Why should we pray / meditate daily?

In Competitive Societies, We Hurt Each Other

Swami Dayananda Saraswati explains the need

for performing daily rituals or meditation

Competition has acceptable rules, which both competitors follow; when I get a chance, I hurt you, though not illegally, and you hit me all right, but never below the belt. We allow ourselves to hurt others, we equip and protect ourselves to hurt others, and they have as much right to hurt us, because those are the rules of the game. It is called paapadravya-upajeevanam. Our upajeevanam, daily earning, is through competition, which is often at the cost of someone else, or sometimes not through fair means. Even in a society where there is no competition, there is some act of paapa associated with earning one’s livelihood, but where there is competition, the earning is definitely paapa-dravya. This is the reason we need to pray daily. It is like taking a cleansing bath everyday. Because you need to earn your living, you have to have a vidhikriyaa, an enjoined ritual action, like the daily agnihotra-karma or some other vaidika-karma. If you don’t do any of these, at least do puja, kirtan or japa, or, at the very least, do meditation, so that you get rid of this daily gathering of sins.