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KHORDEH AVESTA - MANTHRA, THE BEST PRAYER.
Basic Teachings of Din-e-Mazdayasni
on the Humans and Ahuramazda
What is Prayer?
Is that not enough for you?'
The Devil of Doubt
But we the earthlings are Doubting Thomases. We do have a powerful inexplicable attraction and
devotion for our Prophet, yet we ask for explanations and explications about the mystery of God and this life,
right now. Again the answer of the Prophet is "you are not capable to comprehend God and life at this stage
of your evolution. Evolve further by following our commands and all this shall come to you." But the devil of
doubt eats us up. We cry, "Oh Divine Sires! At least tell us something about the things beyond our intellect
and common-sense; something about how and why we are here. We will believe in what you say. We will be
believing and not faithless! Please, Sir, a little of God's mystery - very little please -----"
Prophets are very much aware of the devil of doubt in us. So they have given some answers to our
entreaties. Different Prophets have described the mystery of God and life in different ways. The Basic
Truth is the same; picturisations are different.
We will try to understand what Asho Zarathushtra has picturised. This will give you an idea about the two
ends in the Prayer-communication viz. you and Ahuramazda and also suggest some good materials in
answer to the question: why 'Khordeh Avesta' is the best form of Prayer and what is its role and function in
your evolution towards Ahuramazda.
The Composition of a Human
We, the humans are not just the physical body which we experience in our day-to-day life. In addition to
the physical body, we have within us a non-physical or ultra physical component and a divine component. The
ultra-physical is composed of very subtle ultra-matter; it is a framework of very subtle energy with several
energy centres; it is called 'Keherp. The third, the divine component, is made up of divine light of Ahuramazda
Himself; it is roughly called "Ruvaan".
OUR CONSCIOUSNESS, HIGHLY LIMITED
We, the ordinary non-saintly humans are conscious of our physical body alone. What we know as our
'mind' is a part of the physical body; we can call it the physical mind. Actually, the other two components,
Keherp and Ruvaan, have their own consciousnesses; but our physical mind is unaware of them; they are in
a dormant, hibernating state during our life on earth, They can be awakened by certain means and methods,
procedures and practices, exercises and exertions, prescribed by Dharma, Din, Daena. One part of these
exertions consists in following the commands of the Din in our day to day dealings with all the creations of
Ahuramazda, which we find ourselves surrounded with, on this globe. We have a Religious duty to the
human, the animal, the vegetable and the material kingdoms of God. The exertion towards the fellow
humans consists in becoming truthful, loving and selfless in all our dealings with them. The exertion
towards the other three kingdoms consists in making minimal use of them for our daily life with
thankfulness and gratitude towards them and their Creator, Daadaar Ahuramazda, and not to oppress
and tyrannize them for our selfish conveniences and consumptions, as the humans are doing today
all over the globe.
"Enemies" Within
The second part of the Religious exertion consists in controlling the five senses of our physical body. All
Religions have proclaimed that there are "enemies\" within us, which are poised to lead a human away from
the Path of God' and they act and operate through our five senses . Lord Krishna has named six such
enemies: carnal passion, anger, greed, attraction towards worldly objects, pride and envy. In the Din
of Asho Zarathushtra, few more are included: enmity towards the Din ("Dindushmani"), faithlessness,
selfishness, shamelessness, fraud and blasphemy. Their hostile currents whirl within us. Left to ourselves,
we i.e. our physical mind is heavily inclined towards them. They are the manifestations of evil stored within us.
They are the impediments on the Path of God. We have to resist them, pray for generating energy to combat
them and for protection against them. That is what we do in the very first passage of our Kushti Prayer - "Kem
naa Mazdaa--".
But how to generate that energy? That brings us to the third part of Religious exertion- The Manthra
Prayers. They are intended and structured to invoke the energy centres in our Keherp - the ultra
physical component of our personality.
Sanskrit word "Mantra" is derived from 'man', the mind and 'tra' 'to deliver' - that which delivers the mind;
"that which protects you from your own mind" (- Tibetan Teacher Sogyal Rinpoche), that which liberates
energy to resist evil; that which springs up the virtues within us; because every resistance to a vice generates
a virtue. Within us two forces vibrate. One is compared to a wolf, the other to a cow. The wolf is extremely
selfish; it is the manifestation of the enemies within. The cow is the personification of selflessness. The wolf
wants to eat away the cow. The cow wants to feed its milk of selflessness to the wolf. The conflict goes
on. 'Manthra' helps the cow and resists the wolf and converts its disposition from "evil" to "good".
The Avesta word 'Manthra' occurs at numerous places in our Holy Scriptures. It means a word or
composition of words which has a powerful effect within us and outside us. 'Thra' denotes the lines of
communication - from us to Ahura mazda, an instrument of attunement with Him, a potent vibration that fulfills
our craving to be on God's path.
"But Oh Divine Sires!" we again entreat to the Messenger," who is Ahuramazda at the other end of the
Manthra communication? Why are we separate from Him? Why is there evil in us? From where did the
enemies have sprung up in us? Can Manthra, which is just a word, be that powerful?
