Zarathustra: Difference between revisions

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'''Spenta Armaiti''', “Right-mindedness” or “Holy Devotion,” Boyce says, embodies the dedication to what is good and just. '''Khshathra Vairya''', “Desirable Dominion,” represents the power that each person should exert for righteousness as well as the power and the kingdom of God.<ref>Boyce, ''Zoroastrians'', p. 22.</ref>

The final two are a pair. They are '''Haurvatat''', whose name means “Wholeness” or “Health,” and '''Ameretat''', whose name means “Long Life” or “Immortality.” Boyce says these two enhance earthly existence and confer eternal well-being and life, which may be obtained by the righteous in the presence of Ahura Mazda.<ref>Ibid.</ref> She says:

<blockquote>The doctrine of the Heptad is at the heart of Zoroastrian theology. Together with [the concept of Good and Evil] it provides the basis for Zoroastrian spirituality and ethics, and shapes the characteristic Zoroastrian attitude of responsible stewardship for this world.<ref>Boyce, ''Textual Sources'', p. 14.</ref></blockquote>

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== The nature of good and evil ==

When it came to Good and Evil, Zarathustra tended to see things in terms of black and white. According to Zaehner:

<blockquote>The Prophet knew no spirit of compromise.... On the one hand stood Asha—Truth and Righteousness—[and] on the other the Druj—the Lie, Wickedness, and Disorder. This was not a matter on which compromise was possible [as far as Zarathustra was concerned].... The Prophet [forbade] his followers to have any contact with the “followers of the Lie.”<ref>Ibid.</ref></blockquote>

The origin of the conflict between Truth and the Lie is described in the Gathas. It is presented as a myth about two Spirits, called twins, who must make a choice between Good and Evil at the beginning of time. One of the two is the Holy Spirit, the son of Ahura Mazda. The other is the Evil Mind or the Evil Spirit, Angra Mainyu.

Zarathustra introduced the myth with the following words, which underscore the all-important concept of free will and that every man must choose the Truth or the Lie: “Hear with your ears, behold with mind all clear the two choices between which you must decide, each man [deciding] for his own self, [each man] knowing how it will appear to us at the [time of] great crisis.”<ref>Gatha: Yasna 30, quoted in Zaehner, ''Dawn'', p. 42.</ref> Then he proceeded to recount the myth:

<blockquote>In the beginning those two Spirits who are the well-endowed twins were known as the one good and the other evil, in thought, word, and deed. Between them the wise chose rightly, not so the fools. And when these Spirits met they established in the beginning life and death that in the end the followers of the Lie should meet with the worst existence, but the followers of Truth with the Best Mind.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Of these two Spirits he who was of the Lie chose to do the worst things; but the Most Holy Spirit, clothed in rugged heaven, [chose] Truth as did [all] who sought with zeal to do the pleasure of the Wise Lord by [doing] good works.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Between the two the ''daevas'' [the demons] did not choose rightly; for, as they deliberated, delusion overcame them so that they chose the most Evil Mind. Then did they, with one accord, rush headlong unto Fury that they might thereby extinguish the existence of mortal men.<ref>Ibid.</ref></blockquote>

The Holy Spirit and the Evil Spirit are, as Zaehner puts it, “irreconcilably opposed to each other.”<ref>Zaehner, ''Dawn'', pp. 42–43.</ref>Zarathustra said:

<blockquote>I will speak out concerning the two Spirits of whom, at the beginning of existence, the Holier thus spoke to him who is Evil: “Neither our thoughts, nor our teachings, nor our wills, nor our choices, nor our words, nor our deeds, nor our consciences, nor yet our souls agree.”<ref>Gatha: Yasna 45.2, quoted in Zaehner, ''Dawn'', p. 43.</ref></blockquote>

Zaehner notes that this state of conflict affected every sphere of activity human or divine. In the social sphere, the conflict took place between the pastoral communities of peaceful cattle breeders, who were “followers of Truth or Righteousness,” and the bands of predatory nomads, who raided the cattle breeders. Zarathustra called these predatory nomads the “followers of the Lie.”<ref>Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” pp. 211, 210.</ref>

On the religious plane, the conflict took place between Zarathustra and his followers and those who were followers of the traditional Iranian religion and worshiped the ''daevas''. The adherents of this ancient religion said it was founded by Yima, the child of the Sun. Zarathustra attacked Yima and the ritual of animal sacrifice he had introduced.<ref>Ibid., p. 211.</ref>

He also condemned the rite associated with drinking ''haoma'', the fermented juice of a plant that caused “filthy drunkenness.”<ref>Gatha: Yasna 48.10, quoted in Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” p. 211.</ref> Scholars are not sure what ''haoma'' was, but they conclude from the description of the effects it had on those who drank it that it probably contained a hallucinogen. Zaehner writes: “For Zoroaster the whole cult with its bloody sacrifice and ritual drunkenness is anathema—a rite offered to false gods and therefore a ‘lie’.”<ref>Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” p. 211.</ref>

