History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 8

by Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla

 

CHAPTER VIII

 

PRAYERS AND RITUALS

 

Prayer is the heavenward soaring of the soul on wordy wings. Man has always prayed. Primitive man who did not understand natural phenomena worshipped power in the invisible beings whom he feared. He humbled and humiliated himself before them, and strove to placate and mollify them. His more enlightened descendants began worshipping goodness or knowledge or righteousness in gods. Prayer in its origin is instinctive and it gradually grows rational and moral. Man has always wearied God with his extravagant demands. He has prayed that fortune may drop from the skies. He has fancied gods would do miracles for him. And he has always expected that gods should answer all his prayers. His mental and moral progress has purified prayer. Naturally, he prays for his health and vigour of body, for food and riches, for offspring and long life. In his nobler mood, he prays for purity of mind and heart. He prays that God may strengthen him to fight temptation, vice, and sin. When he falters and falls, he feels contrition for his misdeeds, strips his heart bare before God, and implores him to wipe out his transgressions.

When his troubles are sleeping and the world smiles upon him, man sometimes forgets that he owes the happy turn in his life to God and prays not, or, if he prays, he prays with his lips what he disowns with his heart. Some sorrow, some disaster throws him again on his knees. When darkness and gloom hang heavily upon him, when he is plunged into deep dejection, when he is cast down by the sense of his utter helplessness, when he thinks the world is giving way beneath his feet—then to God he turns for succour. With uplifted hands and on bended knees, he unburdens himself of his afflictions, seeks strength in prayer and prays with his heart on his tongue. In his infinite mercy, God beckons him near, softens his bitterness, chases away his anxiety, strengthens him to triumph over his hardships, and fortifies him against the assaults of vice and sin. The soothing gleam of joy dawns on his sorrowful life and, with God as his rock, he finds himself on safe soil.

Homage, invocation, sacrifice, and the outpouring of prayer are the various expressions of the inward longings of man to commune with the divine, to enter into mutual intercourse with him. Those are outlets through which man pours forth his heart to the fountain of all bounty. The individual who surrenders himself to unseen powers, who kneels down in humility at the altar, who with uplifted hands pays homage to the hidden forces behind the rising sun or the waxing moon or the roaring ocean, and who carries an offering to the fire or a libation to the waters is psychologically greatly affected. Such attitudes of spirit have great subjective value, for they deeply influence man's character. Prayer is the highest type of expression through which man conveys to his Heavenly Father his feelings of joy and sorrow, gratitude and love, hope and fear, or in his hunger and thirst for the divine grace lays down his grievances before him, confesses his guilt, craves for help, seeks mercy. Devotion is the first requisite. Mere mutterings of a few formulas with the lips, while the heart does not pulsate with devotional fervour, are no prayer. Where there is no such prayer, there is no devotion; and where there is no devotion, there is no religion.

A host of gods claimed man's homage. Gods were bountiful and benevolent. Men prayed to them. Prayers were mostly petitions for gifts of health, long life, offspring, cattle, chariots, riches, and victory over enemies. In Egypt prayers were offered to Amen and Amen-Ra at Thebes, Re-Horus at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis, who rose to great eminence and drew a large concourse of worshippers to their shrines. In Babylonia and Assyria hymns were composed in honour of Marduk and Ashur, Shamash and Anu, Nergal and Ninib, and other gods and goddesses like Ishtar. Men and women humiliated themselves, exalted the divinities, addressed them with honorific epithets as wise, creators, powerful, and merciful, sang paeans to them and prayed to them. Gods were bountiful and men prayed to them for long life, numerous offspring, and wealth. The Vedic Aryans invoked gods for specific gifts which were in their power to bestow. Agni and Prajapati were asked to grant them fulfilment of their desires and to shower wealth upon them. Agni and the Maruts were asked to give heroic offspring and prosperity. Men besought Agni to be near them for their welfare and to be of easy access as a father is to his son. The Adityas were invoked to lead them to the path of pleasantness. Ushas was implored to give them good luck and glory and riches. Indra was besought to render them help in their conflict with the black-skinned Dasyus and to enable them to ward off their enemies. Indra and Vanina were asked to confer upon them happiness and objects of their desires. Yama was invoked to grant them long life upon earth and happy life in the company of gods in heaven. Men dreaded Rudra's wrath and prayed humbly to avert his ill-will. Men prayed to gods and sought protection against hostile demons who worked for harm.

