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AVESTA: YASNA

This digital edition copyright © 1995 by Joseph H. Peterson. All rights reserved.

Translated by L. H. Mills (From Sacred Books of the East, American Edition, 1898.)


THE HOM YASHT

YASNA 9.

1. At the hour of Havani, Haoma came to Zarathushtra, as he served the (sacred) Fire, and sanctified (its flame), while he sang aloud the Gathas. And Zarathushtra asked him: Who art thou, O honorable one1! who art of all the incarnate world the most beautiful in Thine own body of those whom I have, seen, (thou) glorious [immortal]? Notes:

1. So Hum2 138; Mills has 'O man'.

2. Thereupon gave Haoma answer, the holy one who driveth death afar: I am, O Zarathushtra Haoma, the holy and driving death afar; pray to me, O Spitama, prepare me for the taste. Praise me so that also the other Saoshyants [benefactors] may praise me2. 2. So Hum2 74. Mills reads. 'Praise toward me in (Thy) praises as the other [Saoshyants] praise.'
3. Thereupon spake Zarathushtra: Unto Haoma be the praise. What man, O Haoma! first prepared thee for the corporeal world? What award3 was offered him? what gain did he acquire? 3. (ashish) Mills relates Ashi to Asha and reads 'blessedness'.
4. Thereupon did Haoma answer me, he the holy one, and driving death afar: Vivanghvant was the first of men who prepared me for the incarnate world. This award4 was offered him; this gain did he acquire, that to him was born a son who was Yima, called the brilliant, (he of the many flocks, the most glorious of those yet born, the sunlike-one of men), that he made from his authority both herds and people free from dying, both plants and waters free from drought, and men could eat inexhaustible5 food. 4. Mills: 'blessedness'.

5. So Malandra, Mills reads 'imperishable'.

5. In the reign of brave6 Yima was there neither cold nor heat, there was neither age nor death, nor envy demon-made. Like teenagers7 walked the two forth, son and father, in their stature and their form, so long as Yima, son of Vivanghvant ruled, he of the many herds! 6. (Yimahe xshathre aurvahe) So Malandra, Mills reads 'swift of motion'. Wolff reads 'Herrschaft' (cf B542).

7. Mills: 'fifteen-yearlings'.

6. Who was the second man, O Haoma! who prepared thee for the corporeal world? What award8 was offered him? what gain did he acquire? 8. Mills: 'sanctity'.
7. Thereupon gave Haoma answer, he the holy one, and driving death afar: Athwya was the second who prepared-me for the corporeal world. This award9 was given him, this gain did he acquire, that to him a son was born, Thraetaona of the mighty clan10, 9. Mills: 'blessedness'.

10. (vîsô sûrayau) Following Gershevitch. Mills reads 'heroic tribe'. Malandra reads 'mighty house'.

8. Who smote Azhi Dahaka11, three-jawed and triple-headed, six-eyed, with thousand perceptions12, and of mighty strength, a lie-demon [druj] of the Daevas, evil for our settlements, and wicked, whom the evil spirit Angra Mainyu made as the most mighty Druj [against the corporeal world], and for the murder of (our) settlements, and to slay the (homes) of Asha! 11. Mills: 'the dragon Dahaka'.

12. (hazanrâ-yaoxshtîm) Mills: 'thousand powers'.

9. Who was the third man, O Haoma! who prepared thee for the corporeal world? What award13 was given him? what gain did he acquire? 13. Mills: 'blessedness'.
10. Thereupon gave Haoma answer, the holy one, and driving death afar: Thrita, [the most helpful of the Samids], was the third man who prepared me for the corporeal world. This award was given him, this gain did he acquire, that to him two son were born, Urvakhshaya and Keresaspa, the one a judge confirming order, the other a youth of great ascendant, curly-haired14, bludgeon-bearing. 14. Mills: 'blessedness'.

15. Mills: 'ringlet-headed'.

11. He who smote the horny dragon swallowing men, and swallowing horses, poisonous, and green of color over which, as thick as thumbs are, greenish poison flowed aside, on whose back once Keresaspa cooked his meat in iron caldron at the noonday meal; and the deadly, scorched, upstarted, and springing off, dashed out the water as it boiled. Headlong fled affrighted manly-minded Keresaspa.

12. Who was the fourth man who prepared thee, O Haoma! for the corporeal world? What blessedness was given him? what gain did he acquire?

