Returning to the Gathas: Yasna 29
I've read the book by Nanavutty, and reread many parts of it, but now I want to focus just on the verses.
My New Year’s intellectual-feed desire is to reread The Gathas of Zarathushtra: Hymns in Praise of Wisdom, as translated and commented on by Piloo Nanavutty, and write my thoughts here. I’ve read and reread her commentary a bazillion times, but with my reading comprehension difficulties, I struggle to recall the details. I do know the salient points.
The Gathas are Zarathushtra’s vision and hymns of praise to Ahura Mazda, the Good and Wise or Life and Wisdom.
“The Gathas are devotional songs composed in intricate verse by Zarathushtra or Zoroaster as the Greeks named him.” Piloo Nanavutty
He was a prophet of Ancient Persia. His followers take their designation from his Greek name and are known as Zoroastrians
“Zarathushtra is believed to be the first in human history to have founded a religion based on the ethical values of Truth and Justice named Asha in the Gathas. He preached one Supreme God, Ahura Mazda, Lord of Life and Wisdom, to be worshipped in thought, word, and deed for the protection and evolution of [humanity] and Nature. His followers are called Zoroastrians in the West and Zartoshtis in the East. These include the Parsis of India and the Zartoshtis of Iran.”
This year, 2026, I want to focus on these songs, which begin on page 69. But first, I’ll backtrack briefly to page 25, where Nanavutty writes on Gaush Urva. Gaush Urva, you ask, who’s that? Wellll…
Gaush Urva symbolizes the gentle soul of Creation, as I understand it
Gaush Urva
Nanavutty notes that the Sanskrit root of the word can be either masculine or feminine. Translators vary in their interpretation:
Soul of the Cow
Soul of the Bull
Soul of the Cattle
When I read this book in the past, I envisioned Gaush Urva as a cow. Yet since Zoroastrianism is historically neither patriarchal nor matriarchal, perhaps the most appropriate interpretation is “Soul of the Cattle.” Gender neutral.
But what does Gaush Urva symbolize? According to the Parzor Foundation, Gaush Urva symbolizes the Soul of Creation.
For those unfamiliar with Indian culture and custom, Indians view the cow as sacred and seen with affection. They’re not food. Nanavutty hereafter refers to Gaush Urva in the feminine.
Tevishi
Another term found in The Gatha of Free Choice, The Lament of Gaush Urva, Yasna 29, is Tevishi.
Tevishi means naked power, as in brutality towards cattle in Zarathushtra’s society.
However, it can also mean the same yet opposite: moral courage and desire. After all, you can’t express moral courage without power. And power inheres desire for spiritual attainment. In Yasna 29, Zarathushtra means the first meaning; in Yasna 33, the second.
Gaush Tasha
Gaush Tasha’s symbolic function is unclear but as the creator of cattle, perhaps a parental or guardian role?
The Gatha of Free Choice, The Lament of Gaush Urva: Text. Yasna 29
If I interpret Gaush Urva as the Soul of Creation, or consider Gaush Urva as either Soul of the Cow or Bull as a metaphor for a vulnerable, gentle Creation, then the main message I get from this text is that Creation is crying out to Ahura Mazda (God) for a protector and shepherd.
Earth needs a shepherd who protects, guides, and husbands.
Why would the Soul require protection and a shepherd?
Zoroastrianism as an Ecological Religion
I believe humanity has always mistreated the Earth, taking from our planet whatever the heart, want, and greed desire, with no consideration to conservation or wise use. Always with the mindset that we will never run out. Even when Canada’s cod fishery was so obviously vanishing in the 1980s, fishers still fished like always. Did they think cod magically materialized from no parents or something? Or that humans catching them like no tomorrow would have no consequence?
On one of my visits to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) in the 20th century, I saw in the foyer a body from Egyptian times whose lungs were spotted with black. Humans have been damaging their lungs with smoke — coal, wood, whatever — for millennia. Aside from previously not having the knowledge to avoid such a calamity, human beings loathe change including change for the better. Otherwise, so many wouldn’t have resisted getting rid of coal, putting money ahead of life, buying into the either-or mindset of “we mine coal” or “we never work again.”
History shows that new jobs spring up to replace the old; progress means we now take care of the jobless better until retraining nets them jobs in new industries. But fear of change leads to voting in leaders who want to dial back the clock, stop solar and wind power, and return to oil and gas, two fossil fuels that poison our air and damage our hearts and lungs. How is this good and wise husbandry?
Aspects of God?
I’m having difficulty wrapping my mind around how Truth and Sovereignty are seen here. I think they’re aspects of God, that is, Ahura Mazda. After all, wisdom cannot work without truth, and life doesn’t exist without sovereignty — albeit seemingly temporary sovereignty — over death.
Gaush Urva laments at the lack of a protector, and Truth answers. Eventually, Ahura Mazda sends Zarathushtra in place of a saviour to be Gaush Urva’s protector and shepherd.
Gaush Urva is not impressed. What kind of feeble man can protect the Soul of Creation? I found it a little discombobulating when Gaush Urva went from dissing to praising Zarathushtra. But David does this sort of thing in the Psalms: goes from lamenting one moment to praising the next. It’s rather human, isn’t it?
A Course on Zoroastrianism
Friday, I attended an orientation session for the TISS–PARZOR Online Certificate Programme on Culture & Heritage Studies: A Zoroastrian Perspective.
In looking up some terms in the Gathas on Wednesday, 7 January 2026, I’d come across the Parzor Foundation website, briefly perused it, noticed that they hadn’t included Burmese Zoroastrians, and emailed them to see if they’d be interested in interviewing my father, probably the last surviving member of that community outside Burma. The founder had immediately emailed back expressing great interest and also invited me to attend the orientation session for this programme two days hence. Friday.
Talk about a whirlwind out of the blue!
During the crack-of-dawn-for-me session on Zoom (ugh, such a primitive platform), I learnt that Zoroastrians perceive water as sacred, have honed water conservation from having nurtured gardens in a desert, and engage in environmentalism. This was all news to me!
That’s the point of the Foundation: to educate Zoroastrians and non, alike, on this ancient religion.
Sacred Water, Gardens in the Desert, and Environmentalism
I had developed my own attraction to water, finding it calming; a desire to conserve water in a city that’s one of the few places on Earth with plenty of fresh, clean water; a love of gardening, notwithstanding my injuries preventing me for the most part; and an interest in environmentalism back in high school. Except for my father’s interest in sailing and my mother’s British-grounded interest in gardening, I had had no exposure to these ideas from within my family. So it stunned me to learn that Zoroastrians consider their religion as an ecological one grounded in sacred water, gardens in the desert, and environmentalism.
Make no mistake, though, good thoughts, good words, good deeds form Zoroastrianism’s foundation stone.
Having learnt about this aspect of Zoroastrianism, I now understand Gaush Urva’s lament and Zarathushtra’s God-given responsibility that he passed on to his followers.
Genesis in the Bible records God tasking humans directly to garden responsibly. It’s not God’s fault that Christians interpreted “dominion” as licence to rape the Earth.
It’s interesting that we have two different ways to say the same thing: God wants human beings to protect, shepherd, and husband the Earth and all who live on it. And for humans to do so willingly — for our free will to marry with God’s will to wisely protect and shepherd the life all around us
Perhaps I need to play up that concept more in novel three of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy, which I drafted during NaNoWriMo 2.0 this past November 2025.