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BUNDAHIS.
21. (Afterwards, Adharmazd recited the Ahunavar thus : Yatha a hở vairyo (as a heavenly lord is to be chosen '), &c. 1 once, and uttered the twenty-one words ?; He also exhibited to the evil spirit His own triumph in the end, and the impotence of the evil spirit, the annihilation of the demons, and the resurrection and undisturbed future existence of the creatures for ever and everlasting. 22. And the evil spirit, who perceived his own impotence and the annihilation of the demons, became confounded, and fell back to the gloomy darkness); even so as is declared in revelation, that, when one of its (the Ahunavar's) three parts was uttered, the evil spirit contracted his body through fear, and when two parts of it were uttered he fell upon his knees, and when all of it was uttered he became confounded
person plural is the indefinite person, as in English. These 9000 years are in addition to the 3000 mentioned in g 8, as appears more clearly in Chap. XXXIV, 1.
1 This is the most sacred formula of the Parsis, which they have to recite frequently, not only during the performance of their ceremonies, but also in connection with most of their ordinary duties and habits. It is neither a prayer, nor a creed, but a declaratory formula in metre, consisting of one stanza of three lines, containing twenty-one Avesta words, as follows : :
Yathâ ahở vairyô, athâ ratus, ashâd kîd hakâ, Vangheus dazdâ mananghô, skyaothnanām angheus mazdai,
Khshathremkâ ahurai a, yim dregubyo dadad vâstârem. And it may be translated in the following manner : 'As a heavenly lord is to be chosen, so is an earthly master (spiritual guide), for the sake of righteousness, to be a giver of the good thoughts of the actions of life towards Mazda; and the dominion is for the lord (Ahura) whom he (Mazda) has given as a protector for the poor' (see Haug's Essays on the Religion of the Parsis, 2nd ed. pp. 125, 141).
? The word mârik must mean word' here, but in some other places it seems to mean'syllable' or 'accented syllable.'
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