Authentic Gatha Zoroastrianism

In the poetic gathas and ancient Zoroastrianism, the highest heaven is a house or abode of music and songs called garö demánæ.

Avestan garö…dá, Vedic gìras …dhā, reconstructed Indo European grh-dh-o all refer to “melodious singing and musical harmony of song.” Compare with Lithuanian gìrti “praise.”

Dá or dhā means to “create, set in place, establish!”

Also, Avestan demánæ, Greek dōm, Latin domus, Vedic dām, Proto Indo European *dóm(h)os derived from the verbal root *dem(ha) “to build,” all mean “house, abode.”

The proto Celtic bardos, Welsh (bardd,) Irish and Welsh words for BARD all come from the same ancient root of grh-dh-o “create music/songs.”

Zoroastrian devotion is NOT slavery to a despotic God and heaven in the ancient Iranian religion is NOT an endless hedonistic party!!! The highest heaven or garö demánæ is a house of melody, song and creation.

Mazdá, the highest god is one who creates, establishes through mind-power, spirit, brilliance, world-order. Mazdá propounds themes of music/creation to god-men in the house of song, unfolding to them each time melodies greater and more amazing than before. For the brilliant thoughts of Mazdá is awakened into music and songs.

In garö-demánæ, Immortals and god-men make in harmony together new themes of music and song for the creation of new worlds, each time better and more amazing.

For mortal men are akin to god-beings and Immortals if they realize their full potential as co-workers of the god force.

In Zoroastrianism, there is kinship between unlimited Immortals and high-minded mortals. This kinship rests above all on the view that Gods and men are bound through truth, goodness, excellence and virtue.

In the poetic gathas and Zoroastrian religious poetry God is again and again equated to the natural law and reason.

The highest heaven or garö demánæ represents this timeless ordering of the worlds, into which the god-men have harmoniously fit themselves as the co-creators of the supreme God and other Immortals.

Hermann Lommel, in Zarathustra und seine Lehre, speaks of a “harmonious ordering of the worlds”, which the ancient Iranians are said to have represented.

The nature of god-beings or ahûrás is connected with the world order, melody and brilliance. Mortal man must join in with the ahûras in the struggle against all degeneration and chaos, hence ESTABLISHING, CREATING an ever better, more wondrous and harmonious worlds and order.

I shall conclude with the 2^nd rhymed verse line of Yasna 51.15 of the poetic gathas:

garö demánæ ahûrö mazdáv jasat poûruyö

The abode of music/songs of the ahûrás wherein Mazda (god of mind-power, thoughts, creativity) came as first/foremost!

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October 29 is the day that Cyrus, the great Mazda (Wisdom) worshipping king, victoriously entered Babylon. But unlike his predecessors, Cyrus, and the ancient Persians, as Indo-Europeans, never forced Ahûrá Mazdá and his Auspicious Immortals on the alien tribes and peoples of their vast Empire.

For the first time in history, Cyrus and Darius the Great passed commandments concerning the mutual tolerance of the religions of their Empire (G. Widengren: Iranische Geisteswelt, Vienna, 1961, pp. 245 et seq.).

In the Indo-European world, it was ancient Iran that created the notion of “Empire.”

 As Émile Benveniste states: Certainly a Hittite empire had existed previously, but this had not constituted a historical model for neighboring peoples.

The original organization of a World Empire is that created by the ancient Iranians, and it was the ancient Iranian terms that constituted the vocabulary referring to kingship and Empire.

The ancient Persian title ḵšāya-θiya ḵšāya-θiyā.nam (Literally king who reigns over other kings) designates the sovereign as the pioneer/master in the cultivation of the land, he who is invested with the power ḵšāy-making realm to prosper/bloom.

The ancient Persian ḵšāya-θiya ḵšāya-θiyā.nam is a curious expression. The term does not mean “king of kings” but “the king who reigns over other kings.” It is a kingship of the second degree exercised over those considered by the rest of the world as ruler kings.

