Zoroastrianism; a Personal Perspective: a Presentation by Hootoksi Tyabji
Presented in Kuala Lumpur at the Malaysian Culture Group First Wednesday of the Month Lecture, 7 March 2012.
I am sure you will agree that politicians and preachers have abused religion over the millennia to cause wars, inculcate hatred and win over peoples by controlling minds and hearts.
For me, religion is intensely personal, a pathway on my journey to self-discovery. This morning I would like to share not so much about the customs and rituals of Zoroastrianism, as about its core beliefs. We do not have a centralized church or a head priest to disseminate information, and our sacred books are in languages many of us can’t decipher. All my years of reading, contemplating and praying, lead me to believe that in the final analysis the most beautiful prayer of all is the way in which we live our lives.
I was born in Bombay, India and grew up in a close-knit Parsi Zoroastrian family.My father was a businessman and a Zoroastrian priest, and my mother though not given to following customs and rituals, raised my brother, sister and I with all the core values of the Zoroastrian faith. My parents inculcated in us the ideas of freedom of expression and choice and taught us to think and not follow blindly and to be tolerant of other religions, ideas, customs and beliefs.
As small children, we learned to recite our prayers in Gathic, a language that is thousands of years old, with words that are difficult to pronounce. I did not understand the meaning of what I said but my father explained that they prayers were composed by our prophet Zarathustra and had been recited unaltered for generations by faithful Zoroastrians all over the world. They are efficacious; they protect, guide and comfort all who utter them. Zoroastrianism is the oldest of the revealed world religions and has had considerable influence in the development of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The concept of dualism, heaven and hell, ritual cleanliness, angels, the halo, and the use of light as a symbol of goodness all originated in Zoroastrianism.
Zoroastrians are most explicitly recognized in the Western world as the Magi whose visit to the infant Jesus is described in the Christian New Testament.
Based on linguistic evidence and imagery in the Gathas, which are hymns composed by Zarathustra, and in archeological findings, most scholars place the prophet’s date of birth between 1500-1200 BC. He was born in ancient Iran, some place around present-day Northern Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
Legends and stories about his birth abound, I like to believe the one that says he laughed rather than cried at birth. He was born into the Spitama clan and worked as a priest. He was married, had three sons and three daughters, and lived in a culture with a polytheistic religion, where men and women worshipped many Gods most of whom were fierce and feared.
The kings and priests were oppressive, corrupt and cruel, and animal sacrifice and rituals were the tools used to control the lives of ordinary people. Zarathustra was repelled by the society he lived in and when he was around 30 years old, he retreated to a mountain cave where he spent the next 10 years of his life searching for answers that would lead him to a better way of life.
His quest led him to discover a precise order in the universe. The sun, moon, stars, the wind, the oceans, plants and so on obeyed a principal that maintained them in an unchanging manner, imparting harmony to their eternal design and rhythm. He concluded that this was Divine Intelligence at work, and he called this being, this divinity, this God, Ahura Mazda; Ahura means Lord and and Mazda, Wisdom.
Zarathustra concluded that understanding the true nature of God is beyond human comprehension. That God is formless, invisible, has no gender and shows no anger orfavor. God is the root of all creation and a part of each living being. Zarathustra’s God possesses six attributes he called Amesha Spenta which are within the scope of every human being. The 7’th Spenta Mainyu is Ahura Mazda’s Grace which permeates them all.
As Zoroastrians we strive to allow the spirit of goodness to inform our intelligence, so that we use the resulting good mind to figure out what is true, good, and right and bring it to life with our thoughts, words and actions. The path of the amesha spenta is not only the way to heaven, it is heaven itself. Zarathustra's idea of heaven is the state of being that occurs when we have perfected or attained completely these divine attributes, resulting in a state of non-deathness, a state beyond the realm of time.