13. Thereupon gave Haoma answer, he the holy, and driving death afar: Pourushaspa was the fourth man who prepared me for the corporeal world. This blessedness was given him, this gain did he acquire, that thou, O Zarathushtra! wast born to him, the just, in Pourushaspa's house, the Daeva's foe, the friend of Mazda's lore, (14) famed in Airyana Vaejah; and thou, O Zarathushtra! didst recite the first the Ahuna-vairya, four times intoning it, and with verses kept apart [(Pazand) each time with louder and still louder voice].

15. And thou didst cause, O Zarathushtra! all the demon-gods to vanish in the ground who aforetime flew about this earth in human shape (and power. This hast thou done), thou who hast been the strongest, and the staunchest, the most active, and the swiftest, and (in every deed) the most victorious in the two spirits' world.

16. Thereupon spake Zarathushtra: Praise to Haoma. Good is Haoma, and the well-endowed, exact and righteous in its nature, and good inherently, and healing, beautiful of form, and good in deed, and most successful in its working, golden-hued, with bending sprouts. As it is the best for drinking, so (through its sacred stimulus) is it the most nutritious for the soul.


17. I make my claim on thee, O yellow one! for inspiration. I make my claim on thee for strength; I make my claim on thee for victory; I make my claim on thee for health and healing (when healing is my need); I make my claim on thee for progress and increased prosperity, and vigor of the entire frame, and for understanding, of each adorning kind, and for this, that I may have free course among our settlements, having power where I will, overwhelming angry malice, and a conqueror of lies.

18. Yea, I make my claim on thee that I may overwhelm the angry hate of haters, of the Daevas and of mortals, of the sorcerers and sirens, of the tyrants, and the Kavis, of the Karpans, murderous bipeds, of the sanctity-destroyers, the profane apostate bipeds, of the wolves four-footed monsters, of the invading host, wide-fronted, which with stratagems advance.


19. This first blessing I beseech of thee, O Haoma, thou that drivest death afar! I beseech of thee for (heaven), the best life of the saints, the radiant, all-glorious.
This second blessing I beseech of thee, O Haoma, thou that drivest death afar! this body's health (before that blest life is attained).
This third blessing I beseech of thee, O Haoma, thou that drivest death afar! the long vitality of life.

20. This fourth blessing I beseech of thee, O Haoma, thou that drivest death afar! that I may stand forth on this earth with desires gained, and powerful, receiving satisfaction, overwhelming the assaults of hate, and conquering the lie.
This fifth blessing, O Haoma, I beseech of thee, thou that drivest death afar! that I may stand victorious on earth, conquering in battles, overwhelming the assaults of hate, and conquering the lie.

21. This sixth blessing I ask of thee, O Haoma, thou that drivest death afar! that we may get good warning of the thief, good warning of the murderer, see first the bludgeon-bearer, get first sight of the wolf. May no one whichsoever get first the sight of us. In the strife with each may we be they who get the first alarm!


22. Haoma grants to racers who would run a course with span both speed and bottom (in their horses). Haoma grants to women come to bed with child a brilliant offspring and a righteous line.
Haoma grants to those (how many!) who have long sat searching books, more knowledge and more wisdom.

23. Haoma grants to those long maidens, who sit at home unwed, good husbands, and that as soon as asked, he Haoma, the well-minded.

24. Haoma lowered Keresani, dethroned him from his throne, for he grew so fond of power, that he treacherously said: No priest behind (and watching) shall walk the lands for me, as a counselor to prosper them, he would rob everything of progress, he would crush the growth of all!


25. Hail to thee, O Haoma, who hast power as thou wilt, and by thine inborn strength! Hail to thee, thou art well-versed in many sayings, and true and holy words. Hail to thee for thou dost ask no wily questions, but questionest direct.

26. Forth hath Mazda borne to thee, the star-bespangled girdle, the spirit-made, the ancient one, the Mazdayasnian Faith.
So with this thou art begirt on the summits of the mountains, for the spreading of the precepts, and the headings of the Mathra, (and to help the Mathra's teacher),

27. O Haoma, thou house-lord, and thou clan-lord, thou tribe-lord, and chieftain of the land, and thou successful learned teacher, for aggressive strength I speak to thee, for that which smites with victory, and for my body's saving, and for manifold delight!

28. Bear off from us the torment and the malice of the hateful. Divert the angry foe's intent!
What man soever in this house is violent and wicked, what man soever in this village, or this tribe, or province, seize thou away the fleetness from his feet; throw thou a veil of darkness o'er his mind; make thou his intellect (at once) a wreck!

29. Let not the man who harms us, mind or body, have power to go forth on both his legs, or hold with both his hands, or see with both his eyes, not the land (beneath his feet), or the herd before his face.