The ideology behind this form of government is summarized by a prayer of Darius the Great: “May Ahûra-mazdá bring me help along with all the other gods (baga) and protect this land from the army of the enemy, from bad years/harvests and from treachery/lie.”

As Benveniste states the prayer lists the evils proper to the three divisions of society and their respective activities: hainā ‘hostile army corresponds to the warrior class, duši.yāra ‘bad year, bad harvest to the cultivation of the land/realm and drauga “falsehood, treachery, lie,” to the spiritual authority.

What Darius the Great begs the god-beings to ward off from his kingdom is the counterpart of the benefits that he himself should procure for the people.

The sovereign only insofar enjoys the favor/support of Ahûra-mazdá when he will ensure the prosperity of the realm, the defeat of the enemies, and the triumph of the spirit of virtue/truth.

Everything that the king is and everything that he possesses, his insignia and his powers, have been conferred on him by the Immortals, embodied in the person of ratü, the spiritual counsel, the solver of divine riddles.

For the ancient Indo-Iranians the ruler/king is a mortal who holds from Immortals his temporal powers through the spiritual leadership/counsel of ratü.

The authority of rulers depends on safety, welfare, prosperity of the realm and the reign of virtues and truth!

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October 26 marks the festival of waters in the Zoroastrian calendar. Yasna 38 in the poetic gathas is dedicated to the worship of waters. The formula apö at yaza.maidæ literally means “we worship waters with zeal/yearning.”

The Avestan word for water is áp. Cognates include Old Prussian ape “river,” apus “water, well, spring,” Lithuanian ùpė “water,” Latvian upe “water,” Vedic/Sanskrit āpaḥ, Tocharian āp, Hittite hapa– “river” from reconstructed Proto Indo European root *hâp-, *hap (See Didier Calin.)

Persian áb “water” comes from the same Avestan root and is present in words such as gul-áb “rosewater” and names such as Punjab or Panj-áb “five rivers.”

Hermann Lommel (Iranische Religion, in Carl Clemen: Die Religionen der Erde, 1927, p. 146) uses the term “religiosity of this world” to characterize the ancient Iranian (Zoroastrian) religion.

“Life in this world”, Lommel says, “offered the ancient Iranians unbounded possibilities for the worship of God”.

Goethe also, in his poem Vermächtnis altpersischen Glaubens has described the religiosity of the ancient Aryan Iranians: as a striking worshipful penetration of all aspects of this life and environment through an all-embracing elevated disposition of the spirit/mind.

Zoroastrianism is truly a joyous celebration of pristine nature and the environment. Where the holiness and goodness of “this world” is dropped, there the realm of Zoroastrian religiosity is abandoned.

The honoring of nature and the physical body as a visible expression of the Immortals is the Zoroastrian mode of worship.

The ancient worship of Mazda/wisdom religion has always tended to regard nature and the body as an expression of the brilliant divine.

Every idea of killing the senses, of asceticism, lies indefinitely remote from Zoroastrianism and would appear to be an attempt to paralyze rather than empower the god-powers within.

The idea to view “this world” as a devalued place of sorrow and gloom is utterly alien to Zoroastrianism.

There is NO conflict between spirit and matter in the ancient Iranian religion.

Zoroastrian worship is healthy and holy both in body and the God-filled vibrant spirit. The worshipper regards nothing in his or her nature as lower in essence than the godly immortals.

Accordingly this world is in evolution/progress to overcome its limitations and become ever better. Mortal man could and should share or participate in the Good, the Better and the ever more Beautiful as partner/co-worker of the Immortals.

In the worship of mountain heights, rivers, waters and trees, in the worship of the sun, the hearth, fire and the dawn, in the worship of cultivated land, the superb order of the Immortals is worshipped.

The Immortals are the very spirit/embodiment of a brilliant, ever better, surpassing order. Mortal man in a reciprocal friendship with Immortals and connected to the world order, joins with the god-beings to struggle against chaos, degeneration and limitation. Thereby always devising a better, more brilliant plan and order. (See Yasna 30.9)

This world is a field in which destiny is fulfilled. In Zoroastrian religiosity man cherishes life as a cultivator/farmer, where plants, animals and men each grow and ripen into powerful god-forces.

