Always seek the guidance of the Divine in trying to fulfill your legitimate desires, because that is the supreme way to receive the answers to all your prayers. But one thing you must remember: cut out begging from your prayer! Change your old attitude of supplication. You should pray to God intimately, as His child, which you are. God does not object when you pray from your ego, as a stranger and a beggar, but you will find that your efforts are limited by that consciousness. God does not want you to give up your own will power, which is your divine birthright as His child.
Naturally, one should distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable prayers or desires. And bear in mind that, once you have made this discrimination, whatever good or bad desires you hold on to are bound to be fulfilled. If you cling to any evil desires, they will be granted; and you will find out what harm and unhappiness they cause. As time goes on, you will realize that even though your wish was fulfilled, your heart is still not satisfied; you will feel something within you rebelling. For example, suppose you have weak digestion, yet you want to eat fried foods. Not surprisingly, you suffer every time you do. Although you feel delighted while fulfilling that desire, the aftereffect is pain; thus you are made aware that you have done wrong. It is wiser to use discrimination to separate your evil desires from your good ones and, having done so, to avoid the fulfillment of those wrong desires. Learn to be guided by your conscience, the divine discriminative power within you.
Extract from the book “Man’s Eternal Quest” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda