Prayer is the seed; bhajan, singing the song of the divine, is the tree. Prayer is hidden, not expressed; bhajan is the expression. Bhajan is the dancing prayer, the singing prayer. Bhajan is the expression of prayer. If you want to see prayer, you will have to look at it in Mahavira and Buddha. If you want to see bhajan, then you had better look at Meera and Chaitanya. Bhajan is the prayer expressed. What remains within Mahavira and Buddha flows out of Meera and Chaitanya. What is static within Buddha and Mahavira has started dancing in Meera and Chaitanya. Bhajan is the expression of prayer.

You can understand it like this. Supposing you are in love with someone. You can just keep it to yourself; there is no need to say anything about it. It doesn't matter even if you don't say, "I love you." You can keep your love within you. Usually women don't tell about their love to anyone, they keep it to themselves. There is no need to say that love is, because the very experience of love is sufficient in itself. But love gets expressed - sometimes in a song, sometimes in the touch of the hand, sometimes in the expression of the eye, and sometimes in silence also. But whenever love is expressed flowers blossom, the seed doesn't remain a seed. Both are beautiful.

There are two types of people in the world. For some prayer is enough - for those who will attain godliness in their emptiness, in their silence, there is no need to say anything. But this is not enough for the other type of people. Unless it is more than enough, it is not enough for them - they have to overflow. They have to go on flowing, expressing their inner ecstasy. So Meera dances. Buddha did not express himself in this way, but Meera did; and both are beautiful, both ways are good. You must know your own nature. If you want to keep it to yourself it doesn't matter, and if you want to distribute, even then it doesn't matter. And I don't compare the two. The seed is beautiful because the flowers bloom out of it, and the flower is beautiful because it becomes the seed. They are interconnected. The expressed and the unexpressed, the manifest and the unmanifest, both are connected. You must find out your nature, your temperament and choose whatever appeals to you. But remember that bhajan is an expression and prayer is silent.

The question is: "Like prayer, is singing the song of the divine also an expression of thanks?"
No, prayer is thanks and bhajan is gratitude with ecstasy. Prayer says: "Whatever is given to me is enough; I am fully satisfied and contented with what is given to me." But bhajan says: "Whatever is given to me is more than necessary, it cannot be contained within, it has to be distributed." Bhajan expresses itself by dancing; it is not silent, it speaks. It has its own beauty.

Prayer is an unsung song - the picture hidden in the mind of a painter which has not taken the form on the canvas. It is the statue hidden in the stone which has not been carved out with the chisel. Bhajan is the visible statue. The stone has been cut, the chisel has done the work. Bhajan is the song which is being sung.
From: The Song of Ecstasy