Sin arises wherever an individual defies or threatens an ever bettering, more brilliant order by limitation, short sightedness, distortion and gloom.

I like to conclude by a beautiful a passage from the Avesta (preserved only in the Middle Persian work of Šāyæst na šayæst, Chapter 15.)

1. It is revealed by a passage of the Avesta (unknown/hidden wisdom) that Zartôsht, seated before Öhrmazd, always wanted word of wisdom/voice of knowledge (vač); and he spoke to Öhrmazd thus: ‘Thy head, hands, feet, hair, face, and tongue are in my eyes just like men but much more dazzling/brilliant, and you have clothing similar to men; give me your luminous hand that I may grasp it.

2. Öhrmazd said thus: ‘I am an intangible spirit; it is not possible to grasp my hand.’

3. Zartôsht spoke thus: ‘Thou art intangible, and Vôhü-man, Artá-vahišt, Shahrevar, Spentármað, Hôrdád (health, holiness) and Amûrdád (Immortality) are intangible, and when I depart from thy presence, and do not see thee nor the Immortals – How shall I worship You and the seven auspicious Immortals?

4. Öhrmazd said each of us has established/created their material creation (dayak) in the world, by means of own spiritual essence.
5. In the creation that is mine, who am Öhrmazd, is the virtuous, brilliant man, of Vôhü-man are beneficial animal kingdoms, of Artá-vahišt are the fires of industry, of Shahrevar is the jewels and metals, of Spentármað are the bountiful earth and virtuous, brilliant woman, of Hôrdád (holiness/health) is the waters, and of Amûrdád (Immortality) is the plants and trees.

6. Whoever has learned the care of all these seven, and delights their creation well, his or her soul never comes into the possession of Ahriman and the demons; when he/she has exercised the propitiation of them, and taught it to all mankind in the world.

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In the light of ashura commemorations among shia moslems, a question was posed if such hero-worship is remotely Zoroastrian in its origin? The following short article deals with the issue of hero-worship in Zoroastrianism.

God beings and mortal men are not, in the eyes of the poetic gathas or ancient Zoroastrianism, incomparable beings, eternally remote from one another.

Heroes appear as Godlike-beings with Immortal souls in the boundless, brilliant realm of good mind in the poetic gathas (See Yasna 50.10, 2^nd rhymed verse line.)

Zoroastrianism believes that mortal men, possess something Godlike and as such could and should claim to approximate to the stature of the immortal gods.

The epithet of heroes is nar in the poetic gathas and heroines náiri—“valiant, heroic, courageous, bold, manly.”

(See reconstructed Proto Indo European *haénr, Vedic nár, Greek anēr, Latin neriōsus “firm, powerful, Old Prussian nertien, N Welsh nêr “hero.”)

In Yasna 37.3, after ahüric/godly names and the splendid, auspicious determination/will power; the proto-type of true heroes and heroines is worshipped.

For the valiant nature is perfected solely through proving the self in face of fate. That is NOT to degenerate into fatalism and gloom but to remain true to the Godlike Capable Self within.

Zoroastrianism religiosity is not concerned with anxiety, self-damnation, mourning or gloom, but with the determined courage/valiance, who honors godhood with dignity amid the turmoil of fate, becoming all the more powerful and god-filled, the more shattering were the trials and tribulations of fate.

The valiant hero or heroine comprises the confiding fulfillment of a reciprocal community of Immortals and mortal men in friendship and innovative co-creation.

Hero or heroine delights in meeting fate by conquering obstacles and attain to the stature of beloved Immortals.

Thus valiant heroes ought to be celebrated and NOT mourned in Zoroastrianism. In conclusion, praying the Avestan formulas for non-Zoroastrian heroes and/or the non-Zoroastrian virtuous is permissible and even encouraged per holy denkart.

