Chapter XL
CHAPTER XL.
1. The fortieth subject is this, that it is not desirable to distress one's priest, or father, or mother; and, if people perceive much trouble, disquietude, and harm arising from them, it is certainly not desirable that they should give them back a reply with any aggravation. 2. Because their satisfaction is connected with the satisfaction of the sacred being, and every time that people distress them they have
distressed Hôrmazd, the good and propitious. 3. It is not possible for any duty or good work to extend to the spiritual existences while one does not make those guardians satisfied, and it is not possible (mumkin) that any one should repay these three persons all their dues.
4. In the commentary of the Hâdôkht Nask it says:—Mâ âzârayôis, Zarathustra! mâ Pourushaspem, mâ Dughdhôvãm, mâ aêthrapaitis 1, 'it is nor desirable that thou, O Zaratust! shouldest distress thy father, or mother, or priest.'
5. Therefore, three times every day it is indispensable for one to fold his arms 2 in the presence of these three persons, and to say:—'What is your will (murâd)? So that I may think and speak and do it. 6. If what was not proper has come from me of itself, it is necessary that you make a righteous gift on our behalf.'
Footnotes
- 302:1
This Avesta passage is not known to be extant elsewhere, and its orthography has been corrected in accordance with the translation attached to it by the author of Sd. In La, Lp, J15 the first two names are in the genitive, and the third is accusative; B29 differs by putting the third name also in the genitive; the last word being accusative in all. Pourushaspa and Dughdhôva (?) were the names of the father and mother of Zarathustra, and the latter name has not previously been found in the Avesta texts, but is known only from Pahlavi and Persian writings.
- 302:2