Zoroastrianism is the first modern religion in west in the sense that it is grounded in a clearly articulated moral code. It influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The tenets, dictates or commandments which are normally a part of a religious creed become fetters if not understood correctly. There is very little scope for independent judgment or moral choice. The cardinal virtue is obedience. Zoroastrianism is a combination of creed and free will. In terms of religious principles, animal sacrifice, nature worship, drugs and intoxicants are censured. Purity and goodness are exalted. Fire is worshiped because it cannot be polluted. As decent human beings we must not pollute the earth, air or water either in life or in death. Zoroastrianism is remarkable for its humanism. It preaches equality of gender, race, class and nationality. Slavery and inhumanity are immoral. At a time when the rule of the jungle prevailed and might was right, Zarathustra said that the leader should be chosen by the people. Zoroastrianism does not advocate asceticism. Zoroaster himself was married. Interestingly, much like the Protestant ethic, there is an emphasis on hard work and personal effort. Laziness of any kind or living off the labor of others is frowned upon. Each person must do his best to protect himself and anyone else he sees suffering from oppression of any kind. Zarathustra‘s ethic emphasizes compassion, generosity, sympathy and purity of body, mind and soul. Above all, it is humane. It accepts failure as a small glitch in the path to success.
Rabindra Nath Tagore wrote a beautiful forward to D.J. Irani’s translation of The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra.[1] He touches the very soul of the verses. This is a faith based on direct experience and inner realization and hence utterly simple and profound. It is not insight based on a study of books or knowledge of ritual. It is the ‘ineffable illumination of truth.’ Tagore talks of the transition from traditional rituals, steeped in the blood and gore of animal sacrifice to a religion rooted in moral values, spirituality and truth. It is a religion which replaces a creed nurtured by the fear of powerful deities for justice and an inner goodness:
‘The outer expression of truth reaches its white light of simplicity through its inner realization. True simplicity is the physiognomy of perfection.’[2]
Zarathushtra reaches a stage where his mind becomes so pure that it is transparent. He rejects the idea of an exclusive God of a chosen people or tribe. In Tagore’s view, his religion is universal:
“He (Zarathushtra) was not like a man who by some chance of friction had lighted a lamp, and knowing that it could not be shared by all, secured it with a miser’s care for his own domestic use. But he was a watcher in the night, who stood on the lonely peak facing the East and broke out singing the poems of life to the sleeping world when the sun came out on the brim of the horizon.”[3]
Zarathushtra sees God as the ‘desire of all desires,’ the highest good. He asks questions which ring through every religion in these sublime verses:
‘...Who determined the path of sun and stars...Who is it by whom the moon waxes and wanes again...Who upholds the earth beneath and the firmament from falling? Who the waters and plants? Who yoked swiftness to winds and clouds? Who is, O Mazda, creator of Good Thought...What artist made light and darkness? What artist sleep and waking? Who made morning, noon and night that call the understanding of man to his duty?’[4]
There is a strong intellectual component which emphasizes personal choice. The concept of original sin is absent. Each soul starts with a ‘tabula rasa.’ At the core of the creed are three principles: good thoughts (‘humata’), good words (‘hukata’) and good deeds (‘hvarshta’). Human beings are given free will and a 'Daena' or conscience so that they may choose the good (‘vayo’) over the bad (‘akem’) or truth rather than deceit:
‘ Hear with your ears the best things, look upon them with clear seeing thought, for decision between the two beliefs, each man for himself before the great consummation’ [5]
The twin positive and negative mentalities make the world what it is. Since man is free to choose, he is responsible for his fate. Ali Jafrey has done a perceptive analysis of the concepts of good and evil in the Gathas.[6] He lights on the inner meaning of the verses. Good and bad have consequences. The ‘ashavan’, the follower of good reaches wholeness and immortality, the allegorical house of light and song. This is a blissful state of mind which a righteous person achieves through living an ethical life, i.e. the ‘spenta way of being.’ The follower of ‘druj,’ harmful thoughts, lie, or wrong becomes ‘dregvant.’ He develops a bad mind and is left behind. The process of choosing the good and rejecting wickedness is ‘the refiner’s fire.’. There is no physical heaven, hell, resurrection or reincarnation. Zarathustra does not mention a primordial evil spirit. He describes abstract qualities; ‘Asha’ (truth) and ‘druj’ (lie, wickedness). ‘Druj’ was replaced by 'Angre Mainyu' or Ahriman, a personified evil spirit opposing Ahura Mazda in later centuries. It is interesting that the word used for evil throughout the Gathas is ‘lie’. What this does in effect is create a man-centric ethic. There is a foretaste of the existential emphasis on the autonomy of the human being and a focus on self knowledge:
‘When Thou, O Mazda, in the beginning didst create the Individual and the Individuality through Thy Spirit, and powers of understanding – when Thou didst make life clothed with the body, when (Thou madest) actions and teachings, whereby one may exercise one’s convictions at one’s free will.’ [7]
After death, the soul travels across the Cinvat Bridge. Ahura Mazda judges his actions. Thereafter the good attain immortality in Ahura Mazda’s allegorical abode of song and light (‘garo damane’).The wicked have to endure the allegorical abode of woe and misery (‘druj damane’):
‘Thus the Self of the Liar destroys for himself self the assurance of the straight Way; whose soul shall tremble at the Revelation and Bridge of the Separator having turned aside with deeds and tongue from the Path of Right.[8]
In the end Ahriman is destroyed and only good (life/gaem) remains because wickedness (non life/ ‘ajyatim’) has no real existence. The wicked are spiritually dead. Ultimately every soul becomes one with God and makes the transition from the material (existential) to the spiritual world.
[1] Tagore,
Rabindra Nath, forward, D.J.Irani (1924),The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra,(Kessinger),
reprinted (Newton: Centre for Iranian Studies,2004)
[2] Taraporevala,
I.J.S, (1951) The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra,trans. By Bortholomae,
(Bombay: Taraporevala & Sons),www.avesta.org
[6] Jafarey,Ali, & Kersey H.
Antia,”Good & Evil,” Discussion Board, Beliefnet Community,
www.beliefnet.com
