Who was Zarathusthra?

Who was Zarathusthra?

This is a question for which there are no answers; at least, none in terms that the mind or the brain may understand.

For those that seek to know of the nature of this great Master and Seer, there can only be insights that reveal themselves at appropriate times, in appropriate moments of that entity’s or seeker’s spiritual path and growth.

But, indeed, who was Zarathusthra?

Can he be defined as a Spiritual Leader? Or, can he be defined as a Prophet? The act of definition carried within it an inherent danger. For, what is defined, or, what can be defined, by nature, then, is finite; definition is limitation. Therefore, what is infinite in It’s State of Being can never be defined; infinity is limitless. It can be as large or as small, everywhere and nowhere; everything and nothing all at the same point of existence; at the tiniest moment of existential time.

I believe, therefore, that terms such as ‘Ethical’ or ‘Philosophical Leadership’ to describe the Great Son of the World are inadequate; these seem as mere logical designations used to describe a particular circumstance; or what the perceiving entity understands as a fact. This, then, is an act of limitation; is merely a transient opinion that can eventually be rendered meaningless as higher knowledge seeps into the seekers consciousness. Terms such as ‘Prophet’ and ‘Prophet-hood’ face the same danger of being caused to have no meaning through any attempt at definition. This is a serious setback in the path of logic. And yet, a Rational Mind is more subtle than a mind that is merely logical; rationality helps in understanding the path that was previously walked with logic; true rationality, therefore, begins where logic ends.

Zarathusthra can never be defined; we may merely create yardsticks in our mind to understand certain aspects of the truth about Him. But we may never truly know Him and his Ministration in our rational, lower, logical consciousness that understands only what has been defined within limits and boundaries.  

So, who was Zarathusthra?

The nature of His Being is a Point to ponder upon; to contemplate upon his Spirit to know who He is, is a continuous process through lifetimes of meditation and seeking. The answer is simple; the answer, when arrived at, will open another gateway of seeking and realisations; for Zarathusthra is Soul; to know Soul is to know God; that is beyond language, beyond definitions, beyond any expression. The knowledge of God is Eternity Itself – to know Zarathusthra, then, would be not to know a Man, but to know God.

Ushta-no Zato Athrava, yo Spitamo Zarathustro

“Fortunate are we, that the Teacher was Born – Spitamo Zarathusthra”

What is Good? What is Evil? Can anyone ever define what good is, without knowing the face of evil? Or, can evil be defined without the measuring rod the good?

I say that this can be done; but, it cannot be done with logic as an end to this understanding. This is therefore, where Faith steps in. And in the path of knowing the nature of Great Zarathusthra, this is the point where the seeker begins his journey to Him.

What is Faith?

Faith is the primordial instinct in man; the reflection of Soul within. Incarnate as human, all higher instincts of the spirit are blocked by the minds that we carry; the mind that unfolds and forms for us this physical world in which we are guests but for a short eternity. The physical world is a place of shapes, forms, distances, and of the most enduring reality of its perpetuation – the law of time. To understand these as the realities of physical existence, and convert these as actions that give rise to events, we are given a brain to control all our physical exertions and efforts; and contained within the brain resides mind, whose function is to understand these. In the physical world, therefore, the mind is the ruler; it defines the beginning of existence as we understand it from our awakening physical consciousness as commenced by our birth; and hang on to it for dear life till it is time to part company by a process we have named ‘death’; for, to us, the mind is Life itself – it is existence. There can be no other possibilities of life in our limited mental states as dictated by our lower processes of thought.

The experience of Faith is the first sign of the transience of mind. Faith manifests when the lower mind, as encompassed by our brain, faced with the vastness of inner spaces, concludes aimlessly its endeavour of understanding its real, spiritual inner surroundings; and, in this, the mind does not give up its attempts very easily. In this connection, in passing, then, let me comment that this is why it is so difficult for the neophyte to meditate. For meditation implies the bypassing of the mind to find the window to the spirit; and the mind is not programmed to have any consideration whatsoever bypass it; especially to find the spirit, which is, of course, beyond comprehension and logical assimilation by the mind. So an attempt to understand spirit or even enter the spiritual realms will only arouse serious opposition from the mind in the manner of images, conflicting thoughts, difficulties in being able to concentrate and many other such symptoms.

