3.  This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright:  Who by generation is the first father of the Righteous Order within the world?  Who gave the recurring sun and stars their undeviating way?  Who established that whereby the moon waxes, and whereby she wanes, save Thee?  These things, O Great Creator! would I know, and others likewise still.

4.  This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright:  Who from beneath hath sustained the earth and the clouds above that they do not fall?  Who made the waters and the plants?  Who to the wind has yoked on the storm-clouds the swift and fleetest two?  Who, O Great Creator! is the inspirer of the good thoughts within our souls?

5.  This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright:  Who, as a skillful artisan, hath made the lights and the darkness?  Who, as thus skillful, hath made sleep and the zest of waking hours?  Who spread the Auroras, the noontides and midnight, monitors to discerning man, duty’s true guides?

6.  This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright these things which I shall speak forth, if they are truly thus.  Doth the Piety which we cherish in reality increase the sacred orderliness within our actions?  To these Thy true saints hath she given the Realm through the Good Mind?  For whom hast thou made the Mother-kine, the produce of joy?

7.  This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright:  Who fashioned Aramaiti (our piety) the beloved, together with Thy Sovereign Power?  Who, through his guiding wisdom, hath made the son revering the father?  Who made him beloved?  With questions such as these, so abundant, O Mazda!  I press Thee, O bountiful Spirit, Thou maker of all!

Yasna xliv.:  Translation of L.H.  Mills.

THE ANGEL OF DIVINE OBEDIENCE

We worship Sraosha [Obedience] the blessed, whom four racers draw in harness, white and shining, beautiful and (27) 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 rain [drops 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 Sraosha with them, the good Sraosha 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.

Yasna lvii. 27-29:  Translation of L.H.  Mills.

TO THE FIRE