without doors and windows. Nobody can come in and nobody can go out!
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 would be a betrayal to humanity.
Therefore, in order to understand what happened and why it happened and when this cast mentality was installed we have to go deep into
4000 years of Zoroastrian history and find out the reasons why 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.
***
This was the main reason, that a world superpower such as the Sasanian Empire that had defeated nine times the Roman Empire, another
world super power, and in the 6th century had extended the Iranian border from Egypt to China to be defeated so quickly , in the 7th century,
by a small army that had come from the desert of Arabia.
With the Moslem invasion of Persia in the 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 the Avestan texts and many
of them called “conservatives” have not yet been able to be separated from them.
***
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 endeavour 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 the 7th century, triggered an
extraordinary and powerful reaction, with a 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 about is all countries of the world, the people he talks about is all people in the world and the life about which he speaks is
that of 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 blame 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 stanza:
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 ?
In the Gathas his name is Zarathushra, 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 shining philosophy of happiness and joyfulness.
It is a very pity that his images in Iran or in India depict him in the form of a bearded Indian guru, or an Islamic mullah or at best in the shape
of Jesus Christ with a finger towards the sky ! That means these painters who 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 painters who can depict the real Zarathustra.
The true Zarathustra is not a “prophet”.
Because the word “prophet” that is coming from “prophecy” meaning “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. They all 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, who lived
and died in the east of Iran, where the Semitic culture had never reached 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 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 faith in Him/Her. Zarathustra wants to know Ahura Mazda.
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.
Here I finish the first part of this paper. The second part will be focused on the expansion of Zoroastrianism and its noble message among the
generations of 21st century.
Dr. Khosro Khazai Pardis
Brussels, 3rd December 2014
*The Missing Zarathustra from Zoroastrianism, by Khosro Khazai Pardis