The Srosh Yast.

1 A blessing is Righteousness, called the Best, etc.

Praise be to God, who gave us Obedience the blessed, the mighty, the embodied word of reason, whose body is the holy word, the one of the daring spear, devoted to the Lord, for worship, homage, propitiation, and praise of Him.

I.

2 We praise God for Obedience, the blessed, the stately, who smites with the blow of victory, and who furthers the settlements, the holy, ruling as the lord of worship. Him do we remember, who in the creation of the Wise Lord was the first to adore God, with the sacred twigs spread, who praised the Bountiful Immortals, who praised both the Protector and the Creator, Who are creating all things in the creation.

3 For his splendour and his glory, for his might, and the blow which smites with victory, I will give thanks to God with the Yasna of the angels, with a Yasna loud intoned, for Obedience the blessed, with the consecrated waters, and the good Blessedness, the lofty, and Nairyosangha, the stately; and may he draw near to us to aid us, he who smites with victory, Obedience the blessed!

4 We praise God for Obedience, the blessed, and that lofty Lord who is the Wise Lord Himself, Him who has attained the most to this our worship, Him who has approached the nearest to us in our celebrations. And we honour all the words of Zarathustra, and all the deeds well done for him, both those that have been done in times gone by, and those which are yet to be done for him in times to come.

Ii.

5 We praise God for Obedience the blessed and the stately, who smites with the blow of victory, who prospers the settlements, the holy lord of worship, (6) who first spread forth the sacred twigs, the three bundles, and the five bundles, and the seven bundles, and the nine, till it was heaped for us knee-high, and to the middle of the thighs, for the worship of God and His Bountiful Immortals, and their homage, and their propitiation, and their praise.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might, and the blow which smites with victory, I will give thanks to God with the Yasna of the angels, with a Yasna loud intoned, for Obedience the blessed, with the consecrated waters.

Iii.

7 We praise God for Obedience the blessed, the stately, who smites with the blow of victory, who furthers the settlements, the holy chief of worship.

8 Who first chanted the Gathas, the five Gathas of Zarathustra, the Spitama, the holy, with the fashion of their metres, and after the well-constructed order of their words, together with the commentary which they contain, and the questions which they utter, and the answers which they give, for the worship of God and His Bountiful Immortals, for their sacrifice and homage, their propitiation, and their praise.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Iv.

9 We praise God for Obedience the blessed and the stately, who smites with the blow of victory, and who furthers the settlements, the holy chief of worship, (10) who for the poor among our men and women built a mighty house, who after sunset, and with his levelled battle-axe, smites Wrath with bloody wounds, and having struck the head, casts him lightly to the earth, as the stronger smites the weaker.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

V.

11 We praise God for Obedience the blessed and the stately, him who smites with the blow of victory, who furthers the settlements, the holy chief of worship, as the energetic, and the swift, the strong, the daring and redoubted hero, (12) who comes back from all his battles a conqueror, who amid the Bountiful Immortals sits as companion at their meeting.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Vi.

13 We praise God for Obedience the blessed, who is the strongest and most persistent of the youths, the most energetic, and the swiftest, who of all the youths strikes most with terror from afar. Be ye desirous, O ye who worship the Wise Lord, of the Yasna of Obedience the blessed.

14 Far from this house, this village, and this tribe, and from this country, the evil and destructive terrors shall depart. In the dwelling of that man in whose abode Obedience the blessed, who smites victoriously, is satisfied and welcomed, there is that holy man who thus contents him, most forward in the thinking of better thoughts, in the speaking of truthful words, and in the doing of holy deeds.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Vii.

15 We praise God for Obedience the blessed and the stately, who is the conqueror of the wicked and the false, who was the smiter of the Demon of the devils, the one veritably powerful, the destroyer of the world of evil, who is the guardian and watchman over all the migrations of the tribes.

16 Who sleeplessly and vigilant guards the creatures of God, who sleeplessly and with vigilance saves them, who with halberd raised on high guards all the corporeal world after setting of the sun, (17) who has never slept in quiet since the two spirits made the worlds, the bounteous and the evil one, who guards the homes of Righteousness, who battles all the days long and the nights with all the devils, (18) nor terror-stricken does he turn in affright before their power; but before him all the devils turn in affright against their will, and rush to darkness in their fear.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Viii.

