The Smell of Prayer

"None who prefers vain desire, or is inclined to ease, or turns back from his search, or who has fears for himself, or feels anxiety about his means of livelihood will ever attain to Knowledge, unless he takes refuge with God, and prefers his spiritual affairs to his temporal ones...
Do not strive so much to complete your worldly work; do not strive in any affair that is not religious...
The smell of pride and the smell of greed and the smell of desire  will become, in a manner of speaking, like the smell of onions.
If you take an oath, saying, "When have I eaten them? I have abstained from onion and garlic,"
The breath of your oath will inform against you, and will strike against the noses of those who sit beside you.
Many prayers are rejected because of their smell: the corrupt heart shows up in the tongue.
If you don't have a sweet breath in prayer, go and beg a prayer from the pure in heart."

Rumi (Vol. 3. from the preface and 1-178)

Commentary: And we wonder why our prayers are not answered in the ways we might want?