The Fravashis watch our course with vigilance

At the time of the Hamaspathmaedaya festival, when the snow begins to melt and the rivers begin to flow and the trees begin to grow and the birds begin to fly, the august, glorious and efficacious Fravashis, the Guardian Spirits of the righteous dead, wing their flight earthward from the heavenly regions. Eager and solicitous are they to know who among the living remember them and think of them, and love them and invoke them by their names and pray for their blessings.

The Fravashis represent thee, Ahura Mazda, and keep the living united with the dead. The dead are past our company, they are not past our remembrance. The Fravashis bring to us from heaven the united blessing of the dead and take our thanksgivings heavenward in turn. They live with thee and thy heavenly denizens. They want us to be righteous like them and to be one with them in the life of goodness. We commemorate the Fravashis of the righteous dead from the time of Gaya Maretan, the first man, to the time of Saoshyant, the last man. We commemorate the fravashis of men and women of all times, who, in their days, have worked for the furtherance of righteousness and have fought against wickedness.

May the Fravashis come to our abodes, girt with the blessings of righteousness, as wide as the earth, as long as the rivers, and as high as the sun. May they come to the sacrificial repast we prepare in their honour. May they be propitiated with our offerings of good thoughts and good words and good deeds and walk satisfied in our abodes and never depart offended from there. May they bless us with knowledge and health and virtuous offspring of innate wisdom and long life. May they keep watch and ward about our abodes. May they always protect us with the strength that a thousand men would use in protecting one man.

Nearer in time to Zarathushtra than we are, they have set us the pattern of our conduct. They have led exemplary lives for the emulation of their descendants of succeeding times. They have laid the foundation upon which our communal greatness is built. They have left us a priceless heritage and we cannot fully repay the debt of gratitude to our glorious ancestors. With reverence and affection, let us so live that our living may be an honour to our departed dead.

Lead us, Ahura Mazda, not to rest with glorifying the Fravashis of our ancestral dead with words of praise, but to propitiate them with an offering of our deeds of goodness and righteousness. Help us to walk in the light of their virtue, but help us still more to shine by the nobility of the character and virtues of our own.

This page was last updated on Friday, February 11, 2005.