History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 42

Pazend prayers. When the Sasanians came to power, the Avesta, the sacred language of Zoroastrianism, has ceased to be a living tongue. The daily prayers continued to be recited in the dead language. The need was evidently felt to supplement the Avestan prayers by some additional prayers in the vernacular. Dastur Adarbad Mahraspand, the learned high-priest and premier of King Shapur II, composed such supplementary prayers in Pazend, and his example was followed by other Dasturs. Several benedictory, thanksgiving, and expiatory prayers composed during this period have come down to us and are recited as supplementary prayers to the Avestan prayers to the present day. The composers take the original Avestan prayers as the source of their inspiration. Short Avestan formulas or sentences are often rendered word for word in Pazend. The Pazend version of the Avestan confessional prayer frastuye,^[1] for example, forms the opening part of the Patit. Besides thus reproducing the Avestan passages in Pazend, independent prayers, preserving the spirit and sentiment of the Avesta, are composed in praise of Ormazd, Amshaspands, and Izads, presiding over the thirty days of the month. The original Avestan wedding hymn has not come down to us. What has reached us is a Pazend hymn, composed during the Sasanian period, embodying three Avestan passages.^[2] The important Pazend prayers that are extant consist of the Afrins, Sitayishes, Patits, Nirangs, the introductory and closing parts of the Avestan Nyaishes and Yashts, and several devotional pieces of considerable beauty.

Supplicatory prayers. The worshipper extols Ormazd as the eternal, omnipotent, and beneficent lord and asks him to exalt his thoughts and lead him to goodness and happiness in accordance with his divine will. The devotee sees none besides ​Ormazd, he is his only hope. He, therefore, beseeches him to protect and help him.^[3] His is greatness and his is glory, he who is the creator, protector, and liberator of all. The faithful implore him to give holiness and happiness unto all and bestow upon them reward for their good deeds from his Treasury of Eternal Weal. The faithful ask him to liberate them from the tyranny of the wicked, to help the helpless, to bring comfort to those that are in trouble. He alone, they acknowledge, is the source of protection and help to all and is the one who redresses the wrongs of all.^[4] The angel presiding over the moon is asked to give ease and health, and the fulfilment of right wishes, joy, well-being, and fearlessness.^[5] The faithful pray that they may be exalted in both the worlds, and may have health and long life, name and fame, wealth and happiness. Their fervent prayer is that no harm and distress should come upon them from Ahriman, the jealous, the envious, the malicious, the unjust, and the wicked; on the contrary all evil that the wicked conspire by thought and word and deed to do unto them may recoil upon their own persons.^[6]

Thanksgiving prayers. The worshipper says unto Ormazd, that a thousand times daily he offers him thanks through his thoughts, words, and deeds, for he has created him as an Aryan and of the good religion, and has given him eyes and ears and hands and feet and intelligence and reason and still gives food and garments.^[7] He offers his praise and remembers him by his name day and night in heartfelt thanksgiving that he has created him as man and endowed him with speech.^[8]

Benedictory prayers. The devout pray that the good co-religionists of Iran and the seven zones be the promoters of the faith, doers of the deeds of merit, and abjurers of sin. May their wishes pertaining to the bodily life in this world and those regarding the soul in the next world be realized.^[9] May there be prosperity and greatness unto all, and may joy and health come unto the houses of the good. May the heavens shower good and may the earth grow good crops and the good reap the reward ​of their goodness everywhere.^[10] May the Izads bring prosperity and joyous and happy life of 150 years unto the worshippers of Mazda and may the knowledge and renown and glory of the good Mazda-worshipping religion spread over the seven zones.^[11] May joy and pleasure and goodness come unto all from the south and may sickness and trouble and harm flee towards the north. May he get more who needs more. May good come unto him who deserves good. May he get a wife who longs for a wife. May he be blessed with a child who prays for a child. May the good Mazda-worshipping religion spread over the seven zones and live.^[12]

While showering their blessings on the occasion of a wedding, the priests wish the bride and the groom' the special virtues, qualities, and characteristics possessed by Ormazd, Amshaspands, Izads, Zaratusht, kings, heroes, wise men, Time, sun, moon, stars, earth, water, fire, river, winter, spring, gold, musk, amber, wine, myrtle, jasmine, sweet marjoram, basil and other good objects.