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ḵšathrá refers to the boundlessness of god-beings verses the limitation of men. ḵšathrá is the unlimited, prolific, inexhaustible god-power to make the realm bountiful (See Yasna 28.3, 2^nd rhymed verse line and Yasna 31.4, 3^rd rhymed verse line.)

ḵšathrá comes from ḵši and the reconstructed Indo European root *tkeh 1- “to rule, bring land into cultivation/bloom.” This ancient sense of “making earth bloom” is present for example in the poetic gathas Yasna 48.11, 2^nd rhymed verse line and Yasna 29.2, 2nd rhymed verse line. Greek krasthai “to acquire, possess to cultivate” comes from the same root.

In the ancient commentaries of the poetic gathas ḵšathrá is equated with ḵüdáyî or khüdáyî “god-hood, god-power” from ḵva-tava, Vedic sva-tava “masterly, competent, clever, thriving by own self.”

(See Yasna 31.21, 2^nd rhymed verse line ḵva-paithyát, “be ruler, master by own self” from pótis)

The Persian word for god or khuda comes from the same root. The remarkable idea here is that godhood is equated with skillfulness, industry, innovation and cultivation NOT despotism.

In the Achaemenid texts for example we read:

baga vazraka ahuramazdā “a vigorous, robust god is Ahuramazda’. Vazraka (vigorous, robust is also applied to the ruler/king: ḵšāyaθiya vazraka, and vazraka (vigor, health) is also applied to the “land, earth” bumi.

*vazra-, from the root *vaz– ‘be vigorous, strong, full of vigor’ (cf. Lat. vegeo), corresponds to Vedic vāja. (See Benveniste)

However, scholars such as Calvert Watkins and Didier Calin more convincingly argue that the correct root is wag “split, break open, bloom.” (Compare Tocharian wāk “split, bloom” and Hittite wāki “cut into something”)

Ahuramazda is defined as vazraka, this is because godhood is identified with the vigorous life-force. The ruler of the realm is also endowed with vigorous power vazraka, to make the land bloom and the realm bountiful. Likewise the earth as the prototype of fertility and bountifulness bears this epithet.

In the poetic gathas, ḵšathrá is the dominion, realm of health, vigor and wellness haûrvatátö (See Yasna 34.1, 2^nd rhymed verse line and Yasna 45.10, 4^th rhymed verse line.

ḵšathrá also comes with vôhü “goodness,” for godhood is all goodness, giver of boons and wonders. (See Yasna 31.22, 2^nd rhymed verse line, Yasna 41.2 and Yasna 51.1, 1^st rhymed verse line.)

The beginning words of Yasna 51.1, 1^st rhymed verse line of the poetic gathas are Vôhü ḵšathrem vairîm “the good or wondrous realm of will power.”

In Mazdean wisdom; the dominion of god-beings is a wondrous realm wherein mortals can overcome their limitations, aspire to ideals and realize the triumph of their will power vairîm.

(ḵšathrem vairîm has become shahrivar in Persian.)

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October 2^nd marks the beginning of Mithrá festival culminating on October 8^th. It is a festival of love, red wine and pomegranates.

Avestan Mithrá-, Vedic Mitrá- comes from reconstructed Indo European root *meit- and is cognate with Latin mūtō, Gothic maidjan, Latvian mietot.

Mithrá is what is genuinely given/felt in return, our soul contract. It appears in the poetic gathas, Yasna 46.5, 2^nd rhymed verse line in the form of mithrö.ibyö in the sense of “reciprocal friendship/love.”

Mithrá is reciprocating the Immortals favor by fulfilling our faith/destiny, by fulfilling our calling.

The highest God in Zoroastrianism is not a despot and Zoroastrian religiosity is not slavery. Zoroastrian religiosity is the reciprocal friendship/love between mortal men and Immortal god-powers/forces. It is a mutual community between Immortal God beings and mortal men with a profound sense of mutual obligations and duties.

The poetic gathas teach that mortals, as noble genus “hû-zéñtûš,” possess something immortal or divine, and as such could claim to approximate to immortal or divine stature — the “Godlike Ahü.”

