Someone questioned Baba, “If it is done with a feeling of devotion, is it bad for a person who has no time to pray himself to have it done through a medium?”
In reply, Meher Baba stated:
This is total foolishness and completely absurd. It is an excuse and a useless pretext. It does not hold water. It is an insult to one’s common sense. Can prayer, worship or entreaties to God ever be hired? It is beyond one’s imagination. While still being lured by Maya, it is like throwing the burden of one’s actions on the shoulders of others and paying them money to take him to God. It is a pretense for keeping oneself immersed in Mayavic pleasures.
A person says, “I have no time to pray.” Why not? Because one is unwilling to spare time for it. It is a meaningless excuse to cover up one’s preoccupation with the world and lack of time due to one’s desire to remain involved in Mayavic pursuits. The mind is entrapped in Maya and does not want to be freed; and so to achieve merit, a person offers hired prayers. Can this ever result in any meritorious action or virtue?
If you want to remember or offer worship to God, do it honestly and loyally with all your heart and mind. Even if you can only remember or pray to Him a few minutes each day, do it sincerely. Compared to babbling for hours on end, a sincere prayer of two minutes has more effect. It immediately reaches God’s ears. The reason is that God always listens to the voice of the heart.
–www.lordmeher.org, p1175