�We venerate the life, conscience, intelligence, and soul of the righteous men and women who have been successful for the sake of righteousness, those who have departed, those who are living, and those who are yet to-be-born, the future benefactors, who will be the renovating persons.  

We venerate the souls of the members [of the suffering] families who have passed away in this land, in fact, all righteous men and women. We venerate the souls of the righteous within the country and those of the righteous outside the country. 

We venerate the souls of the departed ones, particularly the souls of the victims of the terrible disaster that has plunged the whole nation into deep grief. 

May the souls of the all the victims have Ushta, radiant happiness forever!

And may we all have unity through sanity and serenity!�

The above is a digest of the Opening Prayer with which the Zarathushtrian Assembly started its Memorial Service, on Sunday, 16 September 2001, to commemorate the victims of the recent horrible disaster that has plunged the American nation and allies in deep shock and sorrow. Among those present was the eight-person delegation from Venezuela. The Venezuelan guests, on a visit of refresher course in the Good Religion and of an Initiation ceremony for three of them, was to leave on the very day the terror struck. Equally shocked and sad, they are awaiting to return to their land when they get their turn to fly. 

With the Fire radiating from the altar and the candles around, and the congregation of men, women and children in a sublime and solemn mood listened to Behdins Ali A. Jafarey reciting the Prayer in Avesta, Dariush Irani in English and America Abreu in Spanish. Behdin Shahriar Shahriari read the �Prayer� the disaster has moved him to compose. The Prayer: 

�In this hour of our grief, in this collective Dark Night of the Soul for this Nation and for humanity, O Wise One, I feel violated and remain vulnerable. I feel angry and upset. I feel the monumental loss caused by this senseless violence. And I feel swayed from feeling to feeling. I want to react and I need to do something.

It is my human tendency, O Wise One, to try to find blame, and put a face to the culprit and his associates. I am tempted to demonize the perpetrators of this evil act. Because then, I can justifiably target them and extract my revenge. Grant me the Serenity to distinguish the difference between Justice and Revenge.

It is also my human tendency, O Wise One, to try to dig deeper for the root of this evil, and blame myself. Because the very hands that turned against my neighbors and my kin were the very hands that were trained by my own people. But I know self-blame will only add to the hurt and anger that I feel, and will only fester and create the cancer of bitterness and cynicism. Grant me the Compassion to feel my anger, yet the Love to turn it into constructive action, not bitterness.

O Wise One, as I look at the twisted beams of steel, and the pulverized blanket of concrete that now cover my fellow beings, Grant me the Understanding that to inflict the same pain and misery on another is to stoop lower than the violators of the first tragedy. That any life lost is a loss to humanity. That any stone demolished, any wall brought down in anger, is nothing more than the continuation of the chain of reactionary destruction.

O Wise One, Grant me the Courage to fight and eradicate darkness with my light, evil with my goodness, destruction with my creativity, and death with honoring of life.

O Wise One, Grant me the Wisdom to honor the lost lives and the destroyed efforts, by creating the possibility of building a future, overflowing with Equity, Camaraderie, Compassion and Joy, for all people on this planet.

May we emerge through this Dark Night of the Soul, loving and wise.

May it be so.�

Behdin Dariush Irani gave a short speech on the "Tragedy, Retaliation and the Future" as seen through his eyes. He said that the shock of the barbaric act and the profound sorrow at the loss of thousands of innocent lives is beyond the ability of the average individual to cope. Time will dull the edge of the pain, but there is a lot of anger with a natural desire for revenge, "to kill, to kill". More worrisome is the fear to fly on airplanes or be in public places. Retaliation would undoubtedly bring on further attacks and the future can best be described as apprehensive.

With his past background in the aerospace industry, he stated that planes can be made safer, and he discussed the safety aspects that were already being considered, but not implemented because of various reasons and he for one would not hesitate on boarding future flights on US carriers as a lot can be done and probably much of that has already been implemented.

On the issue of retaliation, he stated that the objective is to prevent future occurrences and can be viewed as a short term and long term solution. For the short term a lot has already been voiced and seen on the media. If terrorism is to be prevented, the degree of violence contemplated is unfortunate but is perhaps the only rapid short term solution. The long term is a different matter and requires a complete understanding of what causes young men to forsake their lives and their family which in many cases includes young wives and babes in arms. The promise of "Heaven" that many of those who terrorize humanity seem to believe in, perhaps because the promise on this earth is of a dead end and miserable life to them, is an often given reason. Extreme brainwashing by power hungry despots to achieve their own agenda and using vulnerable persons to achieve their aims is a second. There are many other lesser reasons. Long term solutions to all such reasons can be reached by using our Vohuman, the important thing is that if violence is absolutely necessary, the most humane approach must be adopted. Violence alone as retaliation by itself is not a solution for the long term and we pray that even in the future, we do not forsake innocent persons wherever they are in our projected war on terrorism. This was not the plea of a pacifist, but a determination to use our "best mind" at all times as we seek a solution, plan or carry out the required and necessary agenda. 

The congregation then joined hands to pray together �Ham� Z�r B�m.� They prayed:  

�May we unite in strength.
May we unite in strength with the righteous people.
May we unite in strength and enjoy more merits.     
May we join the meritorious people in merits.
May we be far from the wrongs of the wrongful.
May we join the koshti-wearing, the pious, and the good people of the seven continents of the earth.�

While commemorating the victims of violence and consoling and comforting ourselves, the bereaved, let us listen to Zarathushtra's Divine Advice: Correct the wrongful, rehabilitate the wronged and promote the rightful. Let us unite in sanity and serenity to enjoy Ushta, radiant happiness.