In the nature of mortal men, just as the god-powers will, lie possibilities, divine in origin, thus it is mortals destiny to reclaim the best and the ideal in their nature and ascend their limitations.

Although there is an attempt in many circles to talk of a pre-Zoroastrian Mithraic religion but there is NO single proof or evidence for such hypothesis whatsoever. The term “Mithraism” is a modern coinage and a fairly recent academic invention.

In Roman Empire the so-called mithraic religion was known as “the mysteries of the Invincible Mithrás (Sol Invictus Mithras)” or “the Persian religion.”

The ancient Roman followers of Mithrás themselves were convinced that their wisdom was founded by the ancient Aryan seer/Prophet Zarathúshtrá.

Cumont correctly argues that Roman worship of Mithrá in the West was Romanized Mazdáism and was still at its core a Zoroastrian Persian religion, though one that had undergone extensive metamorphoses in its passage (see Cumont 1931, Beck 1995).

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The holy denkart in book 3, question 9 deals with a profound question that is relevant today. The question posed is if the poetic gathas are the only basis/source of the Zoroastrian religion??? The holy denkart considers the very question as erroneous arising from utter ignorance over the nature of the poetic gathas.

The Avestan word gatha/gáthá “sacred verse/poetry is one of several words built on a root that is common to the Indo European world in the east and west.

Gáthá is used of prophetic utterances/songs from god-beings, of divine riddles in sacred verse or melodious singing, accompanied by musical instruments.

Compare Avestan gáthá “sacred song/poetry with Lithuanian giedóti “sing,” giesmé ‘song of praise’; Slavonic gudú ‘sing with a stringed instrument’; Old English gieddian ‘sing’, giedd, gidd “song, poem, divine riddle.”

Gathas are like muses, creative inspirations and/or guides leading one to become god-like and to Immortals.

The holy denkart declares “the will to become god-like” or the most sacred yathá ahü vairyö formula to be the very spirit of the gathas. The entire sacred gathic poetry is accordingly a musing/meditation on the will to become god-like.

Avestan ahü, Vedic ásu, Old English ós, Old Norse aes/äs/áss as in Aesir (the gods, plural) ansu in runic, all mean “god, the force/power to animate, manifest, bring to existence.”

Denkart masterfully argues that gathas by their own admission are first and foremost mánθrás. Mánθrá comes from the root *men “ to think, imagine, spark, inspire, impassion with creativity, imagination, mind-power.” Hence Mánθrá is a sacred formula or more precisely “the ability of mind to be imaginative, forming new ideas and to be creative.”

In answering question number 9, the holy denkart argues that by limiting the religion to the poetic gathas only, the inspiring nature of the poetic gathas is grossly ignored.

Gathas are melodious mind formulas, filled with endless meaning and spirit, capable of infinite exploration. AVESTA is their interpretation or literally “exposition of their unknown wisdom.” Their interpretation results in a labyrinth of ideas and expansion of their unbounded wisdom, which is also godly-inspired and divine according to holy denkart.

To abruptly discard the precedence of their old age interpretations or AVESTA is an evasion of the gathic principal of endless learning.

Yasná 19 refers to mánθrá as hû-mata “good thought, good spirit, good disposition.” In the Vedas, mantra is referred to as a sumatí- or sumnám with the same exact meaning.

The poetic gathas by their very essence demand infinite exploration of consciousness and expansion of wisdom/knowledge to become Immortals.

To deny the precedence of the ancient art of unlocking their riddles is not in line with their inspiring meaning, creative spirit or good thinking.

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It is common among many religious traditions to offer animal sacrifice or to kill an innocent animal for the perceived wellbeing and longevity of the supplicant.

The innocent victim could be a sheep, a cow or even a poor chicken or rooster. The idea is that innocent animal life is slaughtered to ensure the dispelling of any misfortune from the supplicant and assure the supplicant’s long, prosperous life.