Zarathustra realized that alongside good there was evil in the world. Besides peace and friendship, abundant food and water there was war and enmity, starvation and drought; besides knowledge and understanding, loyalty and respect there was ignorance and prejudice, opposition and disrespect. In all his reflections on the human condition, Zarathustra realized that for every bright aspect of life there was also a dark side, and consequently he was able to arrange all of human endeavor into two camps: the side of good and the side of evil. He attributed the practice of misleading to be the cause of all evil, and he believed that every man was free to choose to ally himself either on the side of truth or the side of deceit.
There is no idea of fate or destiny in Zarathustra’s religion There is only free will, free choice, and every individual can exercise it choosing the path of good or the path of evil. Zarathustra believed that this rule of truth and good thinking could be enacted on earth through humata,hukta, huvarastha or good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
All Zarathustra's teaching are incorporated in theGathas and we are fortunate to have them in his own words in a collection of 17 songs composed by him in Gathic, a language that has only been decoded in the last 50 years or so. There are many differences in translation and interpretation stemming from the view that such lofty thoughts could not have existed in such ancient times. The Gathas are highly metaphorical, multi-layered and deeply spiritual and though I have uttered some of them all my life, it is only recently that I have come to understand and fully appreciate them.
Zarathustra repeatedly stresses that his words as written in the Gathas must only be adhered to after each individual weighs them for him/her self. “Listen with your ears to the best things. Reflect with a clear mind-man by man for himself" (Y30.2) and when asking for God’s guidance, Zarathustra asks that it be given through good thinking, not by something that must be blindly obeyed. "Instruct through good thinking the course of my direction, in order to be the charioteer of my will and my tongue."
Zarathustra’s ideas were much too radical and way ahead of his time and he was persecuted for them and driven from his family and his land. His beliefs were finally accepted by the nobleman Vishtaspa, whose clan became the first adherents of Zarathustra’s teaching. From this modest beginning, Zoroastrianism grew and flourished for 1200 years in the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sasanian empires of Persia
So, what brought about its downfall and how could such precious knowledge have been lost?
The main reasons were two devastating invasions which included the burning of our religious texts, and the killing of learned teachers. The first occurred when Alexander defeated the Persian empire around 330 BC. It is reported that Alexander sent one copy of the Zoroastrian texts to his teacher Aristotle and burned the rest
As learning was limited to a few elite, Alexander's actions in killing the learned dealt a devastating blow to knowledge of the religion in those who were left in Iran, where it survived in a somewhat corrupted form during the Parthian and Sassanian empires.
The second loss occurred when the Sassanian empire was defeated by the Arabs around 650 AD. By 900 AD Zoroastrians were being systematically persecuted and many lost their lives at sea trying to escape religious persecution.
A small band of Zoroastrians set sail from the port of Hormuzd and landed in Sanjan on the west coast of India, in the State of Gujarat. The Hindu ruler, Jadhav Rana, alarmed at the sight of the strangers allowed only four priests to disembark. On hearing that they wanted to stay, he was alarmed and categorically refused them permission to disembark.
The story goes that the Zoroastrian high priest asked for a bowl of milk and a spoonful of sugar. When this strange request was fulfilled, he dissolved the sugar in the milk and said, “We will live in your land in peace and harmony and will sweeten the lives of those we live among. We ask for nothing more than to be allowed to practice our religion and we will work hard in return.” The king was impressed and permission to settle was granted, but four conditions were laid down. The refugees had to give up their language and adopt Gujarat; they had to wear local dress; the men had to surrender their weapon;, and marriage ceremonies had to be held in the dark. This small band of Zoroastrian refugees was christened Parsi, because they had come from the region of Pars in Persia.
To this day, the Parsees have kept their promise to Jadhav Rana but have preserved their unique cultural identity, practiced their religion and lived peacefully alongside their 1.2 billion Indian brothers and sisters.
Sadly, their numbers are dwindling and according to the International Institute of Population Studies by 2020, there will be no more than 55,000 Parsis left in India. As far as I know, there are only 37 of us in Malaysia!
As Mahatma Gandhi said of the Parsees, "In numbers, Parsis are beneath contempt, but in contribution, beyond compare."
