Good health is our true wealth. Given a choice between health and wealth, choose health because if you have good health, you can earn wealth and more importantly, enjoy your wealth. What’s the point in having wealth but no health to enjoy it! Several studies have indicated that prayer can positively impact health. It can provide one with a sense of calm, control, and connection. Praying for the well-being of others, even those who may have harmed us – can reduce anger and aggression. Alongside gratitude, prayer is one of the most powerful tools to create a calm inner space.
Prayer As Healing Force: Nobel Laureate Dr. Alexis Carrel believed that prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. He famously said, “As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength… When we pray, we link ourselves with the inexhaustible motive power that spins the universe. We ask that a part of this power be apportioned to our needs. Even in asking, our human deficiencies are filled, and we arise strengthened and repaired.”
Two Simple Zoroastrian Prayers
In Zoroastrianism, there are two simple prayers which can be prayed anywhere and at anytime of the day. The ‘Yatha Ahu Vairyo’ is a simple prayer of just twenty-one words and equated to the Ahunavar or the sacred chant with which Ahura Mazda created this universe. Thus, this prayer embodies the power or energy of creation. It can be chanted whenever one feels low in energy (mental or physical) or gripped by fear of the unknown. When prayed with faith and understanding, it energizes the one who chants it. Chanting it before starting any work is considered particularly meritorious.
The other prayer is ‘Ashem Vohu’, is even simpler, comprising just twelve words. It has a calming effect on the mind and is believed to bestow tranquil sleep if chanted just before going to bed. Even while awake, if negative, angry or anxious thoughts fill the mind, chanting it brings about a calming effect. The Zoroastrian scriptures also recommend that this prayer should be whispered into the ears of a dying person. Even at a funeral or when walking behind a funeral cortege, the scriptures suggest that the Ashem should be chanted both for the peace of the departed as also for solace of the grieving.
Mah For Mental Peace
In Zoroastrian tradition, the moon is referred to as Mah and the Mah Bokhtar Nyayesh is believed to be the most efficacious prayer for mental peace and managing mental stress, anxiety or depression. It is a relatively short litany to the moon. This prayer can be recited even during the day. However, reciting it at night while facing the moon is considered even more effective.
Research suggests the moon has little measurable influence on daily life. Still, its subtle interaction with environmental factors may affect sleep, mood, and energy. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev notes that full moons amplify one’s existing state – enhancing joy, love, meditation or even psychological imbalance, rather than directly causing disturbance or instability. It is perhaps for this reason that our scriptures recommend that the Mah Bokhtar Nyaesh be recited daily if possible, but especially on three days every month – the New Moon, Full Moon and the No Moon.
Afshun-e-Shah Faridoon
The Persian term Afshun or Afsoon means a charm or a spell which we more commonly refer to as Nirang and Afshun-e-Shah Faridoon means the Nirang (a potent capsule prayer) believed to be handed down to us from the time of the Saintly King Faridoon of ancient Iran. It is considered very efficacious to remember the name of Shah Faridoon and invoke his pious Fravashi for spiritual assistance during prolonged illness or whenever one feels afflicted by negativity. His Fravashi may also be invoked for spiritual assistance in controlling personal weaknesses such as the demon of wrath, greed, envy, etc.
According to legend, Faridoon has enchained Zohak to Mount Damavand which is the highest peak in the Alburz Mountain range in Northern Iran. Shah Faridoon is revered also as a Master Healer. He is said to have known all sorts of holy incantations (Nirang) with which he could change his form at will, and heal various afflictions. Even today, several Nirangs are ascribed to him.
Shah Faridoon had been blessed by Sarosh Yazata with the power to neutralize all forms of evil, be it in the form of disease, human vices or negative energies. In the Fravardin Yasht, we invoke his righteous Fravashi in order to withstand various diseases: “Thrnotnonahe Athuynnoish ashaono Iravashim yazamaide”. We also pray in the Vanant Yasht: “Baeshaza goafringan bad. Name Ahura Mazda pa name niv khoreh Faridoon Faridoon Athavyan” (May there be health and fame – through the name of Ahura Mazda and through the name and the power and glory of Faridoon the son of Athavyan”.)
