Zoroastrian Orality, Customs, and Ecology: Reframing Zoroastrianism
The second class of this third TISS-PARZOR Zoroastrian Perspectives course covered the religion of Zoroastrianism and its eschatology: the end times. What I've been waiting for!
Our guest lecturer in the first week of Zoroastrian Orality, Customs, and Ecology was Khojeste P. Mistree. Mr. Mistree is an elder of the Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, the co-founder of the Zoroastrian Studies Foundation, and author of the introductory book Zoroastrianism: an Ethnic Perspective. He titled his lecture, “Reframing Zoroastrianism” and contrasted Zoroastrianism with Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity briefly before talking about the unique features of the Zoroastrian religion. I won’t get into all of it — it was a rapid lecture, and my notetaking was non-stop! But I’ll focus on the salient bits.
Who Is God?
Ahura Maza, the Lord of Wisdom is:
Creator
Omnisicient — in Middle Persian, they described Ahura Mazda as knowing every drop of water, every drop of milk in the world.
First One — existed before Creation because Ahura Mazda was the Creator
Mightiest but not Almighty…yet
Virtuous, that is, Holy
Perfect — nothing imperfect can come from Ahura Mazda
Eternal — see First One
Friend to all — this means anger is not part of Ahura Mazda’s character or world.
Good vs. Evil
Since Ahura Mazda is Mighty but not Almighty — not omnipotent — evil exists in the world. However, later in the lecture, we learnt that Ahura Mazda becomes Almighty at the end of physical time through human beings working with Ahura Mazda by fostering good thoughts, good words, good deeds, and in that way, the world is progressing across the millennia towards good words and good deeds becoming more and more prevalent in the world. If we look at the overarching progression of history, we see that, though we live in horrible times, in many ways we have progressed in beneficial areas such as medical science. Once Ahura Mazda becomes Almighty, evil will no longer exist.
Hell in Zoroastrianism is a place devoid of God
Mistree suggests that if God is all powerful and responsible for death, how can a ten-year-old girl die from cancer? He asserted that only by God not being Almighty, can this kind of death happen. Otherwise what kind of good God would allow it? This challenge is common across peoples of many faiths (atheism is also a faith).
My answer does not dovetail with his. I think this is two separate issues combined into one. God can be all powerful but not responsible for death. In Christianity, God did not create death; rather human rebellion introduced death into God’s Creation.
Evil: The Absence of God
Interestingly, Zoroastrianism defines evil as imperfect, as the absence of God in the way that darkness is the absence of light. Christianity defines evil in a similar way: we are evil when we depart from God’s ways. Since God is perfect, evil does not exist within God but in opposition to or in absence from God. Pope John Paul II defined hell as “the state of those who definitively reject the Father’s mercy, even at the last moment of their life.” Similarly, Hell in Zoroastrianism is a place devoid of God.
Christianity talks about Satan, the being who accuses and who is human beings’ adversary. But what happens when Jesus chains Satan up? Does evil still exist? According to Revelation, it does. In my trilogy The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy, I explore this concept and imagine how human beings would live without Satan, governments, and elites in the world (these are the beasts and the dragon in Revelation). In essence, this lecture can help me further hone my ideas.
Cosmic and Ethical Dualism
Truth (Good) exists in opposition to Lies (Evil).
Order (Good) exists in opposition to Disorder (Evil).
Life (Good) exists in opposition to Death (Evil).
Balancing Our Deeds
Zoroastrianism doesn’t espouse predestination or reincarnation. We have one life to live, and how we live it matters. Free will lets us make choices as to whether to follow the Good or the Evil. Zoroastrians make choices through using knowledge, the intellect, reason, and one’s own will (Yasna 30.2-3). The balance of our choices after we reach spiritual independence (as marked by the Navjote) affects the future life of our soul. When we die, our deeds are weighed on a balance scale: good words and deeds on one side of the scale; bad words and deeds on the other. (I believe Mistree said thoughts are not weighed.) Whichever part of the scale weighs more determines whether our soul goes to Heaven or to Hell.
It’s up to us to reject the evil and choose the good.
The Seven
The seven Amesha Spentas (Yasna 34.1) were linked to seven Creations in the 7th century, one of which, and I believe the most important, is fire. Fire is not a symbol nor an icon — it’s a living reality that represents truth, order, righteousness, and is considered the Son of Ahura Mazda. Fire gives life and dynamism to the other six Creations. These seven Amesha Spentas linked to the seven Creations help us “generate the right thoughts, words, and deeds” and have evil oppositions. It’s up to us to reject the evil and choose the good.
