“Hear the best with your ears
and ponder with a bright mind.
Then each man and woman, for his or her self,
select either of the two, the better or the bad mentality.
Awaken to this doctrine of ours
before the great event of choice ushers in.”
– (Zarathustra’s Gathas: Song 3.2)
Was he a God-incarnate? Was he the son of God? Was he a messenger sent out by God to deliver a particular code of living? Was he a lawmaker? Was he a ‘Vedic’ Rshi? Did he experience an ecstasy and grasp the heavens? He was none of these! He was the “foremost” on a mission, an entirely new mission. A mission to discover truth, “The Truth”.
Like most of the founders of different religion, Zarathustra speaks about God, teaches strict monotheism, and has a divine message to deliver. Therefore he is classified, by all, as a “Prophet”.
- Pic: Prophet Zarathustra
Zarathustra was the third son of Pourushashpa and Dugdov of the “Spitama” clan in the Iranian tribe. From an early age he was an unusual child, showing great wisdom. Since his childhood, Zarathustra was inquisitive by nature, a consummate thinker. He kept asking questions concerning the world and its creator. The priests of the ancient polytheistic cult could not provide him with satisfactory answers. His search for the truth, for creation and its creator led him to God with whom he communed. At the age of thirty he proclaimed his mission and began preaching the new message to humanity. His teachings are mentioned and preserved in the “Gāthās”, his thought-provoking songs, to guide humanity to perfection and eternity through the triple principle of GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, and GOOD DEEDS.
“Taking the first step with a Good Thought,
the second with a Good Word
and third with a Good Deed,
I entered paradise.” – Zarathustra
Zarathustra experienced his first revelation back then, at the age of thirty. That year, during the spring festival, he saw a shining being, who revealed himself as Vohu Manah. Vohu Manah taught Zarathustra about Ahura Mazdā or the Wise Lord. Zarathustra keeps mentioning it in his hymns, the Gāthās, that Ahura Mazdā is the creator of heaven and earth—i.e., of the material and the spiritual world. He is the source of the alternation of light and darkness, the sovereign lawgiver, and the very centre of nature.
Vohu Manah also taught him that Ahura Mazdā is surrounded by seven beings, or entities, which the later Avesta calls “Amesha Spentas” (beneficent immortals). The names of the Amesha Spentas frequently recur throughout the Gāthās and may be said to characterize Zarathustra’s thought and his concept of God. As explained by Vohu Manah to Zarathustra and later inscribed in the Gāthās, Ahura Mazdā is the father of “Spenta Mainyu” (the Good Spirit or Progressive Mentality referencing Human Beings), “Asha Vahishta” (Justice or Truth referencing Fire), “Vohu Manah” (Righteous Thinking referencing Animals), and “Spenta Armaiti” (Devotion referencing the Earth). The other three beings (entities) of this group are said to personify qualities attributed to Ahura Mazdā: “Khshathra Vairya” (Righteous Power referencing the Sky), “Haurvatāt” (Wholeness referencing Water), and “Ameretāt” (Immortality referencing Plants). The qualities of these beings are also to be earned and possessed by Ahura Mazdā’s followers.
- Pic: A pictorial representation of the Amesha Spentas
“One need not scale the heights of the heavens,
nor travel along the highways of the world to find Ahura Mazdā.
With purity of mind and holiness of heart
one can find Him in one’s own heart.” – Zarathustra
Apart from that, Vohu Manah also informed Zarathustra about “Angra Mainyu” or “Ahriman” also known as the Hostile or the Destructive Spirit. This spirit embodies the principle of evil.
As mentioned in the Gāthās by Zarathustra, human beings have two mentalities — “Spenta Mainyu”, progressive mentality and “Angra Mainyu”, retarding mentality. The progressive mentality helps a human to improve himself and the world around him. The retarding mentality harms him and the world. The wise would, therefore, choose and promote the better mentality.
Zarathustra’s message is a living message. It is divine. It is based on the triple principle of “Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds.” It promotes the human mind and provokes its thinking faculty. It solves the complicated problem of Good and Evil by placing them in the human mind as two opposing “mentalities,” not entities. Good serves and promotes human society in an ecologically sound world, while evil damages and retards society’s good progress.
“Truth is best (of all that is) good.
As desired, what is being desired is truth for him
who (represents) the best truth.”
– (Zarathustra’s Gathas / Translation of “Ashem Vohū”)
A human being, endowed with a discriminating mind, is born free to choose between “Asha” (Truth) and “Durj” (Lie). This places a heavy responsibility on an individual. A person is good if he or she chooses to think good thoughts and, in turn, speaks good words and performs good deeds. One is evil if one chooses to think evil and consequently speak and do evil. Good deeds lead a person to wholeness and immortality, and evil deeds make one suffer and grope in darkness until light is found and truth realized.