Zarathustra said “the followers of the Lie” destroyed life and strove to “sever the followers of Truth from the Good Mind.”<ref>Gatha: Yasna 32.11, quoted in Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” p. 211.</ref> The followers of the Lie knew who Zarathustra was, recognized the danger he represented and did everything they could to destroy him. To this end, they continued to sacrifice bulls and participate in the ''haoma'' rite. According to Zaehner:

<blockquote>There would seem to be little doubt that an actual state of war existed between the two parties, Zoroaster and his patron Vishtaspa standing on the one side and the so-called followers of the Lie, many of whom he mentions by name, on the other.<ref>Zaehner, ''Dawn'', p. 36.</ref></blockquote>

Finally, the battle went on right within man. John Noss, author of ''Man’s Religions'', observes that “it was perhaps Zoroaster’s cardinal moral principle, that each man's soul is the seat of a war between good and evil.”<ref>John B. Noss, ''Man’s Religions'', 5th ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974), p. 443.</ref>

One of the principal weapons used to attack demons and evil men was the prayer written by Zarathustra, the Ahuna Vairya. This short prayer is the most sacred of Zoroastrian prayers:

<blockquote>As the Master, so is the Judge to be chosen in accord with Truth. Establish the power of acts arising from a life lived with good purpose, for Mazda and for the lord whom they made pastor for the poor.<ref>Ahuna Vairya, in Boyce, ''Textual Sources'', p. 56.</ref></blockquote>

The lord in the last line of this prayer is thought to be Zarathustra himself. The prayer is ancient. It is written in the style of the Rigveda. According to Simmons, this prayer is a mantra. Simmons says that Zoroastrians believe that “pronouncing words in Zoroastrian ritual has an effect on the external world.” They believe that if a particular mantra is pronounced correctly, it will affect outer circumstances.<ref>Simmons, telephone interview, 28 June 1992.</ref>

Zaehner sums up:

<blockquote>For Zoroaster there is only one God, Creator of heaven and earth and of all things. In his relations with the world God acts through his main “faculties” which are sometimes spoken of as being engendered by him—his Holy Spirit, [his] Righteousness, [his] Good Mind, and Right-mindedness. Further he is master of the Kingdom, Wholeness, and Immortality, which also form aspects of himself.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Righteousness or Truth is the objective standard of right behaviour which God chooses.... Wickedness or disorder ... is the objective standard of all that strives against God, the standard which the Evil Spirit chooses at the beginning of existence. Evil imitates the good creation: and so we find the Evil Spirit operating against the Holy Spirit, the Evil Mind against the Good Mind, the Lie or wickedness against Truth or Righteousness, and Pride against Right-mindedness.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Evil derives from the wrong choice of a free being who must in some sense derive from God, but for whose wickedness God cannot be held responsible. Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, [names for] the Devil, is not yet co-eternal with God as he was to become in the later system: he is the Adversary of the Holy Spirit only, not of God himself.<ref>Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” p. 213.</ref></blockquote>

But in the end, according to Zoroastrian doctrine, Good will triumph over Evil. These concepts about the birth of Evil very closely parallel the concept of the birth of Evil found in the [[Kabbalah]].

== Morality ==

Zarathustra’s concept of morality can be summed up with the words “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.”<ref>Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” p. 221.</ref> This is the threefold ethic of Zoroastrianism. Boyce writes:

<blockquote>All Zoroastrians, men and women alike, wear [a] cord as a girdle, passed three times round the waist and knotted at back and front. Initiation took place at the age of fifteen; and thereafter, every day for the rest of his life, the believer must himself untie and retie the cord repeatedly when praying. The symbolism of the girdle (called in Persian the “kusti”) was elaborated down the centuries; but it is likely that from the beginning the three coils were intended to symbolize the threefold ethic of Zoroastrianism, and so to concentrate the wearer's thoughts on the practice of his faith.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Further, the kusti is tied over an inner shirt of pure white, the “sudra,” which has a little purse sewn into the throat; and this is to remind the believer that he should be continually filling its emptiness with the merit of good thoughts, words and deeds, and so be laying up treasure for himself in heaven.<ref>Boyce, ''Zoroastrians'', pp. 31–32.</ref></blockquote>

== Fire in Zoroastrianism ==

Fire also plays a central role in Zarathustra’s religion. Fire was a symbol of Ahura Mazda. It was also a symbol of Truth because of its power to destroy darkness.<ref>Zaehner, ''Dawn'', pp. 47–48.</ref> Bernard Springett writes in his book ''Zoroaster, the Great Teacher'':

<blockquote>Fire, the great object of reverence of Zoroaster’s disciples,... has ever been looked upon as a symbol of Spirit, and of Deity, representing the ever-living and ever-active light—essence of the Supreme Being. The perpetual preservation of fire is the first of the five things consecrated by Zoroaster.... The perpetual preservation of fire typifies the essential truth that every man should in like manner make it his constant object to preserve the divine principle in himself which it symbolises.<ref>Springett, ''Zoroaster'', p. 60.</ref></blockquote>

== Legacy ==

According to tradition, when Zarathustra was seventy-seven, he was assassinated by a priest of the old Iranian religion. ~~Some~~ accounts ~~say~~ that he perished by lightning, or a flame from heaven. Much of what happened after Zarathustra’s death is shrouded in mystery. Scholars say that his successors reintroduced back into the system the old gods that he had dethroned.

