December, 1959. We ask you, Beloved God, to help Baba for absolute fulfillment for     desired results and help us all to hold on to his daaman and to try to obey 100%.

This is for the mandali. Each of the mandali was asked by Baba to repeat the following prayer whilst he bowed down to the feet of each of us. This was on November 22nd, 1959, at Meherazad, Pimpalgaon, at 9 o'clock in the morning:

"Almighty God, help Baba to finish his work by December end and help us all to hold on to Baba's daaman to the very end and to share both his humiliation and glorification."

Here's a translation Baba made of a prayer in Gujarati:

"In the Name of God Almighty I praise and utter almighty God, full of glory, full radiance, all-knowing, preserver of all, God of gods, King of kings, protector of all, Creator of all things created, Bestower of bounties, and giver of food to all, Lord of nature, Almighty God the ancient One, forgive us, Bestower of grace, O merciful, O omnipotent, O omniscient, O Lord of all, O Murshid of purity."

He gave us various prayers, you see. I like best the one that says, "I am not the body, I am not the mind," etc.

You asked about prayers and the situations that brought about the different prayers dictated by Baba, and you have now heard my reply. Besides these prayers which I have jotted down in this little book from which I read out the prayers, there were spontaneous prayers which Baba wanted us to recite; they were not recorded.

Whatever was there on record with me — whatever slips of paper I was given and had collected I wrote down in the little book and I have told you all about it. Nothing has been kept back. But one thing you should remember, whenever Baba expressed His desire, His pleasure that we should collect ourselves and gather for prayers, it was a serious and solemn affair. It was not as we now are, in good humor, talking in a light vein about this solemn and serious matter.

We still have that water pot and that blue basin here in Mandali Hall which He used to wash His hands and face before the prayers. He would not only participate with us in the prayers, but prepare Himself for such prayers. He didn't say anything to us, that we should keep prepared for prayers; but knowing His ways and how He would want us to keep clean and tidy for prayers, we also remained prepared, not knowing when He would ask us to recite the prayers. We would keep our feet ready, washed and clean, for who knows when He would want us to put our foot forward for Him to bow down to; with the God-man putting His head on our feet, we couldn't stand around dirty or with wet feet! We had to keep ourselves clean and prepared for all such occasions. But many times, we were caught unaware; then He would say, "It's all right, it doesn't matter." He would be the first one who kept Himself prepared for the prayers, after having washed His hands and splashed water on His face, and after properly drying His face and hands with a napkin. He would call the rest of the mandali in His presence. He wouldn't want anybody to miss the occasion. He wanted all His mandali around Him at the time of prayers; then He'd start. He would stand up and gesture, "Say the prayer."

Naturally, in the beginning, we had read it out -- the Master's Prayer. It came to my lot to read the prayer aloud while all would remain silent. All present had to be silent, while any one person would recite or read the prayer. Baba would stand up and remain standing during the whole prayer, and all of us would be standing around Him in a circle. He remained the central figure, either here or at Guruprasad or anywhere in the country, wherever He chose to pray.

At the time of reading aloud the Master's Prayer, I once felt that Baba would want me to recite it instead of reading it out. So I tried to learn it by heart; also, just in case no prayer book was available. I felt confident that I could now do away with the book, when Baba called as usual for the prayer book printed by Warren Healy. (Remember him? A beautiful soul, he lived a dedicated life printing so many Baba booklets).

I replied, "Baba, I have learnt it by heart."

"So you learned the Prayer?"

"Yes, Baba."

"Good, recite."