O Parvardigar
Encyclopedia
O Parvardigar is the common name of a prayer
composed by Meher Baba
, sometimes called the Master's Prayer or the Universal Prayer. It is also a song on an album by Pete Townshend
.
Meher Baba wrote the prayer in Dehradun
, India
in August 1953 and made it public on September 13, 1953. Near the end of January 1968, almost exactly one year before his death, Meher Baba dictated a circular to his followers to recite the O Parvardigar Prayer and the Prayer of Repentance
each day until March 25, 1968. On February 21 of that year he issued a second circular requesting that the prayers be continued until May 21, 1968.
and the Beloved God Prayer
. The three prayers are repeated morning and evening at Meher Baba's samadhi in Ahmednagar, India
at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. each day, followed by devotional songs which compose Baba's arti.
The prayer is a prayer of praise, listing the attributes of God. It specifically uses names of God from various traditions including Sikhism
(Parvardigar = "cherisher", also Hindi
"preserver"), Hinduism
(Prabhu, Parameshwar, Parabrahma), Islam
(Allah), Judaism
(Elahi), Zoroastrianism
(Yezdan, Ahuramazda, Ezad), and Christianity
(God the Beloved). The attributes praised are those of omnipresence
, omnipotence
, omniscience
, and infinite love.
, lead song writer for the rock band The Who
and a follower of Meher Baba, wrote and recorded an interpretation of the prayer. While there are earlier recordings, the song reached a wide audience with the release of Who Came First
in 1972. In 2001 Townshend released a solo EP
, O Parvardigar, with three versions of the song: his studio version, a live recording made in India at Meher Baba's third Amartithi
in January 1972, and a German language version that Townshend recorded specifically for the opening of a European Baba Center. Other Townshend albums that contain the song include I Am
(1972) and Jai Baba
(2001).
was released on all-region DVD in 2003 and again in 2009.
You are unlimited and unfathomable;
You are indivisible;
You always were, You always are,
You are everywhere, You are in everything, and
You are in the firmament and in the depths,
You are in the three worlds,
You are imperceptible and independent.
You are the Creator, the Lord of Lords,
You are Omnipotent and Omnipresent.
You are Knowledge Infinite, Power Infinite and Bliss Infinite.
You are the Ocean of Knowledge,
You are all-merciful and eternally benevolent.
You are the Soul of souls, the One with infinite attributes.
You are the Trinity of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss;
You are the Source of Truth, the Ocean of Love.
You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High.
You are Prabhu and Parameshwar;
You are the Beyond God and the Beyond-Beyond God also;
You are Parabrahma; Paramatma; Allah; Elahi; Yezdan;
You are named Ezad, the Only One Worthy of Worship.
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
composed by Meher Baba
Meher Baba
Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....
, sometimes called the Master's Prayer or the Universal Prayer. It is also a song on an album by Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
.
Meher Baba wrote the prayer in Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in August 1953 and made it public on September 13, 1953. Near the end of January 1968, almost exactly one year before his death, Meher Baba dictated a circular to his followers to recite the O Parvardigar Prayer and the Prayer of Repentance
Prayer of Repentance
The Prayer of Repentance is a prayer created by Meher Baba. Meher Baba dictated the prayer in Gujarati in Khuldabad, India in November, 1951.The prayer has become a part of a canon of prayers regularly repeated by Meher Baba's followers, along with the O Parvardigar and the Beloved God Prayer...
each day until March 25, 1968. On February 21 of that year he issued a second circular requesting that the prayers be continued until May 21, 1968.
Use and meaning
The prayer has become a part of a canon of prayers regularly repeated by Avatar Meher Baba's followers, along with the Prayer of RepentancePrayer of Repentance
The Prayer of Repentance is a prayer created by Meher Baba. Meher Baba dictated the prayer in Gujarati in Khuldabad, India in November, 1951.The prayer has become a part of a canon of prayers regularly repeated by Meher Baba's followers, along with the O Parvardigar and the Beloved God Prayer...
and the Beloved God Prayer
Beloved God Prayer
Beloved God is the common name of a prayer created by Meher Baba on August 25, 1959. Meher Baba was fond of the prayer, and encouraged his followers to repeat it....
. The three prayers are repeated morning and evening at Meher Baba's samadhi in Ahmednagar, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. each day, followed by devotional songs which compose Baba's arti.
The prayer is a prayer of praise, listing the attributes of God. It specifically uses names of God from various traditions including Sikhism
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
(Parvardigar = "cherisher", also Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
"preserver"), Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
(Prabhu, Parameshwar, Parabrahma), Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
(Allah), Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
(Elahi), Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
(Yezdan, Ahuramazda, Ezad), and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
(God the Beloved). The attributes praised are those of omnipresence
Omnipresence
Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present everywhere. According to eastern theism, God is present everywhere. Divine omnipresence is thus one of the divine attributes, although in western theism it has attracted less philosophical attention than such attributes as omnipotence,...
