Zend Avesta Part 02

SR No.: 007672
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1883
Total Pages: 2221
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 41 MB

Page 165

MIHIR YAST.
151
'Let the worshipper of Mazda sacrifice unto thee 1 with small cattle, with black cattle, with flying birds, gliding forward on wings.
120. “To Mithra all the faithful worshippers of Mazda must give strength and energy with offered and proffered Haomas, which the Zaotar proffers unto him and gives in sacrifice 2. Let the faithful man drink of the libations cleanly prepared, which if he does, if he offers them unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, Mithra will be pleased with him and without anger.'
121. Zarathustra asked him: 'O Ahura Mazda! how shall the faithful man drink the libations cleanly prepared, which if he does and he offers them unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, Mithra will be pleased with him and without anger?'
122. Ahura Mazda answered : ‘Let them wash their bodies three days and three nights; let them undergo thirty strokes 3 for the sacrifice and prayer unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures. Let them wash their bodies two days and two nights; let them undergo twenty strokes for the sacrifice and prayer unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures. Let no
1 Mithra.
The translation of this sentence is conjectural. 3 Thirty strokes with the Sraoshô-karana (upâzana; see Vend. Introd. V, 19); it is an expiation (âkayayanta) which purges them from their sins and makes them fit for offering a sacrifice to Mithra. One may find in this passage the origin of the painful trials through which the adepts of the Mithriac mysteries had to go before being admitted to initiation (ουκ άν ούν εις αυτόν δυνήσαιτό τις τελεσθήναι, ει μή διά τινων βαθμών παρελθών των κολάσεων δείξει
avrov ÖLV kai inaon, Suidas s. v., ap. Windischmann, über Mithra, 68 seq.).
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