Ardibehesht Yasht
The Ardibehesht Yasht is one of the best prayers for healing all kinds of physical ailments. There is also an old healing tradition of ‘Ardibehesht ni Picchi’, where a priest or even a lay person, after a bath and performing the farazyat (obligatory) prayers, recites the Ardibehesht Yasht, running a clean white handkerchief or a clean muslin cloth from head to toe of the ailing person. It is a tried and tested Zoroastrian form of healing with a high degree of success.
In the Ardibehesht Yasht we pray, “Ādim framraomi Ashem Vahishtem; yezī framraomi Ashem Vahishtem, āat anyaēsham Ameshanām Spentanām hvāyaonem; yim pāiti Mazdāo humatāish, yim pāiti Mazdāo hūkhtāish, yim pāiti Mazdāo hvarshtāish. Garō-nmānem Ahurahe hvāyaonem. Garō-nmānem nereyō asti ashāvaoyō. Naēchish dravatām ayene paitish garō-nmanem, ravohu ashāyonem chithrem Ahurem Mazdām.”
Translated, it means, “I like him (i.e., Ardibehesht); when I like Ardibehesht, then (he) of (all) other Ameshāspands (becomes) a helper, whom (the Creator) Ahura Mazda nourishes with good thoughts, and good words, and good actions. The Garothmān (Paradise) is Ahura Mazda’s own abode. The Garothmān (Paradise) is for righteous persons.” The essence of this verse is that only a righteous person can be in the abode or presence of Ahura Mazda.
The Ardibehesht Yasht also refers to five types of healers: “Ashō-baēshazō, dātō-baeshazō, karetō-baēshazō, urvarōbaēshazō, mānthrō-baēshazō; baēshazanām baēshazyōtemō yat mānthrem-spentem-baēshazyō; yō narsh ashaonō hacha uruthwān baēshzyāt, aeshō zī asti baēshazanām baēshazyōtemō” or “One who heals by means of purification rites or through his own Ashoi or piety (Ashō-baēshazō), one who cures (social ills) by law and justice (dātō-baeshazō), one who heals with the knife like a surgeon (karetō-baēshazō), one who restores health by means of herbs and vegetation (urvarōbaēshazō), and one who heals by means of reciting the mānthra or prayers (mānthrō-baēshazō)”. The Yasht affirms that the “best among healers is the one who heals reciting the mānthra”.
The Nirang of Ardibehesht
The Nirang of Ardibehesht is a very powerful capsule prayer which should be recited three times after the recitation of Ardibehesht Yasht. “Dādāre jehādār tavānā O dānā, O parvartār O āfarīdegār, O kerfehgar, O avakhshīdār. Ahereman hīch, nādān, O natavānad ba hīch chīz nashahed. Ahura Mazda dādārī, ahereman marochīnīdārī. Dādār pāk, ahereman nāpāk; ahereman khāk shavad, ahereman dūr shavad, ahereman dafe shavad, ahereman shekasteh shavad, ahereman halāk shavad. Avval dīn Zarathushtī pāk; Ahura Mazda buland kavī, beh, awazūnī.” Which means, “The Creator, the keeper of the world, (is) omnipotent and omniscient, and the Nourisher of all, and the producer, and the Doer of meritorious deeds and overseer. Ahriman is nothing whatsoever (and is) ignorant, and cannot do anything. Hormazd (is) the Creator (and) Ahriman the destroyer. The Creator (is) Holy and Ahriman (is) wicked. May Ahriman perish, may Ahriman be far away, may Ahriman be vanished, may Ahriman be defeated and may Ahriman be overcome. The foremost Religion (is the) pure Zoroastrian (Religion); Hormazd (is) Exalted, Powerful, Good (and) the Increaser.”
Airyaman Isho
The Ardibehesht Yasht also refers to the prayer of Airyaman Isho, which is actually Yasna 54. It is very efficacious and powerful should be prayed just before the chanting of Ardibehest Yasht. Airyaman Yazad is a co-worker of Ardibehesht Ameshaspand and therefore, it is considered very meritorious and beneficial to recite this manthra before the Ardibehesht Yasht. Yasna 54.1 is recited 4 times. It has the power to drive away diseases, physical, mental as well as spiritual. Part of it is composed in the Gathic dialect and it is affirmed that this specific Yasna 54 will be recited at the time of the future restoration of the world.