Zoroastrians are often mistakenly called Fire Worshipers. Messages in the Gathas are highly metaphorical and to get his radical ideas across, Zarathustra linked each Amesha Spenta allegorically to the material world. Asha, the highest truth is linked to Fire, the fire of thought which must be awakened in each one of us.
Structures were built around those fires during the Imperial rule of the Sasanians in Iran, and Zoroastrians have worshiped in fire temples ever since. The fire is consecrated and only sandal wood is used.
We venerate the four elements, earth, air, fire and water which are seen as representing nature and manifesting the majesty of Ahura Mazda. These must never be polluted or defiled in any way. We nurture nature and are mindful of all living things.
The Farohar or Guardian Spirit in every man and all creation has become the most important symbol and is worn around the neck or placed on an altar at home. Each of its parts signifies an idea or a philosophy.
Children are formally initiated into the religion when they are between 6 and 9 years of age. The ceremony is called Navjote, meaning New Flame. The ritual takes place around a holy fire burning in an urn. The child sits facing it on a platform with a priest opposite who recites the Navjote prayers and adorns the child with the sacred vest or Sudra and a sacred thread or kusti. The sudra is normally made of muslin cloth, somewhat like a vest with a little pocket sewn at the vee. The child is reminded to put a good deed into that pocket every day.
The kusti consists of 72 threads and is woven out of lamb’s wool. It is tied around the child’s waist in a particular way. The tying and the accompanying chanting symbolize the fundamental idea of Humata, Hukhata, Huvarehsta, Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds. The priest and the child recite the prayers together and the child is reminded that he/she is now a follower of Zarathustra and must live by his teachings.
The ceremony takes place in front of family and friends all of whom are invited to stay on and enjoy a scrumptious Parsee feast where special ceremonial food is served and there is lots of fun and music! The sadra and kusti are worn by devout Parses throughout their lives.
Our priests are not preachers and we do not hold regular services. Priests perform rituals and ceremonies and tend to the fire which burns in our fire temples.
According to Zarathustra, after we die, the soul leaves the body and either goes to the House of Songs, to be forever merged with Ahura Mazda, or if evil choices were made, the soul will go to the Realm of Darkness and be separated from God. These destinations are not physical places but are described as timeless states of consciousness.
We believe in preserving the environment and not polluting it so we do not bury or cremate our dead. In ancient times, a corpse was left on a high hilltop for scavengers to feed on. Parsees today place their dead in what we call Dokhma or Towers of Silence. In 1754, the first one was scientifically built in Bombay and is still in use today. Many modern day Parsis prefer to cremate or bury their dead.
Dina McIntyre writes and I quote "Zarathushtra taught that the relationship between man and God is that of a friend to a friend or a beloved to a beloved. He also taught that God lives in each one of us. If our beloved Friend lives in each one of us, are we not all part of the same Whole?"
About 25 years ago in Somalia, we were at a sit-down dinner and the lady next to me talked her way through soup, main course, dessert and cheese. She told me about Jesus and the Bible and while the coffee was being poured she paused, turned to me and said, “So, what denomination are you, catholic or protestant?” "Neither" I replied. "Oh some other denomination then; you are Christian aren’t you?" "Actually I’m not, I’m Zoroastrian" said I. "Oh, is that some new cult?" she enquired looking shocked! "No, quite the contrary, it is the oldest monotheistic religion of the world". "Ah. Well, can you tell me in a sentence what your religion is all about?" I was outraged and dumbfounded.
Now, all these years later, if I were to be asked that question again, I would have the answer. In essence, Zoroastrianism is Humata, Hukhta and Huvarehsta or Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds.
You have been a wonderfully attentive audience and I thank you for listening. I would like to leave you with a taste of a Zoroastrian Blessing rendered by my father in Gathic, followed by a montage of pictures of Zoroastrians and their way of life.
Listen to Navar Noshir Pundole reciting the Tandarosti prayer.
Finally, here is a selection of photos of Parsee Zoroastrians...
