Yasna VIII. Offering of the Meat-Offering in Particular

The Zend Avesta, Part III (SBE31), L.H. Mills, tr. [1886], at sacred-texts.com

YASNA VIII.

OFFERING OF THE MEAT-OFFERING IN PARTICULAR.

THE FAITHFUL PARTAKE.

1. A blessing is Righteousness (called) the Best.

It is weal; it is weal to this (man),

When toward Righteousness Best there is right.

I offer the Myazda (of the) meat-offering with a complete and sacred offering; and I offer Haurvatatât (who guards the water), and Ameretatât (who guards the plants and the wood), and the flesh of the blessed Kine; and I offer the Haoma and the Haoma juice, the wood-billets and the perfume for the praise of Ahura Mazda, and of the Ahuna-vairya, the veracious word, and for that of the pious and beneficent Prayer for blessings, and for the redoubted Curse of the wise, and for the praise of the Haoma, and of the Mãthra of the holy Zarathustra; and may it come to us with sacred fulness (to accept and to recompense our gift).

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2. (The Ratu speaks.) Eat, O ye men, of this Myazda, the meat-offering, ye who have deserved it by your righteousness and correctness!

3. O ye Bountiful Immortals, and thou, the Mazdayasnian law, ye just men and just women, and ye Zaothras, whoever among these Mazdayasnians would call himself a Mazdayasnian desiring to live in the practice of the liberality of Righteousness [for by sorcery the settlements of Righteousness are ruined], do ye cause (such an one) to be (still further) taught, (ye), who are the waters, the plants, and the Zaothras!

4. And whoever of these Mazdayasnians, adults, when he invokes with earnestness, does not adhere to these words, and (so) speaks, he approaches to that (word) of the magician; (but, as against that magician's word) 'a blessing is Righteousness (called) the Best.'

5. May’st Thou, O Ahura Mazda! reign at Thy will, and with a saving rule over Thine own creatures, and render Ye the holy (man) also a sovereign at his will over waters, and over plants, and over all the clean and sacred (creatures) which contain the seed of Righteousness. Strip ye the wicked of all power!

6. Absolute in power may the holy be, bereft of all free choice the wicked! Gone (may he be), met as foe, carried out from the creatures of Spenta Mainyu, hemmed in ¹ without power over any wish!

_________________________

7. I will incite, even I who am Zarathustra ², the

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heads of the houses, villages, Zantus, and provinces, to the careful following of this Religion which is that of Ahura, and according to Zarathustra, in their thoughts, their words, and their deeds.

8. I pray for the freedom and glory of the entire existence of the holy (man) while I bless it, and I pray for the repression and shame ¹ of the entire existence ² of the wicked.

9. Propitiation to Haoma who brings righteousness (to us) for sacrifice, homage, propitiation, and for praise. (The Zaotar?) As the Ahû to be (revered and) chosen, the Zaotar speaks forth to me. (The Ratu.) As an Ahû to be (revered and) chosen, the Zaotar speaks forth to me. (The Zaotar.) So let the Ratu from his Righteousness, holy and learned, speak forth!

Footnotes

229:1 Or 'shut out,' which would seem better adapted.

229:2 This piece is a reproduction, or close imitation, of some earlier fragment. It sounds like an exhortation delivered while the Faith was still new.

230:1 The Pahlavi translator, as I think, had a text before him which read duzhvâthrem; I so correct. Against the keen and most interesting suggestion of duz + âthrem, I am compelled to note ahvâthrê, showing a compositum a + hvâthra, which seems not probable if = a + hu + âthra. Duzâthra, not ahvâthrê, would have been written. Cp. hveng = hvan for root.

230:2 Possibly 'house.'