The missing Zarathustra in Zoroastrianism
Zarathustra is missing and his absence has disconnected many Zoroastrians from his sublime message in the Gathas.
As the result, Zoroastrianism without Zarathustra is transformed into a closed and increasing narrowed community, walled in a nice castle without doors and windows. Nobody can come in and nobody can go out!
The absence of Zarathustra and oblivion of his message, aim and ideal has led to a tragic sacrifice of two basic elements of Zarathustra’s sublime doctrine in the Gathas: the universality of his message and its freedom of choice.
The elimination of these two important elements, not only distorted the Zoroastrianism, but have caused – by collateral damage- the weakening of the two fundamental pillars of Zarathustra’s Existential Philosophy expressed 3700 years ago that are:
1-“The aim of our life is to live a happy and joyful existence on this earth, and
2-the purpose of our creation is to help actively Ahura Mazda for the betterment of this world so that all living beings: humans, animals and plants live in peace, fulfillment and flourish”.
An Existential Philosophy with such noble and highly humane ideals, cannot and must not be left hidden under the ashes of 4000 years of history and ignored by the world.
It will be a betrayal to humanity.
Therefore, in order to understand what has happened and why it has happened and when this cast mentality has been installed we have to go deep into 4000 years of Zoroastrian history and find out the reasons that Zarathustra and his sublime message, the Gathas, disappeared from Zoroastrianism.
This will be the condition to get Zarathustra back to the 21st century and trigger the glorious “Renaissance of Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism”.
What follows, is a brief and clear history of the different steps that led to this disappearance and the beginning of his reappearance.
The two steps that led Zarathustra to disappear from Zoroastrianism
First Step
Zarathustra announced around 3700 years ago, the core of his sublime doctrine or existential philosophy, in form of 17 songs called the Gathas.
At this time there was no adequate method of transcribing his words, nor any other means of recording them. Added to this problem, the Zarathustra’s language, an Aryan dialect of Eastern Iran, in which, his Sublime Gathas had been proclaimed, fell into a long oblivion. This oblivion, started after the fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the 4th century BC., took about 2200 years, to the extent that during this very long period not a phrase could correctly be understood.
Fortunately, Zarathustra’s disciples had learned the Gathas by heart as sacred songs, sang them in the temples, and passed them down as an oral tradition from one generation to the next. We have no words to express our deepest gratitude to those heroes who with a lot of sacrifices preserved these most precious treasures of human culture, the Gathas, and in spite of the loss of their language passed them down unaltered to us.
In the third Century, in the beginning of the Sasanian Empire, they created a sophisticated alphabetic system of writing able to capture and fix all the nuances, accents and pronunciation of this forgotten language.
Even though the Gathas could not yet be understood, the alphabet could be vocalized phonetically as sacred songs in the fire temples.
Second Step
The only tangible work that had been left by Zarathustra was “The Gathas” through which he had expressed the gist and heart of his sublime doctrine. But what could be achieved when their language had been forgotten and thus could be no longer understood anymore?
Therefore, during this very long forgetfulness (about 2200 years), many tried to guess what Zarathustra had said. Every one offered his or her views interpretations and opinions.
Meaningless rituals and myths, both pre-Zoroastrian and post-Zoroastrian, were introduced, and beliefs completely foreign to the original sublime doctrine of Zarathustra, which was based entirely on reason and wisdom, entered into the Avesta’s texts in the name of Zarathustra.
As the result, none of the Avestan texts, except the Gathas, are composed by Zarathustra. They are all written by persons, in different periods of history of whom we know nothing, neither their names nor their functions.
Many of these texts are written either more than one thousand years after Zarathustra, or they belong to pre- Zoroastrian religions (the very religions that had been rejected and fought against by Zarathustra himself).
Thus, oblivion of the language of the Gathas that last about 2200 years, until the 19thcentury, became the main reason that caused distortion of the Sublime Message of Zarathustra and consequently his disappearance from Zoroastrianism.