MODERN MATERIALS ON MANTRA
When a note is struck on a sitar, the air particles near the vibrating string are disturbed. The disturbance is
passed on to the neighboring particles, and a waves are generated, which travel in all directions. One
physicist Ernst Chladni mounted a thin plate on a violin and scattered sand particles on the plate. As the
notes were struck on the violin strings by the bow, beautiful patterns were formed in the sand particles. This
showed that the traveling waves had certain zero-points, where there was no disturbance to push a sand
particle. They remained stationery and formed the patterns. By using powders of different densities and
striking different notes on the violin string, Chladni got patterns which strangely enough had organic forms;
like "Concentric Circles, such as the annual rings in a tree trunk; alternating lines as the stripes on a Zebra's
back; hexagonal grids such as the cells in a honeycomb; radiating wheel spokes such as canals in a Jelly-fish
………."
Chladni lived in the 18th century. But Hans Jenny of Switzerland worked on Chladni's figures for more
than a decade from 1963 and developed an instrument called 'tonoscope' which converts sound into visible
three dimensional patterns in inert material. The sound here can be even a human sound. Different sound
from the human throat produce different patterns. A remarkable observation is that when someone speaks the
alphabet O in the microphone, it produces a perfectly spherical pattern! Dr. Lyll Watson in his famous
"Supernature" comments on this:
"... it is startling to discover that the shape produced by the frequency of the O sound is exactly the shape
we have chosen to represent it pictorially in our script. It raises specters of ancient beliefs that words and
names had the properties of their own…. Is it possible that words have a power by virtue of their own
special frequencies? Can magic words and sacred formulas and chants in fact exert an influence that
differs from other sounds chosen at random? It seems so, and with Jenny's discovery of word
patterns, I find myself looking with some discomfort and awe at St. John's assertions, "IN THE
BEGINNING WAS THE WORD".
(Parsi Pukar – DECEMBER 1995 Vol. 1; No.6)
It is the contact or communication or conversation between you and Ahuramazda. An ordinary
communication, whether face to face or by telephone involves two beings. One says or transmits something
to the other. The other hears or receives it, and gives an answer, which is picked up by the first one. It is a
transmission of consciousness. One generates a thought in him; that means, he becomes conscious of the
thought. He converts the thought in words and conveys it by words to the other, who receives it and in turn
becomes conscious of it.
But prayer communication has an abnormal feature. Our own knowledge of two communicators, namely,
ourselves, at the one end and Ahuramazda at the other, is fuzzy. We are ignorant about both.
Who Am I?
Who are we? We have no idea. We find ourselves in the wilderness of this earth, like bewildered
creatures in an unknown jungle. We are told that we were born one day, and we are certain that we will
disappear from this globe one another day. What are we doing between these two days? Why all this toil and
turmoil, and trials and tribulations? Where were we before the birth and where are we going after death?
"Who am I?" – is a gigantic question, which we, the non-saintly humans, are asking since millenniums; and
the answer is denied to us.
Who is God?
The Being at the other end of the prayer-communication is much more mysterious. We have some hazy
idea about Him. "May Ahuramazda bless you", "God be with you," "Oh my God"! - these are the exclamations
we often use. But we do not know: Who is He, How is He, and Why is He. Time to time some Messenger from
Him arrives and proclaims God's existence and presence to us, the ordinary mortals. But the picture they give
of Him does not go into our common sense. He is All-good and All-powerful, yet there is a lot of evil around us
and even within us. Why does He not with this all-powerful might destroy the evil? He is said to be Infinity and
Zero at the same time. He is said to be the Creator, Lord, Master and Monarch of the Universe and yet He is
said to have His dwelling in the smallest particle of the Universe. He is said to punish us and yet is given the
name All-merciful. He is above any name yet has hundred and one names. He is said to love us and yet
makes us suffer so much in this life. What kind of Being He is?
How do we offer our prayers to Him, when we are so ignorant and so fuzzy about Him at one end and the
poor 'We' at the other?
Inherent Inability to Comprehend
His Messengers, the Prophets and Avatar's and Saints, Sages, Seers and Rishis tell us that our intellect
and our common-sense are incapable of understanding Him. You cannot arrive at Him through your
thinking process which is basically faulty, the Messengers declare. To understand Him, you have to
EXPERIENCE Him within you. And to experience Him, you have to follow in all sincerity and strictness our
commands. We are sent, proclaim God's Messengers, to teach you the ways of life you have to follow on this
earth. Your compliance with them will 'evolve' you towards God. You MUST, therefore, have faith in us and in
what we command you to do. You MUST have implicit trust in us and our Teachings. Remember, We, the
Messengers have not merely to convey God's decrees to you, but have also the anxiety to guide you
in this life and thereafter, towards Him.
"But Divine Sires," we, the mortal non-saintly humans ask the Messengers, "why all this? If God is anxious
to lead us to Him, why did He separate us from Him in the first place?"
The Divine Messengers tell us with a serene smile on their faces, "Why do you want to know all this? Can
you not just have FAITH and TRUST in us? Do you know that we love you and are always with you in
whatever storms you may be passing through?
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