Chapter 15
The Ceremony Of The Kusti Wearers
There is a jocund festivity—the celebration of the children of Zarathustra and of all those who have embraced his benevolent faith. In this ceremony the initiates put on the sudreh and the kusti for the first time while they raise their voices in the adoration of Mazda. After the ceremony they are officially known as Zoroastrians and are therefore expected to abide by the norms of their faith: divine thoughts, words and deeds. The outward symbols of the faith are the sudreh and the kusti. The sudreh is a white short sleeved, collarless undershirt with a slit which descends from the collar. At the bottom of this slit there is a pouch called the kerefeh, or charity, which symbolically holds the treasures of divine thoughts, words and deeds. The kusti is a thin band woven of seventy two lengths of coiled yarn of sheep wool. The kusti itself consists of six separate parts each of which is in turn woven of twelve pieces of string into a belt; this cincture is wound thrice about the waist and knotted twice in the front and twice in the back. As the two articles of clothing—the kusti and the sudreh—are put on the special prayer of the ‘Afarinegan’ is said. Then the minstrels sing their delightful chants as the revelers dine. These are the prayers which are set to song:
With divine thoughts, words and deeds do I repent of
any sin I may have committed either in thought,
word or deed whether my sins be of the body or of
the soul.
I repent of sins I may have committed in thoughts
words and deeds.
May evil and sinful thoughts be destroyed together
with the sinners, the prevaricators and the sorcerers.
May they be persecuted in the abysses of internal
darkness and may they never see the fruition of their
wishes.
May any divine creed done in accordance with the wishes
of Ahura Mazda and the Holy Immortals meet with victory.
May all deeds be done in accordance with Ahura Mazda’s
pure religion.
May the just Mazda remain forever pure, great and
victorious in his brilliance and wisdom!
May Ahura Mazda be forever joyful!
Blessed is the destruction of evil thoughts and blessed is
the bringing of joy to Ahura Mazda through divine
deeds and the rebuilding of the world.
We praise purity and righteousness.
I choose the Mazdayasni faith preached by Zarathustra
and I strongly adhere to it.
I praise divine words, thoughts and deeds.
I praise the Mazdayasni faith which abhors war and
Bloodshed but which lauds peace, self-sacrifice and
righteousness. I hold that this faith far exceeds any
creed of the past and of the future.
This divine Zoroastrian religion knows Ahura Mazda as the
Creator of all goodness.
This is the root of the Mazdayasni faith.
Guide me O Ahura!
Guide me O Ahura!
Guide me O Ahura!
Praised by the brave, lovingly created victory of Ahura Mazda!
Praised be divine willed victory!
Let us forever abide by one another!
Let us abide in the good!
Let us abide by the charitable ones!
Keep us safe from the company of sinners and from the
sinful!
Let us be as charitable as the kusti wearer and the good
of the seven kingdoms !
O Just Ahura Mazda, may we pass the bridge of judgment
in bliss and comfort!
O Just Ahura Mazda, lead us unto all our brethren, unto
the good and unto the kingdom of the brilliant chants!
“The first part of these rituals consists of repentance for past sins and is at the base of the benevolent creed for I believe no man to be essentially evil,” said Zarathustra. “All men have a rare immaculate jewel within them which, if placed in pure surroundings, will remain eternally unblemished. It is the incessant flow of life and the constant struggles of humanity, tied to individual beliefs, creeds, religions or instruction which lead men to evil. Any wicked-minded, evil-speaking, sinful person can be led to goodness by being awakened to the roots of his evil characteristics. I believe any sinner, no matter how wicked, can be turned to goodness through proper instructions. Thus, anyone can repent of any sin and thereby turn to truth and to the benevolent creed. Repentance is the ability to be wholeheartedly sorry for a sin committed and to let it go forever—one must forsake past sins.
Lies must be replaced with truths, sins with goodness and selfishness with self-sacrifice and humility. Sin, no matter how trivial, must be foregone. Flaws must be scrutinized and eradicated. Wicked friends must be rejected and benevolent ones embraced. The heart must be ablated of anger and of vengeance and replaced with love and gentleness.
