt it... and is not bothered by it.

The prayer or japa are like going into seclusion to learn driving. then , we have to come out and try driving on the roads. This is driving on the roads is a must. So practise in seclusion, move to the road and drive ... come back, correct ur mistakes in seclusion and get back to road and drive ... so on ... until you become an expert driver That is the idea. One cannot just keep practising in seclusion... unless one comes out, one does not really see one's mistakes So ... it is driving on the road ... only when one tries to live like a Ramana in day to day life and finds something is stoping ... when something is a hurdle ... that is when we have to see how the hurdle is a myth.