There is a ritual that sums up the reason behind animal sacrifice in few words of prayer. Supplicants swing a live chicken/rooster around their heads three times while saying a prayer that means: “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my expiation. This chicken/rooster shall go to death and I shall proceed to a good, long life and peace.”

The chicken/rooster is then slaughtered and, traditionally, donated to the poor.

But what does the ancient Prophet Zarathushtra say to animal sacrifice???

We read in the poetic gathas, Yasna 32.12:

ýá rávng.hayen srav.ang.há//vahištát šyaöthanát maretánö

aæibyö mazdáv aká mraôt//ýöi géuš möreñden urváḵš-uḵtî jyötüm

ýáiš geréhmá ašát varatá//karapá ḵšathrem.čá îšanãm drûjem.

With their songs of havoc//they avert mortals from best activity/industry,

For them Mazda, the God of creative mind-power/passion has spoken malediction/damnation//Those who murder the living animal with cries of joy,

Instead of willing virtue, excellence//the ritual priests have chosen greed, desiring the kingdom of lies and trick!

We also read in the 3^rd rhymed verse line of Yasna 32.14:

hyat.čá gáûš jaidyái mraôî//ýé düraôšem saôčayat avö

When the living animal is spoken for slaughter, they say the dispeller of misfortune/death is lit up in our favor.

To sum it up, Zoroastrianism believes in personal responsibility. No living being carries the sins of others. Animal sacrifice does not wipe out our sins, obligations or responsibilities. It does NOT erase anything but only brings damnation and malediction. It is just a vile carnival of cruelty.

For Zarathushtra, Godhood is virtue, goodness, wisdom and genuine feeling. The best offering to the divine is light, virtue, goodness and genuineness embodied in holy water and wine.

Only demonic deities demand the killing of innocent animal life instead of virtue and light!

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Paitiš-hahya is the name of the 3rd out of the six Zoroastrian thanksgiving festivals, marking the end of summer. Paitiš-hahya literally means “towards the harvest.”

This auspicious holiday falls almost a week before the autumnal equinox, starting on September 12th and culminating on September 16th. It is a time to honor “crops, bountifulness and harvest.”

It is an auspicious time to celebrate the bounty of harvest. Bonfires are lit to mark the transition into the cold season and longer nights. It is a time to gather in joy and celebrate “love, fertility, and fruit-bearing trees.”

Paitiš-hahya consists of 2 parts. The first part of the word paitiš comes from the Avestan paiti meaning: “Towards, on the way to, in the direction of, on the road to, en route to.” Compare Avestan paiti with Greek potí and/or protí, Old Vedic práti, Old Church Slavonic protivū and Latvian preti “towards.”

The second part hahya “grain, fruit, crops” comes from the same root as Welsh haidd, Briton heiz, “rye, barley,” Vedic sasya “seed-field, crop,” Hittite sesa(na) “fruit.”

Hahya appears in the poetic gathas in the form of hang.hûš “abundance, plenty, bountifulness.” (See Yasna 53.4, 3^rd rhymed verse line.) This thanksgiving holiday is about the celebration of fertility in nature and ourselves, a time to honor harvest, crops, love, and the power of productiveness.

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The poetic gathas are the sacred, inspired poetry of the ancient Aryan Prophet Zarathûštrá and in Yasna 46.5 and 46.6 he addresses the issue of offering protection, refuge to the good and virtuous.

We read in Yasna 46.5:

ýé vá ḵšayáns adáns drîtá ayañtem

urvátöiš vá hû-zéñtuš mithröibyö vá

rašná jváns ýé ašavá dregvañtem

vîčirö háns tat frö ḵvaætavæ mrûyát

uzüithyöi îm mazdá ḵrünyát ahûrá.

As for one who shall take into his dominion/kingdom one coming

On the basis of a binding word/formula or oath, or on the basis of good nature or noble birth or on the basis of loving friendship

One living in rightness, a genuinely good and virtuous; apart from the vile and treacherous

Telling his/her own with prophetic wisdom to truly see/observe

In order to guard against, cruelty and bloodshed, O God of Wisdom and Creative Passion

Giving refuge/protection is possible under three conditions “urvátöiš vá (binding word or oath) hû-zéñtuš (good génos, good nature and/or birth) mithrö-ibyö vá (amicability, friendship.)”