Zarathushtra purifies prayer. Ahura Mazda hears prayers even in thought. Righteous thinking is prayer. Such prayer lifts man to Ahura Mazda. Potent is the power of prayer unto Ahura Mazda, says Zarathushtra.^[1] Like unto Ahura Mazda, Zarathushtra addresses his prayers to Vohu Manah, Asha, Khshathra, and Armaiti, either as Ahura Mazda's attributes or as the eternal beings representing holy virtues. He pours out his soul in passionate supplication to Ahura Mazda and longs to win his love.^[2] With hands lifted in fervent homage and with devotional hymns, he yearns to come to Ahura Mazda.^[3] He praises and beseeches Ahura Mazda to be his own.^[4] Steeped in devotion, he comes to him with worship and praise.^[5] He seeks to approach Mazda with songs of praise and invocation.^[6] Through righteousness of Asha and good deeds of Vohu Manah, he says, he will come to Ahura Mazda worshipping with words of praise.^[7] He is anxious to behold his maker and to hold converse with him.^[8] He implores Ahura mazda to come to him through Vohu Manah.^[9] In another place he beseeches Ahura Mazda to come in his person through Asha and Vohu Manah.^[10] He is eager to win Ahura Mazda, Vohu Manah, and Asha for himself.^[11] He desires to know when being enlightened he will see Ahura Mazda, Asha, Vohu Manah, Sraosha, and the throne of Ahura Mazda.^[12] He appeals to Ahura Mazda, Asha, Khshathra, and Armaiti to come to him;^[13] to hearken unto him and have mercy upon him.^[14] The faithful long to dedicate their songs of praise to Mazda, Asha, and Vahishta Manah and say that they will never incur their provocation.^[15] The songs of praise and homage, the prayers and good deeds of the righteous are stored in Garo Demana, the Abode of Song.^[16]

Bountiful Ahura Mazda is munificent in showering his gifts upon mankind and he knows what is best to give. Zarathushtra implores him to give what pleases him.^[17] He prays for long life;^[18] that he may be enabled to perform the good deeds of the Holy Spirit through righteousness.^[19] He asks him to apportion all good things of life and further the life of the body through Vohu Manah and Khshathra according to his will.^[20] Vigour and endurance are the essential qualities that enable man to fight wickedness and cling to righteousness and Zarathushtra prays for them.^[21] These blessings are the earthly counterparts of weal and immortality, the heavenly boons represented by Haurvatat and Ameretat,^[22] and Zarathushtra asks Ahura Mazda to bestow them upon him through Vohu Manah according to his commandments.^[23] He prays for the possession of spiritual riches of Ahura Mazda,^[24] the riches that form part of the life of Vohu Manah.^[25] He beseeches Ahura Mazda to come unto him for help in his need with Vohu Manah, Asha, Khshathra, and Armaiti.^[26] He asks Ahura Mazda to shower his blessings upon the man who approaches him with invocation.^[27] He prays for that divine blessing, the power of Ahura Mazda which he gives through Vohu Manah unto the holy man who furthers righteousness through words and deeds tinged with religious wisdom.^[28] He invokes upon all the blessings of Ahura Mazda, Vohu Manah, Asha, and Armaiti, who are all of one will.^[29] His best prayer is heard and his ardent wish is fulfilled that those who once opposed his teachings have now come over to the faith to embrace the words and deeds of his religion and Ahura Mazda has extended to him the life of felicity now and for ever.^[30]

Zarathushtra faces bitter opposition from those who have played upon the credulity of the ignorant and the superstitious and have prospered thereby. He invokes Ahura Mazda for the frustration of their mischievous machinations. Even prophets are moved with indignation and righteous wrath against evil-minded persons who lead mankind to destruction. Jesus, the embodiment of gentleness, denounces the Scribes and Pharisees with prophetic rage as fools and hypocrites, serpents and vipers; he overthrows the tables of money-changers, and casts them out of the temple with a whip of small cords. Zarathushtra exhorts those who seek Vohu Manah's blessings to put down violence and cruelty.^[31] He implores Armaiti not to let evil rulers govern the land.^[32] Bendva is the powerful foe who thwarts Zarathushtra's work of winning over men and women to righteousness, and he prays unto Ahura Mazda for his downfall.^[33] He calls such persons liars, deceivers, and wicked.^[34]

The Manthras. The prophetic word of great moral significance is called Manthra, corresponding to the Vedic Mantra. Both in Iran and India they turn into spells of magical charms. Ahura Mazda has, in one will with Asha, made them.^[35] Zarathushtra prays that he and Vishtaspa may successfully proclaim them.^[36] Whoso explains these sacred formulas unto the wise reaps joy.^[37] Zarathushtra is the friend of one who chants them with homage;^[38] and invokes Ahura Mazda to help him through Asha.^[39] He rouses all those that recite them to religious life.^[40] He gains the best reward who proclaims the true words of righteousness, weal, and immortality.^[41] He who follows righteousness under the inspiration of the Manthras gains weal and immortality.^[42] Those who do not base their conduct upon these salutary words as the prophet himself thinks and does, will be in the woe in the end.^[43] Grehma the opponent of the faith and his wicked followers who harass the messenger of Ahura Mazda's holy words will go to the abode of the Worst Thought.^[44] Zarathushtra seeks to know how will he rout wickedness by the holy words of Mazda's ordinance.^[45] With these sacred formulas on their tongues, he says, he and his disciples will convert the wicked to their Lord.^[46] The words of the wicked are also called Manthras, and the prophet exhorts his hearers not to listen to them, because they bring destruction and death to the settlements of the faithful.^[47]

