Zarathustrianism

WORLD LIVING RELIGIONS AND FEMINIST DIMENSIONS

 Major Tenets of Zarathustrianism

 God: Ahura Mazda

 Prophet: Zarathushtra
 Scripture: Avesta
 Observances: sudreh and kusti
 Fire
 Good thoughts , Good words and Good deeds
Major Tenets of Zarathustrianism

 Scriptures
 Fire-temples
 Saoshyant (Savior)
 Battle between Good and Evil
When Did Zarathushtra Live?

 Around 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE

 Over 3700 years ago, in the plains of Central Asia, God called upon
a man to proclaim His "Manthra" (thought-provoking message) to
humanity. The man was Zarathushtra Spitaman. He was The
"Manthran" - the harbinger of God's thought-provoking message.
 Zarathushtra was born into the Spitama clan. His father was
Pourushaspa. His mother's name was Dughdhova
 100 AD, they date all the way back to 6800BC
 Recent excavations record date as at least 1700 BC
 Age:30 First converts (in order of acceptance of his philosophy): His
cousin, Maidhyoimangha
His wife, Hvovi
His 6 children
And 14 others over the next few years.
 Zarathushtra encountered many difficulties and
challenges imposed on him through the opposition of
the established priests and local ruling princes.

 In the land of King Vishtaspa, he manages to get an

audience with the king.

 Manages to answer all questions to the satisfaction of the

King, who after a few days of pondering the situation,
embraces this new religion and urges his subjects to do
the same.
First in many ways

 Zarathushtra was the founder of the first religion

on record.
 He was the first to preach Monotheism.
 He was the first to proclaim a message for ALL
mortals - a universal message.
 Equality of all regardless of race, gender, class
or nationality
 A leader must be "chosen" thereby for the very
first time in history, sowing the seeds of
democracy!
 Zarathushtra claimed to have received a
vision from God, a God he called Mazda
Ahura, the Wise God.
 God is one who cherishes all his living
creation and wishes to promote its
freshness and preservation.
 He wants that mortals actively aid him
and work as His co-workers in this task of
promotion and preservation of His "Good
Creation"
 The concept of "ecology" some 3700
years ago
 The Earth , water , air and Fire all should
be preserved
AHURA MAZDA

 There is an unusual significance of this. 'Mazda' , meaning Wisdom,

or Wise, is a feminine noun but 'Ahura' , meaning literally "High
Being", is masculine.
 God is sexless and abstract in nature, but at the same time is very
personal and shares both feminine and masculine characteristics
A God realized through Good Mind

 God did not appear to Zarathushtra in

bodily form, nor as an angel
 Zarathushtra saw Him in his "Mind's Eye."

 Wise One, I realize you to be powerful

and progressive because You help with
Your own hand. You give rewards to both
the wrongful and the righteous, by means
of the warmth of your Fire, which is mighty
through Righteousness and through which
the strength of Good Mind comes to me."
(Gathas: Song 8:4)
Fire

 "Fire" in this verse (and throughout the Gathas) is an allusion to

illumination and enlightenment. It is what is called "The Fire of
Thought." It was through this Fire of Thought (thinking, reflecting,
meditating) that Zarathushtra gained enlightenment and it is this
same Fire of Thought, that he wishes to awaken within mankind.
Ahura Mazda is all goodness

 He has chosen good and achieved completeness and immortality;

a state of radiant happiness (Ushta) through illumination and
enlightenment.
 Zarathushtra's God is not someone to be feared
 A God who gives humans complete freedom
 Gathas (“Hymns”) of Zarathushtra

 17 Hymns

Ahunavaiti Gatha (Y28, Y29, Y30, Y31, Y32, Y33, Y34)

Ushtavaiti Gatha (Y43, Y44, Y45, Y46)
Spentamainyush Gatha (Y47, Y48, Y49, Y50)
Vohukhshathra Gatha (Y51)
Vahishtoishti Gatha (Y53)
 Most sacred prayer the Ahunavar (Choice of the Lord),
Zoroastrians are taught that their Lord and leader are to
be chosen, through a Good Mind - a mind that is a well-
informed and benevolent - and only on account of their
individual righteousness. This sets the basis for a spiritual
and political democracy as far back as around 4000
years ago

