________________
12. ZOROASTRIAN WORSHIP FROM AN INTERFAITH PERSPECTIVE
Shahin Bekhradnia
The purpose of Zoroastrian worship is to celebrate life and give praise for the wondrous creations of the world, to contemplate good and to deprecate evil. The vehicle for some of these activities is prayer while particular rituals or meaningful actions may replace or
complement prayer.
As Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion, most of these activities are directed towards Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord. However, Zoroastrians also recognize a number of important yazatas or guardian angels who, as manifestations of God's creative spirit, have given their names to each day of the month and each month of the year. There are prayers or yashts which are translated as hymns of praise in honour of a number of the more important yazatas. On the day (or day and month) which carry the name of a particular yazata an individual may choose to recite the prayer dedicated to the Yazata.
Individual Acts of Worship
Zoroastrian worship consists of two sorts: communal acts of worship and individual acts of worship. The individual acts of worship are more typically the recitation of certain prayers taken from the corpus of holy scripture known as the Avesta. Traditionally this takes place five times a day at set times following the progress of the sun, always facing it or an alternative source of light and could be whenever an individual so chooses (realistically it is first thing in the morning and last thing at night with the other three gah not necessarily observed). One of the prayers that is always recited is a confirmation of faith and those who wear the 'badges' of the religion, namely the sedreh (a muslim vest) and a koshti (a sacred cord) will untie and retie knots of commitment. Other occasions for individual prayer might be a visit to the temple on a special occasion, or a visit to the resting place of a deceased beloved. The other form of individual worship may involve ritual such as the lighting of a fire in a fire urn, and feeding it with myrrh, incense and sandalwood, sometimes circulating it around the rooms of a home while invoking blessings.
-61 -