Rituals and sacrifices. Gods required to be propitiated that they might extend their favour to men. When men began to lead settled agricultural life, they began to offer the first fruits of the harvest and produce of the cattle as thanksgiving offerings to them. With growing prosperity they prepared rich repasts of sumptuous food and wine and invoked them to alight on the hallowed place where ceremonial rites were performed, or kindled fire to despatch the sacrifices to heaven on its flaming tongues. Thus were the gods as well as the ancestral dead treated at sacrificial repasts everywhere. The Indo-Iranians were not behind other peoples and their sacrificial offerings consisted of milk and melted butter, grain and vegetables, flesh of goats and sheep, bulls and horses, and the exhilarating Soma-Haoma beverage. Elaborate rituals were performed and sacrifices offered to obtain coveted boons, to gain the remission of sins, and to stave off the terrors of hell. The consecrated food was partaken of by the sacrificers to reap the merit. The altars were reeking with the blood of animals that were sacrificed to innumerable gods. Zarathushtra does away with such sacrifices and purifies rituals.

Ritual is not religion; but it is a powerful aid to religious life. It feeds the emotional nature of man which plays the most prominent part in religious life. It inspires devotional fervour and purity of thoughts. Zarathushtra presumably utilized this formal side of religion to stimulate religious emotion and inspire righteous conduct. Tradition ascribes the division of society into priests, warriors, husbandmen, and artisans to the initiative of King Yima of the Golden Age of Iran. Zarathushtra does not recognize this fourfold professional order of society in the Gathas. He does not mention āthravan, 'the protector of fire' or priest. The Later Avesta speaks of the sacerdotal class by the title of the āthravan. The Pahlavi texts continue to employ this priestly designation, and in addition speak of it as magopat, or magpat, corresponding to the Greek form Magi or Magus. Zarathushtra uses the forms derived from maga, 'great,' but it cannot be said that he uses them in reference to the priestly class. A threefold division of society appears in the Gathas, and Zarathushtra gives each one altogether different names. They are called xvaetu, airyaman, and verezena, probably indicating his immediate disciples, the nobility, and the working classes respectively.^[48]

The Later Avestan texts speak of distinct functionaries who officiated at the sacrificial ceremonies. The head of this group is zaotar, corresponding to Skt. hotar, 'the sacrificer.' Zarathushtra speaks of himself as a zaotar in one passage though with an ethical implication only. As a zaotar, he seeks the vision of Ahura Mazda and longs to hold communion with him.^[49] The food offered as a ceremonial offering is known in the Avestan texts as myazda, and Zarathushtra says that the faithful will offer myazda with homage unto Ahura Mazda and Asha.^[50] He alludes once to draonah, 'the sacred cake,' which forms an indispensable article of offering in the later period. He speaks of it probably in the sense of the ambrosia and asks Haurvatat and Ameretat to confer it upon him for ever.^[51]

 

1. Ys. 28. 10.
2. Ys. 44. 17.
3. Ys. 50. 8.
4. Ys. 43. 8.
5. Ys. 34. 6.
6. Ys. 34. 2.
7. Ys. 50. 9.
8. Ys. 33. 6.
9. Ys. 28. 6.
10. Ys. 33. 7.
11. Ys. 28. 3.
12. Ys. 28. 5.
13. Ys. 28. 3.
14. Ys. 33. 11.
15. Ys. 28. 9.
16. Ys. 34. 2; 45. 8; 49. 10.
17. Ys. 51. 18.
18. Ys. 43. 13.
19. Ys. 28. 1.
20. Ys. 33. 10.
21. Ys. 43. 1.
22. Ys. 45. 10; 51. 7.
23. Ys. 51. 7.
24. Ys. 51. 2.
25. Ys. 43. 1.
26. Ys. 28. 3.
27. Ys. 51. 2.
28. Ys. 51. 21.
29. Ys. 51. 20.
30. Ys. 53. 1.
31. Ys. 48. 7.
32. Ys. 48. 5.
33. Ys. 49. 1.
34. Ys. 49. 2; 53. 8.
35. Ys. 29. 7.
36. Ys. 28. 7.
37. Ys. 51. 8.
38. Ys. 50. 6.
39. Ys. 50. 5.
40. Ys. 43. 14.
41. Ys. 31. 6.
42. Ys. 44. 17.
43. Ys. 45. 3.
44. Ys. 32. 13.
45. Ys. 44. 14.
46. Ys. 28. 5.
47. Ys. 31. 18.
48. Ys. 32. 1; 33. 3, 4; 46. 1; 49. 7; cf. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 355, n. 2.
49. Ys. 33. 6.
50. Ys. 34. 3.
51. Ys. 33. 8.