 Only an informed and unbiased mind is capable of

making a truly righteous choice and this is precisely, the
invitation of Zarathustra,
 “Listen to the best things with your ears, reflect upon them with an
unbiased mind. Then let each man and women for him or her self
choose between the two ways thinking. Awaken to my doctrine,
before this great event of choice comes upon you"
[Avesta: The Gathas: Song 3:2
Gathic Concepts
 Spenta Mainyu: Zarathushtra sees the world as
creation of a Divinity, whom he calls Ahura
Mazda which He created with his Spenishta
Mainyu, His Most Progressive Mentality.
 To understand this concept of "Spenta" or
"Progressive" one needs to understand
'progressive', in the sense of incremental,
augmenting, evolving, growing, uplifting and
edifying.
 The antithesis of this Progressive Mentality is the
evil, wrongful, retarding, hindering, destroying
Mentality which is termed as Aka Mainyu.
Amesha Spentas: Outstanding
attributes of Ahura Mazda
 3 Masculine father types--- Asha, Vohu Manah,Kshatra
 3 Feminine Immortals---Armaiti,Haurvatat, Ameretat
Asha: Knowledge of the law of God
and law it self
 Asha is the Ordering Principle of Creation.
 In the physical world Asha is what can be defined as an amalgam
of laws that uphold the Cosmos. But in human lives Asha translates
as what is Righteousness, Order and Truth.
Vohu Manah: Love

 According to Zarathushtra human beings are endowed with Vohu

Manah (the Good Mind), which enables them to comprehend
Asha, and make the right choices that make the living world
progress towards Asha.
Khshathra Vairya: Loving service

 This is Ahura Mazda's Ideal Dominion. In our world it may be

translated as the ideal social order which Man must strive for.
Haurvatat: Wholeness or perfection

 It is that state of perfection on Earth, that ideal that God wishes

mankind to achieve.
Ameretat: Immortality

 A state of immortality, non-deathness is referred to in the Gathas as

Ameretat.
Armaiti Piety

 She is the personification of holy devotion

 Associated with the earth and in that capacity

she is the embodiment of fertility and the dead,
who are buried in the earth. The fifth day of
every month and the twelfth month are
dedicated to her
Good and Evil

 most misunderstood and the most misperceived one

 The Doctrine as given in Gathas - Song 3
in Verse 3:1 of this Song, he introduces what he calls "Principles" to
"those who wish to hear" and tells us that these principles are
"important to the wise."
 Discernment
First of all in Song 3:2 he calls these principles, "discernments" which
we have to choose between, after listening, or perceiving them and
pondering on them with a bright, clear mind.
 Mentalities
In Song 3:3 Zarathushtra calls them "Mentalities."
(Mainyus), for the mind is the human faculty
which makes Man capable of this discernment.
He says that these two 'mainyus' are twins.
 The better, progressive, creative, augmenting,
edifying mentality is Spenta Mainyu and the
opposite twin is "Aka Mainyu" the wrongful,
retarding, evil mentality.
 It is pertinent to note here that in the latter literature these twin
mentalities ended up being two "spirits" and eventually two entities
"Ohrmazd" (God) and "Ahriman" (Devil) during the Sassanian
dynasty, and gave rise to the misconception that there is Cosmic
Dualism in Zoroastrianism.
Choices

 In Song 3:5 we are told that the wrongful mentality

chooses worst actions, while the most progressive
(Spentatoish) chooses Righteousness. The Gathas also
assure us that those who will please the Wise One
choose Righteousness by 'true actions." Conversely in the
next verse, Song 3:6, the choice of Aka Mainyu is
identified directly with a wrong choice - "the choice of
the worst mind."
 Those who choose Spenta are the Righteous and those
who choose Aka are the wrongful.
Consequences

 In Song 3:4 these two are pictured as creating "LIFE" and

"NOT LIVING", thereby implying that when we choose the
Spenta way, we choose the right way of living and
conversely when we choose the Aka way, it is indeed
the wrong way of living……..which is synonymous with
not living at all. The verse further warns of "…..until the
end of existence ('angheush' - which can also be
defined as 'world') the worst mind (or mentality) is for the
wrongful, and the best mind, shall be for the Righteous"
Conclusion

 that Evil in Mazdayasna is placed inside mortal minds. It is produced

by wrong, retrograde, evil choices. On the other hand Good is also
a product of righteous, Spenta choices. Evil and Good are clearly
ethical edicts, which have no real existence outside Man's minds,
mentalities and choices.
 There is no Evil in nature.
 Hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes and sicknesses,
which humans believe to be Nature's wrath or a
manifestation of Evil, or punishment for Man's misdeeds,
are in Zoroastrianism ethically neutral.