30. At the aroused and fearful Dragon, green, and belching forth his poison, for the righteous saint that perishes, yellow Haoma, hurl thy mace!
At the (murderous) bludgeon-bearer, committing deeds unheard of, blood-thirsty, (drunk) with fury, yellow Haoma, hurl thy mace!

31. Against the wicked human tyrant, hurling weapons at the head, for the righteous saint that perishes, yellow Haoma, hurl thy mace!
Against the righteousness-disturber, the unholy life-destroyer, thoughts and words of our religion well-delivering, yet in actions never reaching, for the righteous saint that perishes, yellow Haoma, hurl thy mace!

32. Against the body of the harlot, with her magic minds o'erthrowing with (intoxicating) pleasures, to the lusts her person offering, whose mind as vapor wavers as it flies before the wind, for the righteous saint that perishes, yellow Haoma, hurl thy mace!



YASNA 10.

1. Let the Demon-gods and Goddesses fly far away from hence, and let the good Sraosha make here his home! [And may the good Blessedness here likewise dwell], and may she here spread delight and peace within this house, Ahura's, which is sanctified by Haoma, bringing righteousness (to all).

2. At the first force of thy pressure, O intelligent! I praise thee with my voice, while I grasp at first thy shoots. At thy next pressure, O intelligent! I praise thee with my voice, when as with full force of a man I crush thee down.

3. I praise the cloud that waters thee, and the rains which make thee grow on the summits of the mountains; and I praise thy lofty mountains where the Haoma branches spread.

4. This wide earth do I praise, expanded far (with paths), the productive, the full bearing, thy mother, holy plant! Yea, I praise the lands where thou dost grow, sweet-scented, swiftly spreading, the good growth of the Lord. O Haoma, thou growest on the mountains, apart on many paths, and there still may'st thou flourish. The springs of Righteousness most verily thou art, (and the fountains of the ritual find their source in thee)!

5. Grow (then) because I pray to thee on all thy stems and branches, in all thy shoots (and tendrils) increase thou through my word!

6. Haoma grows while he is praised, and the man who praises him is therewith more victorious. The lightest pressure of thee, Haoma, thy feeblest praise, the slightest tasting of thy juice, avails to the thousand-smiting of the Daevas.

7. Wasting doth vanish from that house, and-with it foulness, whither in verity they bear thee, and where thy praise in truth is sung, the drink of Haoma, famed, health-bringing (as thou art). [(Pazand) to his village and abode they bear him.]

8. All other toxicants go hand in hand with Rapine of the bloody spear, but Haoma's stirring power goes hand in hand with friendship. [Light is the drunkenness of Haoma (Pazand).]
Who as a tender son caresses Haoma, forth to the bodies of such persons Haoma comes to heal.

9. Of all the healing virtues, Haoma, whereby thou art a healer, grant me some. Of all the victorious powers, whereby thou art a victor, grant me some. A faithful praiser will I be to thee, O Haoma, and a faithful praiser (is) a better (thing) than Righteousness the Best; so hath the Lord, declaring (it), decreed.

10. Swift and wise hath the well-skilled Deity created thee; swift and wise on high Haraiti did He, the well-skilled, plant thee.

11. And taught (by implanted instinct) on every side, the bounteous birds have carried thee to the Peaks-above-the-eagles, to the mount's extremest summit, to the gorges and abysses, to the heights of many pathways, to the snow-peaks ever whitened.

12. There, Haoma, on the ranges dost thou grow of many kinds. Now thou growest of milky whiteness, and now thou growest golden; and forth thine healing liquors flow for the inspiring of the pious. So terrify away from me the (death's) aim of the curser. So terrify and crush his thought who stands as my maligner.

13. Praise be to thee, O Haoma, (for he makes the poor man's thoughts as great as any of the richest whomsoever.) Praise be to Haoma, (for he makes the poor man's thoughts as great as when mind reacheth culmination.) With manifold retainers dost thou, O Haoma, endow the man who drinks thee mixed with milk; yea, more prosperous thou makest him, and more endowed with mind.

14. Do not vanish from me suddenly like milk-drops in the rain; let thine exhilarations go forth ever vigorous and fresh; and let them come to me with strong effect. Before thee, holy Haoma, thou bearer of the ritual truth, and around thee would I cast this body, a body which (as all) may see (is fit for gift and) grown.

15. I renounce with vehemence the murderous woman's emptiness, the Jaini's, hers, with intellect dethroned. She vainly thinks to foil us, and would beguile both Fire-priest and Haoma; but she herself, deceived therein, shall perish. And when she sits at home, and wrongly eats of Haoma's offering, priest's mother will that never make her, nor give her holy sons!


