FIVE NIYAISH, A STORE –HOUSE OF POWERFUL NIRANGS.

Modern life is terribly hectic and frenzied. Nobody is free from the tentacles of worries, and distress, depression and frustration. In utter desperation many go in search of some very short prayer or manthra or “nirang” to overcome some calamity or the other. Does that work? The history of the Parsi tradition does indicate that such Nirang’s were in vogue amongst us right upto the end of the last century. Anquetil Duperron in his Book of A. D. 1771 refers to Nirang’s the Parsis used on various occasions (like the one to be recited when husband and wife quarreled). There are reliable stories of Mobeds giving Nirang’s to remove certain ill-effects. One Dastur Pesooji of Surat had taken out a genie from the body of Nawab’s daughter. It is well known that Dastoorji Kukadaru used to give Nirangs on varied occasions. Amongst Mobeds, he was perhaps the last one to prescribe Nirang’s. The late Ustad Saheb Baheramshah Shroff (1858-1927) had prescribed Nirang’s for his disciples and others. There is no doubt that Nirang’s do work, provided they are prescribed by a person well versed and well experienced in the art and science of the Nirang. Obviously it is not a worldly science. The prescriber must have certain spiritual stature and qualification. Like a medical Doctor, he is required to know two main subjects: diagnosis and materia medica. He must first understand the physical, mental and spiritual constitution of the person asking for the Nirang. He has to look deep into the Karmic cycles of his ‘patient’. Which of his actions in the present or past births have brought this calamity on him? Would this be curable? Should the ill-effects be removed or should he be allowed to suffer it out? Should I prescribe a removal or just strength to bear it out? would he be able to tolerate a particular Manthric composition? These and hundred other questions are to be asked and answers found. In short, diagnosis is the first requirement. Next is that the prescriber must have deep knowledge about the effects of different Manthric compositions. He has to decide on the strength and potency of the Nirang, and the likely effect vis-a-vis the actual calamity as also the surrounding life of the patient. The Nirang should not harm him physically, mentally, and most important, spiritually. Ignorant that we are, we cannot have any idea what the prescriber has to think, speak or do before arriving at a particular prescription. It is therefore clear that Nirang is a highly personalised affair. What is good for one may be extremely harmful to another, although their calamity may appear exactly similar. Same calamity may be the result of entirely different causes. What is being dealt with here is not just physical events of ordinary experience. There are deeper levels and different dimensions. Hence prescription of a Nirang cannot be generalised. One may tell the other “Oh, exactly this had happened to me and I chanted such and such a Nirang and was out of the calamity”. But the other cannot adopt it; it may harm him. There was however one great prescriber who had the deep vision of the collective Karma of the Parsis during the period beginning from the first few decades of the 4th century to the end of the 20th century. His name was Dastoor Aderbad Maraspand. He was the Saoshyant and Saviour deputised by Asho Zarathushtra to make such changes in the spiritual Institutions of our Daena as would be consonant with the collective destiny and the way of life of the Parsis during that period. In exercise of his authority, he restructured the then existing Avesta Manthra Prayers by changing their orders and adding to them Manthra’s of another language, Pazend. All our Khordeh Avesta Prayers, Yazashney, Vendidad, Visperad are composed in this way. Manthras which appear to us to be in Avesta “language” are not much different from the Manthra composed in Asho Zarathushtra’ s time 9000 years ago. Saoshayant Aderbad introduced certain variations and fluctuations in them, put them in certain order and added at certain places the Pazend Manthra. Thus “Pa Nam-e-Yazdaan”……… “Az Hamah Goonah”…. “Roj Nek Naam…..” occurring in all Niyaish’s and Yashta’s are Pazend. The whole of “Doa Nam Setayashney” and all the 12 Kardeh of Patet Pashemani are Pazend. There are Pazend Manthra in our Kriyakaam recitations too. The Truth to remember is that all our Prayers as reconstructed by Dastoor Adarbad are themselves powerful Nirangs made for us as we live our life on earth during the period of his authority – from about 350 A.D. to the start of the 21 St century. That period is called the period of his ‘Dastoori’ and he is known as the ‘Rainidar’ of the period. Rainidar Adarbad Maraspand Saheb was fully aware of the times to come from the 4th century onwards. Iranian Empire was to fall in the 8th century; Zarothoshti Daena was to contract to a tiny point. Only a microscopic group of humanity was to strive and labour to keep the Daena’s Institutions and Tarikats alive and that too not in Iran but in India. At the end of Adarbad’s Dastoori the flame of the Faith will continue to burn only in 11,000 humans. Knowing this colour of the times, and the fate, destiny and Karma of the Parsis, he has bestowed on us the restructured Manthra Prayers. Our prayers are therefore a store house of authorised Nirangs. In this age and time we need not fumble for instant Nirangs. There is nobody to prescribe them. No one has that spiritual power to diaognise our spiritual disease; to delve into the entangled cycles of our Karma, and to know the mystical science of Manthra. Nirangs which were generally used by the Parsis two centuries back are no longer in vogue. There are some books wherein some of these ancient Nirangs are written out. But please do not use them. For us, the five Niyaish’s are more than enough as Nirangs. For instance, Khorshed and Meher Niyaish contains Nirangs which bring good health through Sun’s rays, alchemise certain impurities in us, diminish the black forces hovering within us and surrounding us, facilitate our evolution and journey towards the Lord, generate energy in us to speak the truth and to bear the calamities emanating from our destiny, fate, Karma. Mahbokhtar Niyaish has Nirangs which restore mental balance in us, keep us cool and calm in all calamities, generate energy to resign smilingly to our fate, howsoever miserable; mitigate the ill-effects coming from the planets and increase our power of tolerance. Avan Niyaish is a spiritual bath. It contains Nirangs which wash our internal impurities, put us in contact with the spiritual channels of Nature, sprinkles the water of Yazatic grace on our impatient, ill-tampered and irritable mind, calms down our illegitimate sexual urges, infuses physical strength to combat evil. Atash Niyaish is the Niyaish of our destiny, Karma, Keshash. It contains Nirangs that constantly work on all our thoughts, words and deeds and divert them to the path of Daena; they infuse in us faith and devotion and a longing to be nearer to Asho Zarathushtra and Ahuramazda and burn away our sins…….. ….. Life is a highly complicated affair and a many splendored thing. It has no ‘instant coffee’ like Manthra. Life is a matter of strenuous exertions. But Asho Zarathushtra has made those exertions easy for us, through His Manthra Prayers.

Compiled from (Parsi Pukar – Vol. 2; No.3)

Courtesy : Phil Masters / Rusi Mistry