19 We praise God for Obedience the blessed, for whom Haoma gave thanks on the highest height of high Haraiti, he Haoma, the reviver, and the healer, the beautiful, the kingly, of the golden eye, (20) of the gracious words, of the warning and the guarding words, who intones our hymns on every side, who possesses understanding and every brilliant form, which abounds in many an explanation and revelation of the word, who has the first place in the holy word.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Ix.

21 We praise God for Obedience the blessed, whose house stands with its thousand pillars, as victorious, on the highest height of high Haraiti, self-lighted from within, star-studded from without, (22) to whom the Ahuna-vairya has come, the axe of victory, and the Haptanghaiti, and the Fshusho-mathra which smites with victory, and all the Yasna sections.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

X.

23 We praise God for Obedience the blessed, by whose might and victorious power, and wise conduct, and full knowledge, the Bountiful Immortals descend upon this earth of seven quarters.

24 Who as teacher of the law will stride forth upon this earth with its dwellers in the body, and ruling as he will.

And in this Religion, God the Wise Lord has been confessed with faith, and the Good Mind likewise with Him, and Righteousness the Best, and the Kingdom, and Piety the Bounteous, and the Universal Weal and Immortality; and the question to the Lord is asked, and the lore of the Wise Lord is written.

25 O Obedience, thou blessed one, and stately! protect us for the lives; yea, for both, for that of this world which is corporeal, and for the world of mind, against unhappy death, and the remorseless Wrath of rapine, against the hosts with ill-intent, who lift their bloody spears against us; yea, against their assaults whom the demon of Wrath will set on, and Vidhatu, demon-made. 26. Therefore mayest thou, O Obedience, the blessed and the stately! by God's leave grant swiftness to our teams, soundness to our bodies, and abundant observation of our foes, and their smiting as we mark them, and their sudden death.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Xi.

27 We praise God for Obedience the blessed, whom four racers draw in harness, white and shining, beautiful, and powerful, quick to learn, and fleet, obeying before speech, heeding orders from the mind, with their hoofs of horn gold-covered, (28) fleeter than our horses, swifter than the winds, more rapid than the raindrops as they fall; yea, fleeter than the clouds, or well-winged birds, or the well-shot arrow as it flies, (29) which overtake these swift ones all, as they fly after them pursuing, but which are never overtaken when they flee, which plunge away from both the weapons hurled on this side and on that and draw Obedience with them, the good and the blessed; which from both the weapons, those on this side and on that, bear the good Obedience the blessed, plunging forward in their zeal, when he takes his course from India on the East, and when he lights down in the West.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Xii.

30 We praise God for Obedience the blessed and the stately, who though lofty and so high, yea, even to the girdle, yet stoops to the creatures of the Wise Lord, (31) who thrice within the day, and three times of a night, will drive on to that region Khvaniratha, called the luminous, as he holds in both the hands and poises his knife-like battle-axe, which flies as of itself, and to cleave the skulls of the devils, (32) to hew down Satan, the wicked, and to hew down Rapine of the bloody spear, to hew down the devils of Mazendran, and every demon.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might ....

Xiii.

33 We praise God for Obedience the blessed and the stately, him who smites with victory, both here and not here, and on this entire earth. And we honour all the gifts of Obedience the blessed, the mighty, and the strong, whose body is the holy word.

Yea, we honour all the martial gifts of Obedience the mighty, both armed with shielding armour, and a warrior strong of hand, skull-cleaver of the devils, conquering the endowments of the conqueror, the holy conqueror of the conqueror, and his victorious powers, and the Ascendency which it bestows, and we give thanks to God for this Ascendency of Obedience, the same which conquers theirs; and that of Ansti do we praise as well. 34. And every house guarded by Obedience do we remember, wherein the blessed friendly Obedience is befriended and made welcome, where the holy man is far advanced in holy thoughts, and righteous words and deeds.

For his splendour and his glory, for his might, which smites with victory, I will give thanks to God with the Yasna of the angels, with a Yasna loud-intoned, for Obedience the blessed, with the consecrated waters, and the good Blessedness, the lofty, and Nairyosangha, the stately, and may he come to us to aid us, he who smites with victory, Obedience the blessed!