  

But, however vast the mind may seem and whatever its apparent power, the mind, in reality, is but finite. And nowhere is this limitation more in evidence than in the face of simple, timeless Faith – something that dwells beyond the reach of the mind and its workings. The lower mind with all the baggage derived through a lifetime of physical living processes terminates with the corporeal death of the entity; but actions born out of Faith of the same individual during its physical lifetime endure forever as the continuous cycle of self sustaining events within the world, as well as without. This simple truth manifests in the outer world in what the Hindus know as the “Law of Karma”. Outer life is an expression of the mind and of choices that it constantly makes. But inner life constitutes of choices made of Faith; so, whilst physical events of all natures pass into History – into the books of the dead, Faith passes not. It remains, alive, a bright, burning flame, eternal, comforting; a spark that lights a million candles and a billion hearts; brighter than a trillion suns – Faith, the image of God deep within every facet of Creation. In our path in search of perfection, we find Faith without fail, and find it not in the form of a goal, but experience is as a process. The Hindus’ call it Dharma; and we all recognize it as Asha.

Ashem Vohu Vahishtem Asti; Ushta Asti.

Ushta ahmai; hyat asha-i Vahishtai Ashem.

“The path of Asha is the Highest Good; It is the Illumination of Life.

The Bliss of Illumination is gained when Life is lived for the Sake of Righteousness alone”

Asha is the Highest Good. In Sanskrit, Asha is the word for “Hope”. It is pertinent to note that Hope springs for Faith. The well-spring of Asha is Vohu Mana. What is Vohu Mana?

Vohu Mana

Both in Avesta as well as in Sanskrit, the word Mana denotes “Mind”. Vohu in Vedic Avesta and Vazarka in later Avesta imply the same meaning as Virat or Brihat in Sanskrit, which means “vast” or “great”. My Persian readers will appreciate that the word Bozorg, in modern Persian and the older Pehlavi is the expression for “Big” or “Great”, or “Elder”. This is derived from the same word as Vazarka.

Vohu Mana, then, is the “Highest Mind”. One of the greatest kings of this world was the great Vedic Persian Emperor Daraya-Vohumana – “Dara of Great Mind”. The later sons of Hakamanish knew him as “Darayavoush”. We know him as Darius the First, the Great, as his name has been passed to us in its Greek form.             

The Highest Mind does not reside in the brain; but is the essence of the Spirit itself deep within every living entity, whatever its incarnate nature may be; or whatever its incarnate unique path of experience of life may take form as. A darvesh living on the edges of the Koh-e-Demavand, a sadhu in the Himalayas, a new born child opening its eyes at wonderment at the sight of a new world and a murderer awaiting the executioner’s axe share in common the Vohu Mana. The difference here is that both the darvesh and the sadhu have found Vohu Mana; whilst the murderer is yet to find it – and find it he shall, in some lifetime, in some incarnation – for, the destiny of every Being is to be another Buddha; another Zarathusthra. The newborn child, meanwhile, that cannot even express itself, embodies in reality all the innocence of knowledge; and is in essence, therefore, the purest physical manifestation of the Vohu Mana. It does not matter what the child will grow up to be.        

The Highest Mind – Vohu Mana expresses itself in three, basic, simple, actions in the incarnate human being; these translate as “Good Thoughts”, Good Words” and “Good Deeds”. This awareness is of crucial importance to the seeker; Great Zarathusthra, in His meditations upon God, considered this as his first magnificent realisation. This comprehension then formed the basis of all His future knowledge and realisations; and in turn, is the founding principle of His Faith, expresses as:-

Humata; Hukhta; Hvarshta

“Good Thoughts; Good Words; Good Deeds”

Herein dawns the awareness upon the seeker of the eternal and supremely empowering cycle of the inner self that the Great son of Pourushaspa has expressed so well:-

Humatem Mano; Huktem Vacho; Hvarshtem Shyothanem

“Think what is Good.” with a Mind that Thinks the Highest Good; “Speak what is Noble” so express It in Words of the Greatest Import; therefore, “Do what is Right” and embark upon Action that is Absolutely Appropriate

So, everything translates, in the ultimate reckoning, as Action. Vohu Mana is Action; It is the source of all Action – past, present and future; It is, indeed, the fountainhead of Creation.

Action

All that we create in the course of a lifetime or through various lifetimes begin enclosed in our incarnate human forms as thoughts and dreams within our mind. Greats ships that travel the oceans or ride the currents of the air; chariots of metal that traverse the world; machines that make enormous buildings; machines that make war – the well-spring of all that is the human imagination that dreams; plans; makes up things; then, commands the arms and legs to dig into our Mother Earth, to find the soil that we eventually fashion into the shapes that we first dreamt of – first imagined. Whether we work with brick or mortar, forge metals or create ethers; or create with the instruments of the mind – the path of every living being, then, is the path of Action. In whatever we do, we set in motion events; even if we do nothing, we have to bear the consequences of doing nothing – for even doing ‘nothing’ constitutes of action of “Doing Nothing”. Every action, whether “something” or “nothing” has its reaction within and without. If truth be told, we are always “doing something”. Action is Universal. The universe would not perpetuate itself without action. Everything must move – whether in body, or in spirit and in ether.  