Confessional prayers. The worshipper confesses that he accepts the religion that Ormazd taught Zaratusht and Zaratusht taught Gushtasp and which Adarbad Mahraspand purified and organized. Unto the end of his life, he says, he will adhere to the good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and will embrace the deeds of merit and discard sinful deeds.^[13] He avows his faith in Ormazd and Amshaspands, and believes in heaven and hell, resurrection and renovation. Good thoughts, good words and good deeds he accepts and evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds he renounces.^[14] At the ceremony of investing a child with the sacred shirt and girdle, it is made to recite the Pazend formula of the Confession of Faith in which it says that the good and true religion is sent by God upon earth and Zaratusht has brought it Such is the religion of Ormazd and Zaratusht that it accepts.

Penitential prayers. There are four Pazend Patits extant, called Patit-i Pashimāni, Patit-i Khud, Patit-i Irānik, and Patit-i Vidardakān. A short expiatory prayer included in the Kusti formula is recited by every Zoroastrian as many times a day as ​he or she unties and ties the sacred girdle round the waist. It also forms part of the introduction to the Nyaishes, Yashts and other prayers. The individual here repents and turns back from all sins which he may have committed knowingly or unknowingly, actually committed or merely contemplated, sins pertaining to thought or word or deed, body or soul, and in this world or the next. In the Patit the faithful enumerate all sins of commission and omission, which have been recognized as sins by Ormazd and which have been accepted as such by those of the early faith and say that they repent in the presence of Ormazd and the Amshaspands and before Mihr, Srosh, Rashn, Fire, Barsam, Hom, Din, before their own souls, before a Dastur or any righteous person and turn back from them with penitence.^[15] The penitent prays that whatever was the will of Ormazd according to which he should have thought, but had not thought: according to which he should have spoken, but had not spoken: and according to which he should have done but, had not done-of all these sins he repents. He further repents of the thoughts, words, and deeds which were after the will of Ahriman and which he should have abstained from and yet he had failed to do so.^[16]

Intercessory prayers and rituals. The Gathic ideal that each individual reaps as he sows and one's own good thoughts, good words, and good deeds form the only means of salvation is gradually weakened. Prayers recited by others and rituals performed by the living for the dead are believed to help those in whose memory they are celebrated. The man who feels death approaching orders that those around him may recite Ashem Vohu and Patit when his death is imminent, he wishes and orders that his children may recite expiatory prayers for him after his death and may celebrate Srosh and Getofarid ceremonies.^[17]

The sacrificer prays that the offerings he makes to the soul to whom this day is sacred, may reach it for its betterment and may the deeds of merit that he performs in behalf of the soul, enable it to advance to a more exalted place, may it win liberation from the clutches of the demons and fiends, and may it ​enter Garotman, the perfect abode of Ormazd, Amshaspands, and the righteous dead, and may Vohuman rise from his golden throne and bestow upon the soul resplendent, golden garments.^[18]

The Nirangs. The Avestan mānthra, Pahlavi mānsar, 'spell,' has nirang, for its Pazend equivalent. Several such formulas, often embodying Avestan passages, are composed in Pazend, to be recited to obtain various results. They are used to deprecate evil, to rout the malignant demons of disease, to remove barrenness in women, to ward off the fear of thieves and robbers, to put down sorcery and witchcraft, to preserve a child from the evil eye, to exorcise persons possessed of ghosts and goblins, to cure all kinds of sickness and to accomplish various other purposes. Charms inscribed with such spells and tied on the left hand of a child made it wise and dutiful. The same tied on the left hand of a refractory wife brought her on her knees before her husband. The faithful are believed to gain health and wealth and children and the good-will of great persons in this world and divine grace in the next world by the recital of these formulas.

The merit of prayers, rituals, and good deeds stored in the Place of Eternal Weal. We saw in the Gathas that the faithful prayed that their devotion and homage be placed in the Garonmana. The Avestan texts spoke of a place called misvāna gātu, 'the place of mixing,' without giving any information about it. The Pahlavi and Pazend works call it hameshak sut gās, 'the Place of Eternal Weal.' It is situated in the Endless Light of heaven.^[19] It is the place where unbounded joy prevails.^[20]

It is here that the good works of supererogation and the merit of prayers and rituals are stored in a treasury for the benefit of the souls whose credit is found to be inadequate at the Bridge of Judgment.^[21] The Pazend texts call it: Ganj-i Dādār Ormazd, 'the Treasury of the Creator Ormazd,' Ganj-i Yazatān, 'the Treasury of the Angels,' or Ganj-i hamisha sud, 'the Treasury of Eternal Weal.'^[22]