“Soundless prayer”

I feel compelled to reply to the vitriolic, sarcastic, offensive letter by Farrokh Vajifdar of London titled "Soundless prayer” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, June 21, 2009). He has written this assault without having read my humble booklet. How on earth my simple reply to an innocent query is going to "knock our Mazdayasni faith for a six” I would like to know.

Pahalvi when written down was called Pazend; but Vajifdar disagrees very vehemently. Never have I implied that pronunciation is everything and meaning is nothing, but since the same word in Avestan can have several different meanings it would be difficult to translate any of our texts.

Our present daily prayers were composed by Dastur Adarbad Mahraspand using the science of Stoat Yasna ("cymatics” is an offensive word for Vajifdar), a good reason for Manthravani being used. Our prayers in Avestan were not understood by Zarathustis of the day and some prayers were composed entirely in Pahalvi or in some cases a paragraph was introduced between the Avestan texts. So as not to interfere with the vibrationary pattern, it was enjoined "to be prayed in silence.” It is interesting to note that words having sounds of "la, chha, dha and bha” are largely omitted since they were believed to be producing unfavorable vibrations. Words do produce vibrations, don’t they?

If anyone has superior knowledge I am willing to learn, but a little politeness would be becoming in a Zarathushti.

CYRUS S. MEHERJI

cymeher@rediffmail.com

Cyrus S. Meherji has called the science of sound "cymatics.” He then tries to justify soundless prayers by stating that the vibrations in the Pahalvi language are different from the vibrations in the Avestan language ("Soundless prayer,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, May 21, 2009).

First of all, I failed to find the word "cymatics” in my dictionary. The correct terminology for the science of sound is "acoustics” and the correct terminology for the science of speech is "phonetics” or "phonology” or "phonemes” as Farrokh Vajifdar has put it (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, June 21, 2009).

Vajifdar has rightly stated that the belief that only Avestan vibrations can reach God whereas vibrations from the Pahalvi language are incapable of doing so is tomfoolery.

Perhaps Meherji should lend his ear to what one poet had truly stated: "My words go up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

Dr P. D. SUNAVALA