 That is they are neither good, nor bad in themselves.

They are either the products of chance, the existence of
which is necessary to allow freedom of choice, or they
are a function of Asha, necessary to uphold creation
EXAMPLE

 Earth quakes and volcanoes do cause consequences that are

destructive and disastrous to human existence, in reality they are
necessary to relieve the inner pressure of the Earth's crust. Without
this relief of pressure, the Earth would explode.
Humata, Hukhata, Hvarshta

 Every evil thought evil word evil deed which in this world
I may have thought, I may have uttered or been the
cause of;
From all such things against good thoughts, good words
and good deeds, against my body and soul against this
world or the spiritual world I repent with three words and
TURN BACK
May the glory of Ahura Mazda be high
May contempt be for evil mind.
This is the wish of those who adhere to righteousness.
I praise righteousness
Eschatology: Belief in the end of the
world
 Developed a complete eschatology which was
consistent with the theology of free choice
 Soul stays in body for 3 days
 4th day journeys to a place of judgment
 Crosses Chinvat Bridge
 Paradise is place of beauty light pleasant scents
and noble souls
 Hell not everlasting as souls will be purified and
resurrected
Importance of Sudreh and Kusti
 The word Sudreh mean good path and reminds us
not to abandon the good path of life. It is made of
white muslin (cotton) as white stands for purity.
 9 parts of the Sudreh:

 The Kusti, or the pathfinder leads us in the direction of

light and truth and it is a symbol of service to God.

 We wear the Kusti in the middle of our body

suggesting that we follow the middle path. The Kusti is
knotted 4 times on the Sudreh Kshothenanam
meaning that we will follow Ahura Mazda’s path in
“action”
Equality of sexes

 Zarathushtra goes out of his way, in many subtle ways, to

show he considered women on an equal footing with
men.

 He identifies not only some Aspects and Attributes of the

Deity as female, but even the main Aspect of Deity,
Mazda, by which God is named more than any other in
the Gathas, is feminine.
 very careful with the pronouns, either using generic ones,
that imply and apply to both female and males, or using
the female pronouns profusely.
 As a matter of fact, he does not make difference
among men either, but only on the basis of their
righteousness, or
lack of same.
 In his last song he tells of his third daughter's Pouruchista
wedding and he calls on both brides and grooms
 It is his daughter who chooses her husband, something
unheard of at that time.

 "These words I speak to the charming brides and to you,

bridegrooms. Do bear them in mind. Comprehend them with your
conscience. Master the life which belongs to good mind. May you
each win the other through righteousness." Zarathushtra tells them to
remain united and to strengthen and promote the universal
fellowship of the Good Religion. (S 17 = Y 53, sts 3-7)
 Several women are mentioned
among the teachers and preachers
of the religion and a fragment of a
now lost book reveals, that there
were women priests.
 "May good rulers, not bad rulers, rules over us with actions of good
understanding and serenity (S 13 - Y 48, st 5)," and his immediate
successors rightly added : "May a good ruler, man or woman, rule
over us in both the (mental and physical) existences." (H 7 - Y 41, st
2).
 "The more a man or woman knows the truth, the better.
He or she should zealously practice it and preach it to
others so that they practice it accordingly." (H 1 = Y 35, st
6). It venerates the "womenfolk, ... who belong to You,
God, on account of their righteousness. (H 4 = Y 38, st 1).
Indeed it venerates the helpful law-abiding righteous,
"born in whatever land, both men and women, whose
good consciences are growing, have grown, or shall
grow ... good men and women (who are) incremental,
eternal, ever-gaining, ever-growing, ... who live a life of
good mind." (H 5 - Y 39, st 2-3).
 "May the desired Fellowship come for the support of the men and
women of Zarathushtra, for the support of good mind, so that the
conscience of every person earns the choice reward -- the reward
of righteousness -- a wish regarded by the Wise God. (Y 54.1)
 "We venerate the righteous woman who is good in
thoughts, words, and deeds, who is well-educated, is an
authority on religious affairs, is progressively serene, and
is like the women who belong to the Wise God.
 "We venerate the righteous man who is good in
thoughts, words, and deeds, who knows well the religion
he has chosen, and who does not know blind following.
 "It is these people who, with their actions, promote the
world though righteousness." (Aiwisruthrem Gah 9 and
Vispered 3.4)
Number of Zoroastrians Today

 140,000