16. To five do I belong, to five others do I not; of the good thought am I, of the evil am I not; of the good word am I, of the evil am I not; of the good deed am I, and of the evil, not.
To Obedience am I given, and to deaf disobedience, not; to the saint do I belong, and to the wicked, not; and so from this on till the ending shall be the spirits' parting. (The two shall here divide.)


17. Thereupon spake Zarathushtra: Praise to Haoma, Mazda-made. Good is Haoma, Mazda-made. All the plants of Haoma praise I, on the heights of lofty mountains, in the gorges of the valleys, in the clefts (of sundered hill-sides) cut for the bundles bound by women. From the silver cup I pour Thee to the golden chalice over. Let me not thy (sacred) liquor spill to earth, of precious cost.

18. These are thy Gathas, holy Haoma, these thy songs, and these thy teachings, and these thy truthful ritual words, health-imparting, victory-giving, from harmful hatred healing giving.

19. These and thou art mine, and forth let thine exhilarations flow; bright and sparkling let them hold on their (steadfast) way; for light are thine exhilaration(s), and flying lightly come they here. Victory-giving smiteth Haoma, victory-giving is it worshipped; with this Gathic word we praise it.


20. Praise to the Kine; praise and victory (be) spoken to her! Food for the Kine, and pasture! 'For the Kine let thrift use toil; yield thou us food.'

21. We worship the yellow lofty one; we worship Haoma who causes progress, who makes the settlements advance; we worship Haoma who drives death afar; yea, we worship all the Haoma plants. And we worship (their) blessedness, and the Fravashi of Zarathushtra Spitama, the saint.



YASNA 11.

PRELUDE TO THE HAOMA-OFFERING.

1. Three clean creatures (full of blessings) curse betimes while yet invoking, the cow, the horse, and then Haoma. The cow cries to her driver thus: Childless be thou, shorn of offspring evil-famed, and slander-followed, who foddered fairly dost not use me, but fattenest me for wife or children, and for thy niggard selfish meal.

2. The horse cries to his rider thus: Be not spanner of the racers; stretch no coursers to full-speed; do not stride across the fleetest, thou, who dost not pray me swiftness in the meeting thick with numbers, in the circuit thronged with men.

3. Haoma speaks his drinker thus: Childless be thou, shorn of offspring, evil-famed, and slander-followed, who holdest me from full outpouring, as a robber, skulls in-crushing. No head-smiter am I ever, holy Haoma, far from death.

4. Forth my father gave an offering, tongue and left eye chose Ahura, set apart for Haoma's meal.

5. Who this offering would deny me, eats himself, or prays it from me, this which Mazda gave to bless me, tongue with left eye (as my portion).

6. In his house is born no fire-priest, warrior ne'er in chariot standing, never more the thrifty tiller. In his home be born Dahakas, Murakas of evil practice, doing deeds of double nature.

7. Quick, cut off then Haoma's portion, gift of flesh for doughty Haoma! Heed lest Haoma bind thee fettered, as he bound the fell Turanian Frangrasyan (the murderous robber) fast in iron close-surrounded in the mid-third of this earth!

8. Thereupon spake Zarathushtra: Praise to Haoma made by Mazda, good is Haoma Mazda-made.


9. Who to us is one hereupon to thee (becomes) two, to be made to three, for the five-making of the four, for the seven-making of the sixth, who are your nine in the decade (?), who serve you and with zeal.


10. To thee, O holy Haoma! bearer of the ritual sanctity, I offer this my person which is seen (by all to be) mature, (and fit for gift); to Haoma the effective do I offer it, and to the sacred exhilaration which he bestows; and do thou grant to me (for this), O holy Haoma! thou that drivest death afar, (Heaven) the best world of the saints, shining, all brilliant.

11. (The Ashem Vohu, &c.)

12-15. May'st Thou rule at Thy will, O Lord....(Repeat Y8.5-7)!

16. I confess myself a Mazdayasnian of Zarathushtra's order.

17. I celebrate my praises for good thoughts, good words, and good deeds for my thoughts, my speeches, and (my) actions. With chanting praises I present all good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and with rejection I repudiate all evil thoughts, and words, and deeds. 18. Here I give to you, O ye Bountiful Immortals! sacrifice and homage with the mind, with words, deeds, and my entire person; yea, (I offer) to you the flesh of my very body (as your own). And I praise Righteousness. A blessing is Righteousness (called) the Best, &c.



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