Roj Behram Mah Bahman, 1382 Yz.
How is this done? The 19th Chapter of the Vandidad provides a fascinating account of the activities. The entire night is broken up into three sections. In the first third of the night, the work of the Abed Sahebs commences in Demavand. As they begin their own kinetics, Azi Dahaka becomes active too. He knows that a lot of his work is undone by the presence of the Atash Behrams, Atash Adarans and Atash Dadgah which exist in the outer world. Knowing this, Azi Dahaka mounts an attack. He tries to destroy the Holy Fire. He tries to snuff out the physical Fire which burns on the Afarganyu of the Padshah Saheb. As he tries to do this, a section of the Holy Ones sends out celestial signals to certain persons in the outer, visible world. Who are these lucky ones? It is the Athravans – the Priests who take care of the Atash Behrams and Atash Adarans. As the Ushahin Gah sets in, the Holy Ones spiritually motivate the Priests to arise from their slumber, to physically purify themselves with water, to put on their ceremonial clothes, to recite the mandatory prayers, and only then, enter the Holy Kebla where the Atash Padshah resides, awaiting their presence. The Holy Padshah is waiting for the Athravan to arrive and re-kindle it. Once the powerful Boi ceremony is performed, whatever little spiritual attack which was brought upon the Padshah by Azi Dahaka is repelled and the Padshah becomes Radiant and Active once again. Thereafter, both the Padshah Saheb and the Athravan join in the fight of the Holy Abed Sahebs to nullify the effect of the evil committed throughout the day.
Defeated here, Azi Dahaka turns his attention to those who help him through the day. It is well known that more sin is committed during the night, rather than the day. Every person has a sense of shame, a line which he will not cross. But in the cover of darkness, this line is often crossed. Under the cover of darkness, even the meek become bold. Even those, who would squirm to do something wrong during the day and its brightness, use the cover of darkness and lose their sense of shame. Why does this happen? The 12th Karta of the Sarosh Yasht Vadi explains that there is a special entity, an assistant of Azi Dahaka who makes man lose his sense of shame and morality. This entity is called Mazainya. Today as we look around, we see that there is no sense of shame, no morality. Look at the kind of clothes people wear, see the way people dress up in our colonies – even children – where is the moderation, where is the respect for womanhood? They see nothing wrong in dressing provocatively or suggestively. This is the working of Mazainya Daeva. So as the night progresses, Mazainya Daeva does the rounds of the earth, breaking the thoughts and taboos of men and women, motivating them to become even more shameless and commit more sin.
As this happens, the Yazata Sarosh also begins his rounds of the earth – 11 times in a span of 24 hours. At every turn, he destroys the centres of sin, he breaks the accumulation of evil thoughts, words and deeds. In this work the Yazata is helped by the pious Masters of Demavand and also by those few faithful Zoroastrians who rise up early and pray through the night. What is the right time to get up for man? It is early dawn. But what happens? Another assistant of Azi Dahaka looms around – the long handed Daeva Bushyans. As the eager man stirs and tries to wake early, the long-handed Bushyans whispers in his ears – ‘sleep, my precious, there is still much time…why wake up so early? Here this soft pillow beckons, come let us fall back to sleep…’ Without even realizing it, the poor fellow goes back to sleep, only to awake when it is too late.
But at this time, the assistant of the Yazata Sarosh gets active. As Bushyans tries to lull us to sleep, our slumber is broken by the harsh crowing of the rooster. The more the evil one tries to make us drowsy, the louder and more insistent become the cries of the cock. Awake – it is time to arise! Wash yourselves, put on clean clothes, uncover the Holy Hearth Fire which lies beneath the ashes of the night, put on it sweet smelling sandalwood and Loban. Take the bright burning and sweet smelling hearth fire to all the rooms of your house and drive out the accumulated evil, laziness and slumber from all.
As dawn breaks, the work of the Abed Sahebs of Demavand is taken over by the Yazatas Khurshed and Meher – who are physically manifested as the Sun and the sun’s rays. To mark this takeover of the function of controlling evil, another great friend and co-Worker of Yazata Sarosh – the Rooster – called the bird Parodarsh in the Avesta, crows. The crowing of the cock marks the handing over of the controlling of evil from the Abed Sahebs to the Sun and its purifying rays. At the same time, the Divine Vibrations connected with the crowing sound made by the rooster, also keep the evil in check. Hence the plan of Azi Dahaka to take control of the earth with the help of the darkness is thwarted. This is depicted in the story as the chains of Zohak becoming strong once again as the cock crows.
Readers of Frashogard, there is another important aspect to understand. If the rooster is divinely connected to Sarosh Yazad and programmed genetically to crow at dawn, why is it that we observe today that the cock crows at many a wrong time? Does that mean that the above explanation is not correct? No.
Dr. Saheb Framroze Chiniwalla explains this paradox in his commentary to the Sarosh Yasht Vadi. He reveals that the progress of man and animals is linked. We are aware that 1/10th of our Ruvan fragment resides in the animal kingdom, 1/100th in the vegetable kingdom and 1/1000th in the mineral kingdom. When man progresses spiritually, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdom fragments also progress in equal measure. But in an age where the crass materialism of man and his rapacious greed towards all other aspects of creation is so great that the very earth in being sucked dry of her vitality, there is no progress for the Ruvan fragments of the three kingdoms.
At such times, there is spiritual regression. Readers of Frashogard, each animal is born with a certain instinct – an instinct which enables a newly born to find his mother’s teat and start drinking milk, an instinct which does not need a parent to teach how to get up and start walking, an instinct to know who to hunt and who to run away from. In Khshnoom, this instinct is called Akal-e-Hayula: the natural, basic instinct. This is unlike the different types of intelligence which reside in man, like Akal-e-Salim or Akal-e-Kulli. Now when the behaviour of man becomes less human and more animal like – to grab anything and everything which is available without having any respect for his position in nature and his responsibilities towards others, this animal-like nature of man begins to effect the animals – due to the presence of the soul fragments.
At this time, the innate instinct of the animal, the Akal-e-Hayula starts to falter. Animals (and birds) lose their ability to find their original nesting grounds, whole herds of animals get lost in their annual migrations, flocks of birds keep flying round and round and finally drop dead in exhaustion, and roosters, who should crow only at dawn, begin crowing at all the odd times, adding to the discomfort of those very humans, whose misbehaviour has caused their instinct to malfunction in the first place! So the question arises: who should be complaining? The sleep deprived residents of the Colaba building in that news report, or the spiritually regressing poor bird, which has lost its moorings and therefore failed to perform its important spiritual function?
Some of my readers may wonder that if all the cocks are crowing at the wrong time, who is keeping check of Zohak? The learned Doctor Saheb clarifies that there is always duality in nature. For all the millions of roosters that may have gone astray due to the misconduct of man, there will always exist, in some corner of the world, a group of roosters whose basic instinct has not yet been corrupted. They keep up the vigil, and help and aid the Yazata Sarosh in His Divine Task.
This is the essence of the story of Zohak and Faridun and the inner, esoteric explanation of the crowing of the rooster. In this manner, the never-ending battle between good and evil is played out each day. This is the great role which is performed by the Abed Sahebs of Demavand and many other similar secret locations all across the globe, belonging to different religious denominations. This is the wondrous working of nature which goes on, unnoticed by us all. Thousands of salutations to our revered Ustad Saheb, who brought us this knowledge and who explained the true mystery of the crowing rooster. And thousands of salutations to the Abed Sahebs who are the guardians and protectors of our community, whose constant vigil is what is keeping us alive and existing till the day of the advent of the Promised One. May it come soon!
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram
JUL
