Should we not ask the Lord for help?

Swami replied:- If you are an ordinary person, you should follow the rules of your deeds and nature [Karma]. If you are a devotee, even then, you should not ask God for help. Your devotion must not aspire for any result. When you ask God for help, it means that you want God to violate his own natural rules. The impression of millions of angles and sages [who are constantly meditating on God] is disturbed if God violates his own rules. Such a violation will give a poor impression on God. You are putting God through inconvenience by forcing Him to use His supernatural power [in order to violate the natural laws].

Whether you are a devotee or not, you must always try to solve your problems by putting your best effort. If you fail, even then, do not ask God to help you. Then, you think that it is your fate and worship God as usual. Arjuna was fighting with his grandfather, Bhishma. Arjuna was not putting up his best effort to kill Bhishma. He had sympathy for Bhishma, who had brought up Arjuna since childhood. Noting this, Krishna took his Sudarshana chakra [divine disc] and ran to kill Bhishma. This means that the Lord tried to solve the problem of Arjuna through His divine power. Arjuna did not agree to this and forced Krishna to stop, because Arjuna knew about his inadequate effort. But when Sindhava [Jayadratha] was to be killed, Arjuna tried his best, because Arjuna had taken an oath to kill Sindhava before sunset or else, enter the fire and end his own life. Since the sunset took place apparently due to the Maya [superpower] of Krishna, Arjuna stopped fighting and wanted to enter the fire. He was just going to jump into the fire and yet he never asked for help. He thought that was his fate. Therefore, the Lord helped him secretly. Thus, if you put your best effort but fail because it is beyond your limits and if you happen to be a real devotee but do not ask for the help from God, then you will be helped by the super power of the Lord secretly. The secrecy is in order to preserve the sacredness of his administration in the eyes of others.