When he was about 30 years old, Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra) went into the Daiti River in what is now Iran to draw water for a ceremony. When he came out of the river he had a vision of a “shining being” made of light. This being, who revealed himself as Vohu Manah (“Good Mind”), led Zoroaster to the presence of Ahura Mazda and five other supernatural beings. This was the first in a series of visions which changed his view of the world.
We don’t know the actual dates of Zoroaster’s vision or even the years when he lived. We know that he lived in a Bronze Age culture about 3,500 years ago. This culture in northeastern Iran or southwestern Afghanistan had a religious tradition which was polytheistic and which included the ritual use of intoxicants and hallucinogenic materials.
Zoroaster’s vision revealed to him that there was only one god who should be worshipped: Ahura Mazda. This god, the only true god, was the beginning and the end, and the creator of both the world which can be seen and the world which cannot be seen. Ahura Mazda is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), omnipresent (present everywhere), unchanging, and impossible for humans to conceive.
The five supernaturals, known as Amesha Spentas (“Holy Immortals”), are not gods, but are emanated from Ahura Mazda just as light rays are emanated from the sun. The Amesha Spentas are the divine attributes of Ahura Mazda and helped in the creation of the world. Each is associated with a particular aspect of creation.
In Zoroaster’s vision, Ahura Mazda was engaged in a struggle with the evil spirit Angra Mainyu. Ahura Mazda created humanity so that they could take part in the great struggle between good and evil. For this purpose, the people were given free will. Each individual has a moral responsibility for each action taken and every person has the opportunity to reinforce goodness in the world. When all humans choose good (asha) over evil (druj), then Ahura Mazda will triumph over Angra Mainyu and with this Heaven and Earth will unite. By aligning themselves with righteousness against evil, humans will receive bliss and benefit in the next existence. In his book Religions, Philip Wilkinson writes:
“Zoroastrians place a strong emphasis on freedom of moral choice and encourage believers to make good moral decisions in every aspect of their lives. The spiritual sphere is not considered any more important than the physical—Ahura Mazda created both body and soul, and we should live well in both.”
Zoroaster’s vision resulted in the establishment of Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. For more than a thousand years, Zoroastrianism was one of the most powerful religions in the world and was the official religion of Persia (now known as Iran) from 600 BCE to 650 CE.
Like many other revealed religions, Zoroastrianism was originally an oral tradition. Philip Wilkinson writes:
“Zarathustra’s ideas, which probably drew upon prehistoric Indo-Iranian religion and share common elements with early Hinduism, were first transmitted orally. Eventually Zarathustra’s followers wrote down his hymns.”
With regard to Zoroaster’s hymns, known as the Gathas, Willard Oxtoby, in his entry on Zoroastrianism in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, reports:
“In them, Zoroaster seeks reassurance that good will ultimate triumph over evil and that Ahura Mazda will be a protector to him in his prophetic mission.”
In the seventh century CE, Islam began to spread across Persia and soon Zoroastrians found themselves as a minority which often faced persecution. In the tenth century, a group of Persian Zoroastrians fled their homeland seeking religious freedom and settled in India where they became known as Parsis.
While Zoroastrianism was once one of the world’s great religions and was influential in the formation of the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), today the religion has only about 200,000 practitioners.
