Baba's Words About the Benefit of Reciting His Prayers

"Soon after finishing this work, Baba would come to the main hall, where Eruch would recite the Parvardigar and Repentance prayers...Baba remarked, 'My participation in these prayers has great significance and by it the prayers are being invested with added power, which people will feel when reciting them and be benefited.'" [The same perhaps holds true for Baba's "Beloved God Prayer": "Beloved God, help us all to love you more and more, and more and more, and still yet more, until we become worthy of union with you; and help us all to hold fast to Baba's daaman until the very end."] Bhau Kalchuri in Lord Meher, Vol. 20, 2001, p. 6588.

"The Master's Prayer has substantial force and meaning. That is why I have given it to the world." Baba in Lord Meher, online edition, p. 4580.

"My growing sense of the spiritual importance of the prayers was reinforced in later years when Baba' s health was declining: He would still insist on standing while the prayers were read out. From 1966 onward, Baba was in seclusion, engaged in intense universal spiritual work on all planes of consciousness. In spite of the fact that this work seemed to leave Baba terribly drained, He wanted the prayers read almost every day when a particular part of His work was finished. After 1967, He usually needed one of His disciples to stand at His side to support Him.

On one such occasion, with Baba standing in spite of His pain and fatigue, He signaled to Eruch to read the prayer faster. Then, several moments later, He gestured again to read faster still.

Eruch was reading briskly when Baba signaled once again to increase the pace. Now Eruch was reading at breakneck speed and the words were running together. Suddenly, he had the image in his mind of an express train barreling its way from Bombay to Pune, clattering through small by-stations without stopping or slowing down. Unexpectedly, contrary to Eruch's habitually poised and balanced nature, he involuntarily burst out laughing for a few moments; then, collecting himself, he resumed reading as rapidly as he could. Afterwards Baba asked him why he had laughed, and Eruch apologetically described the image which had come to him.

Baba gestured, 'You have no idea of the physical strain I was going through when I gestured for you to read faster. For you, reading the prayer fast may seem farcical, but for Me to participate in these prayers in My present state of health is no joke. I have given these prayers to humanity to recite. They are for all posterity. Whenever anyone recites these prayers, they will be helped spiritually because of My present personal participation. It has nothing to do with how quickly you read the prayer or how much feeling you read it with or anything of that sort. All that matters is My having participated in the prayers. Any time anyone repeats these prayers, I am there with them, and they will be helped spiritually.' This was the clear divine assurance from the Avatar Himself about the importance of reciting these prayers. They are a loving expression of His compassion, accomplished at the cost of His physical suffering. Bal Natu in Star of Infinity: Star of Infinity, p. 67-8. NEW

Bal Natu's reflections on reciting Baba's prayers: "When we remember Baba or say the prayers He has given us, in which He Himself participated hundreds of times, this is like picking up the phone to find that the connection has been made automatically. He has laid unseen spiritual cables through these prayers, connecting the hearts of His dear ones, enabling the easy transmission of our yearnings, sorrows, and joys, and His loving response is assured. I sometimes think fancifully of the finial on top of the Samadhi as an antenna which receives our hearts' call and transmits the love of the Ancient One. Our calling on Baba is like pushing a button on the remote control, and the channel that is changed is within us. It is not only that a connection is made, but the very pushing of that button selects a frequency within us, finetuning us so that our thoughts and feelings are increasingly centered on Him." Bal Natu in Star of Infinity: Star of Infinity, p. 64. NEW