The Healing Manthra & Nirang

There are two ways to view the healing power of manthras: first that a daily recitation of the prescribed prayers provides the necessary spiritual strength and protection and, second, there are those who believe that specific prayers or manthras are particularly efficacious. In the latter category there are manthras that promote the well-being of others and the community at large, and there are manthras that promote personal healing. There is a further group of prescribed manthras that are called nirangs. As is the want of different people, some Zoroastrians will establish their own formulae while other Zoroastrians will relegate this practice to superstition. 

The two most common prayers that are recited on every occasion and for every purpose including healing are the Yatha Ahu Vairyo and Ashem Vohu prayers. The Yatha Ahu Vairyo prayer is for Zoroastrians what the Lord's prayer is for Christians. We will note these prayers below. 

History

The Yasna verse devoted to Airyaman, health and healing, immediately follows the last Gatha verse (the Gathas were composed by Zarathushtra himself). The concept behind Airyaman later became a yazata - an angel with guardianship of the qualities and principles behind the concept. The Airyaman Ishyo is often recited with the Doa Tandorosti, a prayer for good health and a sound body. In the Middle Persian text, the Denkard 8.37.13 the Amesha Spenta Asha is paired with Airyaman, Asha being associated with spiritual health while Airyaman is associated with corporeal health and haoma. In Denkard (3.157), it is under the guardianship of Airyaman that a physician can provide healing using the medicinal plants that are part of the haoma family. Airyaman and its Vedic equivalent are translated as 'brotherhood' - a gender-biased western term. The word 'airya', which may or may not have been used as a common noun in the Yasna, is the word from which the proper noun 'Aryan' is derived.

The Prayer