Zoroastrianism without Zarathustra interacted, mainly in Sasanian period, with existing religions such as Zurvanism or the newly born religions such as Christianity giving birth to other religions such as Manichaeism appeared in the 3rd century or the first communist doctrine called Mazdekism after the name of its founder Mazdak emerged in the 5th century. So the Zoroastrianism, particularly in the second half the Sasanian period was very far away from the Zarathustra’s original message. Its true essence was evaporated.
This was the main reason, that a world superpower such as Sasanian Empire that had defeated nine times Roman Empire, another world super power, and in 6th century had extended the Iranian border from Egypt to China to be defeated so quickly, in 7th century, by a small army that had come from the desert of Arabia.
With Moslem invasion of Persia in 7th century, the Zoroastrianism without Zarathustra fell further into decadence and froze in the form we know today.
Even the discovery and recognition of the Gathas’ language and the Gathas as an independent book, conveying the sublime message and teachings of Asho Zarathustra, could not change much. The Zoroastrians, since their childhood have been used to Avestan texts and many of them called “conservatives” have not yet been able to separate from them.
In Search of True Zarathustra and the Zoroastrian Renaissance
The Renaissance means the renovation of the concepts and the visions that have stuck in time. Therefore, our actions, aim and direction are entirely in conformity with the law of Asha, that means, to be in harmony with the orderly evolution and renovation of the world. We are also in line with the important concept of Haurvatat, the fifth attribute of Ahura Mazda. That means we are going to get out of stagnation and progress towards perfection. And we will have always in mind these golden words of Zarathustra who said: “Let us be among those who revive and refresh the world”. This is the goal of every Zoroastrian to endeavor for the betterment of the world.
It is in the darkness that the flame of a candle whatever its intensity can become a priceless guide and show us the way.
The darkness that covered Iran after the second Moslem invasion in 1979, unlike the first one that happened in 7th century, triggered an extraordinary and powerful reaction, with completely unexpected result which was: an unprecedented awakening of historical consciousness.
The modern mass communications such as internet and television have been quite helping.
This unexpected turn of history is offering a new destiny full of light and hope and a new perspective to Zoroastrianism as a whole. Not only in Iran but also in India and everywhere else in the world.
In my trip, (December 2013), to India, in Delhi where I was invited by Delhi Parsi Anjoman and its free minded director Mr. Yezad kapadia and in Mumbai where I attended the World Zoroastrian Congress, I could see with much pleasure, particularly among the Parsi youth, this thirst of universalism and freedom of choice, these two forgotten basic precepts of Zoroastrianism in the Gathas. They are bravely struggling to break this carapace made of the countless vicissitude of a long history.
It is quite remarkable to notice that not only Zarathustra’s message is universal, but he presents himself as a person who belongs to the whole world.
In the Gathas, he never says he is an Aryan or Iranian or relates himself to a group of people, or a cast or a territory.
The country which Zarathustra speaks is all countries of the world, the people he talks about is all people in the world and the life which he speaks is all lives, human, animal and plant.
Along this absolute universalism, the freedom of choice is another fundamental precept in the Gathic culture. The third song of the Gathas is all about this matter. Because in this culture everyone is responsible personally for his or her thought, word and action. And because the law of action and reaction works all the time: Every thought, word and action triggers equal reactions and come back to one self with the same intensity. Good, trigger Good and bad, trigger Bad. In this context the freedom of choice between good and bad is total and the responsibility is also total. We cannot accuse God or anyone else for the mistakes we make. Therefore, the freedom of choice, to choose the direction we want to give to our life, is fundamental.
Look at this:
“O Mazda,
While in Your thoughts,
You created at the start
body, wisdom, and conscience for us,
and invoked life in us
and enabled us with words and deeds,
You intended that we choose
our way of life and existential doctrine
as suits us”.
song 4 stanza 11 of the Gathas
Throughout the Gathas we meet constantly such words.