The human world on this earth is divided into two camps — the righteous and the wrongful. The objective of the righteous should be to win over the wrongful into the righteous camp and thus establish a good life for all.
“Your good thoughts, good words and good deeds
alone will be your mediators. Nothing more will be wanted.
They alone will serve you as a safe pilot to the harbour of Heaven,
as a safe guide to the gates of paradise” – Zarathustra
The Gāthās are mainly eschatological (concerned with last things). Almost every passage contains some reference to the fate awaiting individuals in the afterlife. Each act, speech, and thought are viewed as being related to an existence after death. The earthly state is connected with a state beyond, in which the Wise Lord, Ahura Mazdā, will reward the good act, speech, and thought and punish the bad. This motive for doing good seems to be the strongest available to Zarathustra in his message. After death an individual’s soul must pass over the Bridge of the Requiter (Činvat), which everyone looks upon with fear and anxiety. After judgment is passed by Ahura Mazdā, the good enter the kingdom of everlasting joy and light, and the bad are consigned to the regions of horror and darkness. Zarathustra, however, goes beyond this, announcing an end phase for the earthly state, “the last turn of creation.” In this last phase, Ahriman will be destroyed, and the world will be wonderfully renewed and be inhabited by the good, who will live in heavenly joy.
The prime objective of every person should be to make a better world in spirit and body. Human society must progress. Every member must persevere to promote it.
Modernization of thoughts, words and deeds,
including traditional practices and rites,
should be the order of the day.
– (Zarathustra’s Gathas: Songs 3.9, 7.15, 11.19,15.11)
Few references in the Gāthās states, that a Good Religion is a “self-renovating” religion. Its continuous progress with the advancing world makes it ever-fresh, ever-modern. It may be noted that the popular form of the Zoroastrian religion is what has become to be known as “the traditional Zoroastrianism”. It is the “institutionalized” form of the religion. It is this traditional Zoroastrianism, forced by the past 1400 years circumstances of being dominated in Iran by Islam and in India by Hindu caste system, that has become a closed club of “born-Zoroastrians” who do not accept any “alien”. Modern studies are enlightening an increase in the “born-Zoroastrians”. Any religion, belief, or practice which gets “bound” into a “formal fixed form,” becomes stationary and fossilized, and therefore out of date. Zarathustra established a self-renovating religion which is solely based on the primal principles of life and is not bogged down by outdated traditions of complicated rituals and cumbersome customs. Seasonal celebrations, in tune with nature, such as “Navroze” and “Gahambars” are also fresh and enjoyable.
Prayers help a person to communicate with God. They are invigorating, guiding, and satisfying. Prayers can be offered by all but, there are multiple old customs and rituals followed in the Zarathustrian religion which cannot be done by all the Zarathustrian followers. It is stated in the “Ahuavar” and the Gāthās, that free human society should select only fully qualified persons of righteous records and merits for both temporal and spiritual offices in a true democratic environment, and thus establish the cherished and chosen ruling system (Yatha Ahu, Songs 2 &16). Thus, there are appointed qualified high scholars and priests, preaching and following the practices of the Zarathustrian religion.
The conscientious term, most probably coined and used by Zarathustra, is “Daênâ”. Daênâ means “conscience, discernment, insight”, and of course, “religion”. It is according to Zarathustra, one’s sharp insight that forms one’s religion, in fact, conviction. It is similar to the Indian term “dhyâna”, focusing of thoughts to comprehend a fact, meditation. But while the Indian dhyâna helps an individual to concentrate to promote his or her own individual mental faculty, the Zarathustrian Daênâ unites all those who think, discern, and choose alike in one great fellowship of conviction — the religion of Good Conscience, “Daênâ Vanguhi” — founded, preached and promoted by Zarathustra.
Zarathustra believed that Ahura Mazdā was the creator of the entire universe. He created the material and the spiritual world. He created the natural elements like the fire, the water bodies, the birds, the animals, etc. Fire was, but naturally, worshipped as a deity by many people. As an altar for worship, many religious orders and cults offered their sacrifices to it. Solid and liquid foods were fed to fire to turn them into smoke and send them up for the “beings on high”. Zarathustra was absolutely against all such practices involving sacrifices of natural elements created by Ahura Mazdā.
Zarathustra purified it of all its smoking and seething elements — meat, fat, butter, grain, fruit and other eatable sacrifices. He turned it into a bright blaze (Song 4.19, 15.9 = Yasna 31.19, 51.9) to face and concentrate his thoughts on Mazdā. For him, Fire, much more mental than physical, symbolized light, warmth and energy for a good guidance to steer clear through difficulties to peace and progress in soul and body. (Song 4.4, 7.4, 8.4 & 9, 11.7, 12.6 = Yasna 31.3, 34.4, 43.4 & 9, 46.7, 47.6).
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References: Message of Zarathustra by Ali A. Jafarey; http://www.avesta.org; Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
The "Bawa" Guy 