In one part of the hymns the sinners, liars and sorcerers are reprimanded for this too is at the root of the benevolent creed. One must fight the evil ones and lead them to the path of goodness.
Truly, whatever is done for the sake of Ahura Mazda and the Holy Immortals will eventually succeed for the brilliance of Mazda, divine thoughts and truth are love, nobility, joy righteousness and fulfillment which can lead to nothing but to victory.
The key words in these rituals are ‘I choose’. ‘I choose the Mazdayasni faith’ for choice is one of the pillars of my creed. A Zoroastrian child cannot simply inherit his religion but must grow, mature, think and when he has the ability to distinguish good from evil he may choose his religion in his own wisdom. Hence the ceremony of the putting on of the sudreh and the kusti are kept until the child is between the ages of seven and fifteen. Should the child not be deemed sufficiently mature to embrace the faith at that time he is not allowed to join the flock and must be guided by another. Most people do have the ability to make their own choices and only a very few are unable to do so and need to rely upon the guidance of others.
Another of the pillars of the benevolent creed is its abhorrence of war and bloodshed. I believe war to be the most wicked, evil, destructive and ignorant of deeds. He who makes war is a blood lusting perfidious beast who suffers of a convulsing, broken psyche for no ordinary man is capable of such red-handedness, such perdition, such iniquity. I despise war and laud friendship. In friendship I advocate ‘selflessness’ for sacrifice, patience, thought and wisdom can efface the threat of war and cleanse corrosive minds and callous hearts of the desire for vengeance and in their place it can bring in love.
Friendship and union with the good are among the pillars of my religion and only through this union can evil be uprooted.
The wearing of the kusti and the sudreh are the outward signs of the union of the body and of the soul. I believe the body and soul have an extremely intimate, inseparable relationship. If the body is afflicted so too will the psyche ail and an ailing mind can corrupt the body. Thus, I uphold the cleansing and the purgation of the body. As a physician I am well aware of the importance of an unblemished mind. I know how plagues of the body take root in the mind. When the Zoroastrian child wears the sudreh and the kusti he will be ever aware of his creed and of the union of his body and soul until the day of his death.”
The ritual of the putting on of the sudreh and of the kusti ended at noon when Zarathustra and his followers rose to begin the Prayer of Truth. According to the holy Teacher his followers were to pray five times daily. These prayers were expected of all Zoroastrians. The face, hands, head and feet were to be washed. The body was to be clean and so were the clothes and the place of worship. The heart was to be washed of envy, vengeance and greed. The worshipers faced light in their prayers and they lifted their voices in adoration.
In the name of the merciful, forgiving lord,
We laud and worship the wise Creator of life—the
omnipotent giver of light.
We praise the greatest, most noble, beauteous and
strong Creator.
He created us and gave us body and reason through
fixed harmony and an unshaken wisdom.
He gave us joy.
We laud and worship eternal blessed thoughts, truth,
most elevated purity, patience, clement heart and
soul, love, righteousness, verdancy and honor.
We laud and worship the world of the body and that of
the soul.
We laud the life giving brilliant fire which lovingly unifies
the deeds of the soul, of the world, of the followers of
the benevolent creed and of the pure in conscience.
We laud and praise the pure life-giving Gathas.
At this time, O immaculate, divine and benevolent Mazda,
do I praise Thee with my raised arms in the desire for
bliss.
May I come to please the psyche of the universe through
my pure justified deeds which have been carried out in
blessed thoughts and wisdom.
In accordance with Thy commands do I think, say and act.
With the benevolent, pure creed do I gain strength in good
deeds.
I repent all my sins.
I cleanse all my natural deeds and my six mental powers,
of thought, word, deed, desire, consciousness and
wisdom.
May I act according to Thy will!
May my prayers, done through blessed thoughts, words
And deeds, lead me across the bridge of judgment
onto the path of light, goodness, honor and peace that
I might be spared the pains of an evil life.
May we be pure in word!
May we be spared harm, pain, bitterness, fear and sorrow!
May we live long!
May we live correctly!
My we life joyously!
May we live as is our aim!
May our world be one of perfection of the body and of the
spirit!
Truth is the best!
At the end of the prayers of the Govahgiran were said and the ceremony of the wearing of the kusti and the sudreh came to an end.