, omnipotence
Omnipotence
Omnipotence is unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence to only the deity of whichever faith is being addressed...
, omniscience
Omniscience
Omniscience omniscient point-of-view in writing) is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In Latin, omnis means "all" and sciens means "knowing"...
, and infinite love.
Pete Townshend's Musical Rendition
The prayer became well known after Pete TownshendPete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
, lead song writer for the rock band The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
and a follower of Meher Baba, wrote and recorded an interpretation of the prayer. While there are earlier recordings, the song reached a wide audience with the release of Who Came First
Who Came First
Who Came First is the first major-label solo album by Pete Townshend, released in 1972 on Track Records in the UK and Track/Decca in the US. It includes demos from the aborted concept album Lifehouse, part of which became Who's Next...
in 1972. In 2001 Townshend released a solo EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, O Parvardigar, with three versions of the song: his studio version, a live recording made in India at Meher Baba's third Amartithi
Amartithi
Amartithi is the day which commemorates Meher Baba's death on January 31, 1969.The word "Amartithi" appears to have been coined by Meher Baba and means "deathless day"...
in January 1972, and a German language version that Townshend recorded specifically for the opening of a European Baba Center. Other Townshend albums that contain the song include I Am
I am (Pete Townshend album)
I Am is a collaboration concept album by Pete Townshend and friends pressed in 1972. The album includes the original version of "Baba O'Riley" played by Townshend alone without lyrics, which, at 9:48, is almost twice as long as the augmented version which opens Who's Next. I Am was produced as a...
(1972) and Jai Baba
Jai Baba
Jai Baba is an expression used by followers of Meher Baba and means "Praise Baba." It is used as a greeting, as a salutation, or as an outward expression of appreciation of Meher Baba's life and qualities...
(2001).
Film version
A film by Ginny Katz featuring the prayer and footage of Meher Baba was released in 1976. A restored and extended version, O Parvardigar (Restored & Extended)O Parvardigar (Restored & Extended)
O Parvardigar is a restoration of Ginny Katz's 1976 film presenting Meher Baba and his prayer "O Parvardigar." Earlier editions of the film had issues with speed of the Meher Baba footage, and the restoration by Richard O'Casey addressed this problem so that it could be viewed as originally...
was released on all-region DVD in 2003 and again in 2009.
Text of the prayer
While there is some uncertainty about the prayer's original form, Meher Baba's main biography Meher Prabu, Lord Meher gives the prayer as follows. See endnotes for meanings and background of terms.- O Parvardigar! The Preserver and Protector of All,
- You are without beginning and without end.
- Non-dual, beyond comparison,
- and none can measure You.
- You are without color, without expression,
- without form and without attributes.
- beyond imagination and conception;
- eternal and imperishable.
- and none can see you but with eyes divine.
- and You always will be.
- You are also beyond everywhere and beyond everything.
- You are manifest and unmanifest;
- on all planes and beyond all planes.
- and also beyond the three worlds.
- the Knower of all minds and hearts.
- All-knowing, Infinitely-knowing;
- the Knower of the past, the present and the future;
- and You are Knowledge itself.
- Ahuramazda, God Almighty, and God the Beloved.
See also
- O Parvardigar (Restored & Extended)O Parvardigar (Restored & Extended)O Parvardigar is a restoration of Ginny Katz's 1976 film presenting Meher Baba and his prayer "O Parvardigar." Earlier editions of the film had issues with speed of the Meher Baba footage, and the restoration by Richard O'Casey addressed this problem so that it could be viewed as originally...
- Prayer of RepentancePrayer of RepentanceThe Prayer of Repentance is a prayer created by Meher Baba. Meher Baba dictated the prayer in Gujarati in Khuldabad, India in November, 1951.The prayer has become a part of a canon of prayers regularly repeated by Meher Baba's followers, along with the O Parvardigar and the Beloved God Prayer...
- Seven Names of God PrayerSeven Names of God PrayerThe Seven Names of God Prayer is a prayer given by Meher Baba to his students and close disciples to memorize and recite, often as a chant or song, at certain times during his life....
- Beloved God PrayerBeloved God PrayerBeloved God is the common name of a prayer created by Meher Baba on August 25, 1959. Meher Baba was fond of the prayer, and encouraged his followers to repeat it....
- 101 Names of God101 Names of GodIn Zoroastrianism, 101 names of God is a list of names of God . The list is preserved in Persian, Pazand and Gujarati...