Mistree gave an example of how he used the 7 Creations to generate and give his talk to us. He starts off with Hormazd — Human Beings — and the Amesha Spenta corollary is wisdom and knowledge. He then engages Bahman — the Good Mind Amesha Spenta (animal kingdom) — to process that knowledge. Then he uses Ardibehesht — the Best Truth (fire) — to do a good job in Shehrevar — Power and Dominion (sky) — with Spendarmad — Care and Devotion (earth) — aiming for Khordad — Perfection (water) with the aim of being remembered — Amardad — Immortality (plant world), for memory makes one’s thoughts, words, and deeds immortal. I think I got that right.
Note: Best truth is not an absolute statement, but a relative. Mistree said that there are no absolutes in Zoroastrianism. Things are held relative to one another.
This specific example brought the theoretical down to the practical level. Made the Amesha Spentas not some abstract concept but a concrete one of Spirits who guide us in every choice and activity.
Soul and Conscience
Our soul directs our choices; our conscience acts like a mirror. The latter reflects our decisions made in our lifetime but does not go to Heaven or Hell. When we die, the Creation Fire leaves us as evidenced in our body temperature falling. We are no longer alive and dynamic.
At the dawn of the fourth day after death, we face individual judgement at the bridge. For those whose good deeds outweigh their bad ones, the bridge is broad and easy to cross. For those whose bad deeds outweigh their good ones, the bridge becomes a knife edge, and they fall off it and land in Hell. (I’ve emailed to ask more about the bridge.)
Our souls remain in either Heaven or Hell until the end of physical time. At the end of physical time, everyone — in Heaven and Hell — faces universal judgement and resurrection. Our bodies rise up. Our bones are knitted together. And we enter an eternal life where time does not exist, where evil does not exist, and where Ahura Mazda has become Almighty.
The Time of Our Existence
We live in a metaphorical 12,000 years. The first 3,000 years is when the physical world came into existence. I think the next 6,000 years is during the soul of the cow, that is, from Zarathushtra to our current time. Three Saviours divide up responsibility for the last 3,000 years. Each Saviour lives for 1,000 years, and the last one brings about the Resurrection. I have to learn more about these Saviours. It’s the first I’ve heard that there are three. As I read up, I’m confirming my plot timeline coincides with these seminal times and will add to some of my chapters in the final novel of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy. I think this concept refines what I’m trying to say through story.
Dr. Kerman suggested I look up Saviour in the Iranica Encyclopedia. The online site contains an article by Mary Boyce, Mistree’s mentor. She writes:
“These highly artificial systematizations became part of Zoroastrian priestly tradition, and were transmitted from generation to generation; but it is unlikely that their details were ever grasped by ordinary believers, who continued to look for the coming of Astavaṱ.ərəta, later known simply as the Savior, the Saošyant, Pahlavi Sōšāns….In popular belief, however, the coming of the Saošyant is expected to bring about a final end of human suffering and to usher in eternal bliss, the ancient doctrine of the one world-Savior thus triumphing over scholastic complexities. ”
This is why I knew of one Saviour but not three.
(Why is Heaven and Resurrection characterized as eternal bliss as if we’ll all sit around, smell roses, and strum zitars? Yawn. I mean, a little time like that every so often or at intervals is nice, but not forever and ever! Human beings were made for activity. We’re happiest when we’re giving and receiving support, reconciling, sharing, working in teams with stints for alone thinking or restoration time, and going headlong into challenges.)
A last thought by Boyce:
“The basic Zoroastrian belief in a virgin-born Savior of the world must have become widely known throughout the Near East in the Achaemenid period, i.e., from the 6th century B.C. onward, when almost all the eastern Mediterranean lands were under Persian rule; and it appears to have exerted some influence on Judeo-Christian thought. It is also considered possible that it contributed, in the eastern border-lands of the Achaemenid empire, to the evolution of the doctrine of Maitreya (q.v.), the coming Buddha, held by the northern Buddhists.”
We may hold different ideas of a Saviour or different ways of worshipping (or not) God, but at a fundamental good vs evil level, we are all the same. We just don’t always have the courage to follow our good thoughts.