According to tradition, when Zarathustra was seventy-seven, he was assassinated by a priest of the old Iranian religion. Springett writes that “fabulous accounts of Zoroaster’s death are given by the Greek and Latin patristic writers, who assert that he perished by lightning, or a flame from heaven.”<ref>Ibid., p. 32.</ref>

Much of what happened after Zarathustra’s death is shrouded in mystery. Scholars say that his successors reintroduced back into the system the old gods that he had dethroned.

By the time the Medes came to power in the seventh century B.C., Zoroastrianism was a major force in Persia. When Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 331 B.C., he killed the priests and burned down the royal palace, destroying whatever may have been recorded of Zoroastrian tradition.

As Boyce describes it:

<blockquote>The Zoroastrians sustained irreparable loss through the death of so many of their priests. In those days, when all religious works were handed down orally, the priests were the living books of the faith, and with mass slaughters many ancient works (the tradition holds) were lost, or only haltingly preserved.<ref>Boyce, ''Zoroastrians'', p. 79.</ref></blockquote>

About A.D. 225, Zoroastrianism reemerged in Persia and was the state religion until around 651, when the Muslims conquered Persia. Although Zoroastrianism was officially tolerated, the Arab conquerors encouraged conversion to Islam through societal pressures, economic incentives or force. Many Zoroastrians converted or went into exile. Loyal Zoroastrians who remained in Persia were taxed for the privilege of practicing their faith. In later centuries, persecution of Zoroastrians escalated. As of 1976, there were only 129,000 Zoroastrians in the world. ~~However~~, much of what ~~Zarathustra~~ taught lives on in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

About A.D. 225, Zoroastrianism reemerged in Persia and was the state religion until around 651, when the Muslims conquered Persia. Although Zoroastrianism was officially tolerated, the Arab conquerors encouraged conversion to Islam through societal pressures, economic incentives or force. Many Zoroastrians converted or went into exile. Loyal Zoroastrians who remained in Persia were taxed for the privilege of practicing their faith. In later centuries, persecution of Zoroastrians escalated. As of 1976, there were only 129,000 Zoroastrians in the world.<ref>Ibid., p. 226.</ref>

According to Zaehner:

<blockquote>Zoroastrianism has practically vanished from the world today, but much of what the Iranian Prophet taught lives on in no less than three great religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It seems fairly certain that the main teachings of Zoroaster were known to the Jews in the Babylonian captivity, and so it was that in those vital but obscure centuries that preceded the coming of Jesus Christ Judaism had absorbed into its bloodstream more of the Iranian Prophet’s teaching than it could well admit.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It seems probable that it was from him and from his immediate followers that the Jews derived the idea of the immortality of the soul, of the resurrection of the body, of a Devil who works not as a servant of God but as his Adversary, and perhaps too of an eschatological Saviour who was to appear at the end of time. All these ideas, in one form or another, have passed into both Christianity and Islam.<ref>Zaehner, “Zoroastrianism,” p. 222.</ref></blockquote>

== The mystical path of Zoroastrianism ==

Some modern-day Zoroastrians say that Zarathustra taught a path of mystical union with God. Dr. Farhang Mehr, a founder of the World Zoroastrian Organization, says that the Zoroastrian mystic seeks union with God but retains his identity. In his book ''The Zoroastrian Tradition'', he writes: “In uniting with God, man does not vanish as a drop in the ocean.”<ref>Farhang Mehr, ''The Zoroastrian Tradition: An Introduction to the Ancient Wisdom of Zarathustra'' (Rockport, Mass.: Element, 1991), p. 93.</ref>

Mehr says that Zarathustra was “the greatest mystic” and that the path of mysticism is rooted in the Gathas. According to Mehr, the path of mysticism in Zoroastrianism is called the path of Asha, or the path of Truth or Righteousness.<ref>Ibid., pp. 94, 93, 70; telephone interview with Farhang Mehr, 1 July 1992.</ref>

Mehr delineates six stages in this path, which he correlates to the attributes of the six Holy Immortals. In the first stage the mystic strengthens the good mind and discards the evil mind. In the second stage he embodies righteousness. In the third he acquires divine courage and power. This enables him to selflessly serve his fellowman.

In the fourth stage the mystic acquires universal love. This allows him to replace self-love with a universal love—God’s love for all. In the fifth stage he achieves perfection, which is synonymous with self-realization. And in the sixth and final stage, he achieves immortality, communion (or union) with God.<ref>Mehr, ''Zoroastrian Tradition'', pp. 94–96.</ref>

== His service as an ascended master ==