Having said the Long Obligatory Prayer thousands of times in my 60 years as a Bahá'í, this talk gave me some wonderful new insights into the meanings of the words. What a bounty to have dear Ali Nakhjavani continue to offer his insights long after his ascension to the Kingdom of Abhá. By the way, I came to believe that the first passage of this prayer recognizes both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh when it says, "I beseech Thee by them Who are the Daysprings of Thine invisible Essence, the Most Exalted, the All-Glorious..." The Most Exalted seems to refer to the Báb whose given name, Alí, means Exalted, and Bahá'u'lláh, whose name means the All-Glorious, or the Glory of God. I always try to keep this in mind when I say the prayer to honor the Manifestations of God we have been blessed to acknowledge and love. The rest of that paragraph also may allude to the Báb's mission as a "fire" that burns away the veils, and Bahá'u'lláh's mission as a "light" leading to God's presence.