Action forms the basis of living; time perpetuates itself through action; actions can never cease because of the unending nature of time. The path that Zarathusthra chose to follow was the path of action; the religion thus created through the ages by devotees walking along the same path is “The Religion of Zarathusthra” – the Religion of Action – Daena Vangehui.

Ahmai Ushta, Ushta y’ahmai; kah’mai cit

“Happiness (be) to Him, through (who’s actions) Happiness (is caused) to Others”

If, in action, dwells the source of every event of every nature, all of which we define through good or evil, then, it must follow that good actions give rise to only the good; whilst actions that are bad, culminate only in what is evil. This precept, whilst true, is but merely once facet, a mere attribute of the truth; to lay emphasis upon this, the Great One did not hesitate to give form to His realisation that the passage of the Universe through time takes on the forms of Creation and Destruction – this is the basic Law of the Universe – of the Eternal Universe that is within every Living Being, and the Finite Physical Universe that surrounds our physical selves.

Creation and Destruction are but the two faces of the same coin: Creation is the Force of Life; Destruction is the Force of Non-Life. Each is a precisely opposite mirror image of the other; and, though diametrically opposed by their very natures, both must work together – through the action of one, to perpetuate the other. United they begin, from the Bosom of Ahura Mazda; but in opposition are they, in their Creative and Destructive expressions.

At-ca hyat ta hem Mainyu jasaetem pourvim; dazde gaemca ajyaitim-ca

“And when these two Spirits came together, they in the Beginning created Life and Non-Life”

And where do these two Spirits find the ultimate Conscious Creative Expression? Nowhere, but through the actions of Man! Therefore, in the actions that we discharge to give rise to Cause and Effect, we must always strive to make these appropriate; and what is appropriate, is always Good. Good is what worships life. Evil is to not know what good is; evil is ignorance.

Good Action is the Ultimate Expression of Vohu Mana. This is then the cycle of Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds – Humata, Hukhta Hvarshta – Manashni; Gavashni, Kunashni. To walk along this path, then, is the path of Asha:-

Aevo pantao yo Asha-he; vispe anyaesham apantam

“There is but One Path – the Path of Asha; all other paths are false”

The path of realising Vohu Mana is the practice of only what is good; so, from Vohu Mana then, is born the Kshatra – The Right Action. The practice of Vohu Mana, then, is ­Humata, Hukhta, Hvarshta – Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds. This knowledge is Zarathusthra’s greatest gift to you; for He is a Giver of Priceless Gifts.  

You

The path of Asha is the path of action; it is universal. Asha that envelopes Creation is the primordial expression of Vohu Mana; it never ceases. Whatever may be your religion, whoever may be your prophet and whichever your guiding principle, when you walk the path of good deeds through good thoughts and words, you tread upon the way of righteousness and live the life of Asha. You, as soul, born as an incarnate physical being, is a particle born out of the source of Asha; you exist because you, yourself, are an element of God’s Good Thought; your creation is a primordial Good Act; within you is the Good Word of God’s Blessing. Altogether, you are a particle of Light born out of God; you are Soul. There is no evil within you; there is no sin. You “are” forevermore; and you shall be, without exception, without end. You are the source of every good, the author of every beauty; you are the origin of your own destiny; in your actions rests the seed of every cause – and in whatever the effect and of whatever the experience in living that cause, it is, without fail, another step back to the fountainhead of love – the bosom of Ahura Mazda. Take heart then, for, through many immortal creations, you have lived through trillions of forms to reach a state of consciousness embodied in your human form. Blessed are you, for, now, you have risen out of the realm of instinct and entered the kingdom of thought; you have been granted your innate right to seek; you hold the key to Vohu Mana. The end of the journey is near; for, whatever be your station in life and whatever be your path, you stand at the last cosmic door that you must open, so to find your way back to the Creator, Who experiences It’s Creation through you; and you, a particle of the Great Light, that lives through unending Creations, to know that you are It – a formed particle of God.

This is what you are. This is what Zarathusthra knew Himself to be; this, then, is what you share with Zarathusthra.

You are one with God; and when you find Yourself, you too shall know what you are as did the Great Son of Dugdava. And when you do, whenever that may be, you too shall be a Being such as Him that pass the world but once, to give you the simple truth of Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds.

This is not an answer then, to who Zarathusthra was. This is merely the beginning of what you choose what Zarathusthra is. Know yourself to know Him. And then, there will be no need for words; for once God is gained, there is no need for expression. It is Bliss.

You are Bliss.

“…Payuscha ahmi, dataca trataca ahmi; znataca mainyuscha ahmi spentotemo; baeshazya nama ahmi, baeshazyotema nama ahmi; Athrava nama ahmi, athravatem nama ahmi; Ahura nama ahmi, Mazdao nama Ahmi…”

Anamitra Dasgupta