This newly found consciousness carries all the signs of a Renaissance “A glorious rebirth of Zarathustra”. The turning of history wanted that it happens in our time. Therefore it is our mission; and this mission is precisely the restoration of the Gathic Zoroastrianism once again.
Who is the true Zarathustra?
His name in the Gathas is Zarathushtra, that means “shining golden star”.
Pline the famous Roman scientist and philosopher of the 1st century writes “ Zarathustra was born with a smile” , and he was known to be born with a smile, lived with a smile and died with a smile”. This myth reflects his philosophy and world view in the Gathas: A shinning philosophy of happiness and joyfulness.
This is a very pity that his images in Iran or in India depict him in form of a bearded Indian guru, or an Islamic mullah or at best in form of Jesus Christ with a finger towards the sky ! That means these painters who have lived or are living the Zoroastrian decadence did not know much about Zarathustra’s personality or philosophy.
The true Zarathustra is a person who should always be depicted with a smile. A person who can laugh, who can sing, who can be joyful and even dance.
Unlike Jesus Christ, he is not looking for God only in the sky. Zarathustra’s God, Ahura Mazda, is everywhere and in everything: in the sky, in the earth, in human beings, in animals, in plants, in the sun and stars… because his God is the very Existence that constantly creates and unifies everything, with harmony and order. Therefore, we need in this period of Renaissance the painters who can depict the real Zarathustra.
The true Zarathustra is not a “prophet”.
Because the word “prophet” that is coming from “prophecy” that means “prediction of what is to come” is exclusively a Semitic notion. But Zarathustra was not a Smite. He was born and grown in an Aryan culture where the notion of prophecy is completely unknown. It is in this context that
Semite religions speak of one hundred twenty four thousand prophets! All these prophets, from Adam to Mahomet have been living in the area between Yemen and Palestine, including countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jordan. All these prophets spoke with their gods, Yahweh or Allah, in one of the branches of Semitic language.
Nowhere in the Aryan or non-Semitic area of the world we have seen the rise of a “prophet”: neither in India, nor in China, nor in Central Asia, nor in Europe, nor in America, nor in Africa or nor in Australia. The prophets are exclusively from the Smite area of Middle East.
With regard to Zarathustra all the historical and linguistic researches of the past two hundred years show clearly that he is an Aryan, lived and died in the East of Iran, where the Semitic culture had never reached there in his time.
Moreover, if the Semitic culture considers God, who is in the sky, needs having a “prophet”, or a “messenger” to transmit his messages to human beings who are on the earth, it clearly indicates that their God is separated from his creatures. But Zarathustra’s God, Ahura Mazda, is everywhere and in everything, therefore he does not need a messenger to transmit his messages. Ahura Mazda can communicate directly with all his creatures through “Good Thought” or vohumana.
In the Gathas, Zarathustra calls himself a “manthran”, “ a person who teaches the thought awakening songs”, the Gathas, the seventeen songs. that are the most powerful tool for social and spiritual transformation.
For the first time in history, these songs, connect the world of thought to the world of spirituality and make out of them a one and a single world. This is one of the biggest gifts that Zarathustra offered to humanity.
This universe, Zarathustra says “ has an ultimate principle that creates and unifies everything that exists. This ultimate creative and unifying principle of existence which makes this existence one, he called “Ahura”, and different elements of this universe, which are not created at random, and follow
a great wisdom or knowledge called“Mazda“. They displays a basic order based on Righteousness is called “Asha” or(Arta).
The Gathas are not a book of faith or belief. It is a book of knowledge. Zarathustra does not believe in Ahura Mazda, nor he has fate in Him/Her. Zarathustra wants to know Ahura Mazda.
O Mazda,
the moment I knew You in my thoughts,
I realized that you are the beginning and the end of existence,
and You are the source of Good Thought.
And as I envisioned you with my inner sight, I knew that You are the true creator of Righteousness
The Gathas are an “Existential Philosophy”,a “World View”, a way of life They have neither commandments nor orders, neither do this nor do that. They do not stifle people in rigid structures.