The first condition is urvátöiš from urvátá, namely “binding word or formula, law, command.” There shall be some “word, oath and bond” between the ones giving refuge and the one seeking refuge.

(Compare Avestan urvátöiš from urvátá with Lithuanian vardas “name,” Gothic, waúrd “word,” Russian vru pagan formula/lie, Vedic vrata “law, order” Proto Indo European ver “to bind.”)

The second condition is hû-zéñtuš being of “good génos.” The idea is that of innate goodness and nobility of character. (Compare Avestan zéñtuš with Latin genus, Greek génos)

The third condition is mithrö-ibyö “intercession, friendship.” The Avestan Mithra “Intercessor, loving Friend” is the god-power of “amicable exchange.” In other words, “loving friendship or amiability” constitutes the last possibility for offering refuge.

(Compare Avestan Mithra with meit, Latin mūtō, Gothic maidjan, Latvian mietuót Vedic metháti “exchange” in an amiable or amicable manner.)

Those who seek refuge shall live in rightness, honesty and justice “rašná jváns.”

Offering refuge is only to the ašava that is to the “virtuous, good and true” and not to dregvañtem or a follower of tricks and lies (Compare Avestan drug with German lug and trug.)

Only those who share our values and abide by our virtues are worthy of our passionate protection and refuge. Those who hold for good and excellent, virtues such as reverence for nature, love/kindness to animals, industry, enterprising spirit, honor and honesty, shall be given refuge amongst us.

The ancient Aryan Prophet admonishes to truly see/observe with “prophetic wisdom” víčirö the difference between the virtuous and the vile, between those who share our ideals, values and those who do NOT; in order to avoid bloodshed, cruelty and civil war ḵrünyát.

(Compare Avestan ḵrünyát with Lithuanian kraūjas, Old Church Slavonic Krúví, Old Prussian Krawian, Germanic króuh2os “blood,” Latin crūdelís “cruel”)

For he/she is treacherous who is good to the liar and treacherous

And he/she is virtuous who is a friend to the good and virtuous

Such is the pristine wisdom/vision established by the god-force

Yasna 46, 3rd to 5th rhymed verse lines

hvö zî dregváv ýé dregváitæ vahištö

hvö ašavá ýahmái ašavá fryö

hyat daænáv paôurûyáv dáv ahûrá.

ardeshir

References: Please check our scholar friend Didier Calin with further detailed illumination:

1) urvâta- like Gr. rhēma “speech” descends from a derivative of the root *wer- seen in Lith. vardas, Lv. vārds, E word, Germ. Wort, Goth. waurd etc. – it may be just as interesting to mention another kind of “derivative”, with a /s-/ before the /w/, i.e. *swer- seen in E swear, Lt. sermô and Lydian śfarwaś, among others.
2) Mithra-, Mitrá- are indeed from *meit- (but you cannot say “compare with meit” as in your text, since a) *meit- is a root (reconstructed, with a sign * in front), b) it’s a reconstruction, hence the /*/, thus it’s not “comparable” but the origin of these Avestan (etc.) words). It is indeed cognate with Lt. mūtō, Goth. maidjan, Lv mietot (this is the right orthography!), Vedic metháti etc.
3) “Germanic króuh2os “blood”” is not the right way to formulate it: what the encyclopedia means is of course an IE word-form of this root that is reconstructible based on Germanic languages, and means “raw”. The IE word is *kréuhs- and does indeed mean “blood” but not any blood, the one outside the body only! as in Lt. cruor “gore”, Ir. crú, Gr. kréas- “raw flesh”, Vedic kravíS-, and derivatives such as Lv. krevele “dried blood”, Prus. krawian, Lith. kraujas, OSl. krŭvĭ. (Lydian śfarwaś means “oath”)