Over 3700 years ago, in the plains of Central Asia, God called upon a man to proclaim His "Manthra" (thought-provoking message) to humanity. This man was Zarathushtra Spitaman. He was The "Manthran" - the harbinger of God's thought-provoking message.

THE MESSAGE OF ZARATHUSTRA

The world will forever be indebted to this unique thinker, for his message to mankind and the religion that he founded has influenced all later religions. This man and the religion he gave humanity, is a FIRST in many ways.

Zarathushtra was the founder of the first religion on record. He was the first to preach Monotheism. He was the first to proclaim a message for ALL mortals - a universal message. He was the first to preach equality of all regardless of race, gender, class or nationality. At a time when mankind was barely out of the Stone Age, when might was right, he proclaimed that a leader must be "chosen" thereby for the very first time in history, sowing the seeds of democracy!

Zarathushtra claimed to have received a vision from God, a God he called Mazda Ahura, the Wise God. His God is one who cherishes all his living creation and wishes to promote its freshness and preservation. He wants that mortals actively aid him and work as His co-workers in this task of promotion and preservation of His "Good Creation". This "Manthran" was thus the first to introduce us to the concept of "ecology" some 3700 years ago!

The Gathas. Zarathushtra's sublime message to mankind is so simple that it is contained in a small book of 17 songs called "The Gathas of Zarathushtra". The word "Gatha" means songs or hymns. Yet this small book contains many profound and unique truths and to comprehend which it is important to understand certain Gathic concepts.

Gathic Concepts

1. Spenta Mainyu: Zarathushtra sees the world as creation of a Divinity, whom he calls Ahura Mazda (dealt with in detail later), which He created with his Spenishta Mainyu, His Most Progressive Mentality. To understand this concept of "Spenta" or "Progressive" one needs to understand 'progressive', in the sense of incremental, augmenting, evolving, growing, uplifting and edifying. The word "Mainyu" has been translated by Western scholars as "Spirit". However, linguistically it has no association with the spirit in the western sense. It is simply a way of thinking about life or reality. A more appropriate explanation would be a mindset, a sense, a mental inclination or disposition. The antithesis of this Progressive Mentality is the evil, wrongful, retarding, hindering, destroying Mentality which is termed as Aka Mainyu.

2. Asha: In Zarathushtra's theology Asha is the Ordering Principle of Creation. In the physical world Asha is what can be defined as an amalgam of laws that uphold the Cosmos. But in human lives Asha translates as what is Righteousness, Order and Truth.

3. Vohu Manah: According to Zarathushtra human beings are endowed with Vohu Manah (the Good Mind), which enables them to comprehend Asha, and make the right choices that make the living world progress towards Asha.

4. Spenta Aramaiti: This concept has been translated differently by various scholars. Some translate it as Serenity, some as Right-mindedness, some as Piety, some as Devotion and some as Benevolence. Perhaps there is no one English word that can describe it. But it is generally agreed that it is that inherent quality in human beings that spurs them to translate good thinking into actions that are in accord with Asha.

5. Khshathra Vairya: This is Ahura Mazda's Ideal Dominion. In our world it may be translated as the ideal social order which Man must strive for.

6. Haurvatat: It is that state of perfection on Earth, that ideal that God wishes mankind to achieve.

7. Ameretat: A state of immortality, non-deathness is referred to in the Gathas as Ameretat. (These concepts will be dealt with in detail later)

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FIRST PART The Origin of Monotheism, Backgrounds of the Bible, Zoroastrianism, History, Zarathushtra Biography, Restored Zoroastrianism, The Gathas explained, SECOND PART The complete Gathas in original language, with English translations and annotations. ( linked to from the first part ) SHORT VERSION (prev. edition) Same content, just shorter. less extensive explanations, No original Gatha language, no annotations, English translations only. Download for US$ 5,-

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                                           ZARATHUSHTRA'S LIFE AND TIMES

The life of Zarathushtra has been shrouded under a cloud of history. To this date there are controversies regarding his name, his date of birth, his birthplace and his life. Tradition tells us that Zarathushtra was born into the Spitama clan. His father was Pourushaspa.

The literal translation of that name means "full of horses" which leads us to believe that he was a horse breeder or rancher. His mother's name was Dughdhova, which translates as a "milkmaid". Many myths and legends have been handed down about his birth and life, but cannot be vouched for with any degree of authenticity or certainty. Read more about Zarathushstra's life and livings in the e-book.

Zarathushtra is believed to have lived at a time when the world was emerging from the prehistoric Stone Age. However varied views have been presented regarding the birth date of Zarathushtra. Starting with 100 AD, they date all the way back to 6800 BC! The priests of the Sassanian dynasty placed him to have been born a mere 100 or so years before Cyrus the king of the Achaemenian dynasty. However Greek historians have placed him in a much older era. Early western scholars of the Avesta (the scripture of the Zoroastrians) placed him much closer to the present.

James Darmesteter even theorized that Zarathushtra lived after Christ and that he has plagiarized the Bible because much of the Iranian doctrine was like the Christian one! Scholars like Anquetil du Perron, Herzfeld, Henning and West placed Zarathushtra in 600 BC or 700 BC. Others like Bartholomaw and Widengren went back to 900BC, while Rudolph and Jackson placed him at 1000BC. Mills at first dated him to 900BC and later to 1500BC. Pour Davoud, Hummel and Haug have given a date around 1100BC. The Bundahishn, a Pahlavi book, dates Zarathushtra as 258 years before Alexander's conquest of Persia, or 588 BC.

This date has been identified as the "traditional" date. Persian historians Birouni and But and many other authors have rejected this date and we have Azarghoshasb placing Zarathushtra at 3500 BC, Kavasji and Bharucha at 4000-6000 BC and Katrak at 6600 BC. More scholars have presented Zarathushtra as follows due to archeological evidences, but for a more complete number of references the reader is invited to acquire "Zoroastrian Doctrine and Biblical Connections" by Daryoush Jahanian.

1. In 1984, Asgarov in the Ozbakistan's (In the old USSR) excavations, uncovered ruins of a Zoroastrian temple estimated to belong to around 2000 BC.

2. Lommel and Meyer note that in one of the inscriptions of Sargon the Assyrian King, dated 714 B.C., allusion has been made to Mazdaku, a Median ruler. This name could be translated as "belonging to Mazda", which according to them could only mean that the Mede upper classes were Zarathushtrian, probably centuries before that. But these are only some of the historical and archeological indications of a very ancient date for Zarathushtra.

The great scholar James H. Moulton presented a theory, based on archeological data that pointed to the split of the Aryans into two migratory groups around 2000 BC. One of these went into modern day Iran and the other into India and Afghanistan. Since there was a reversal in the role of divinities between Iran and India, where daevas became gods and asuras (Iranian ahuras) became demons, while in Iran the opposite happened, Moulton theorized that the division came about as a result of Zarathushtra´s teaching against the daevas. But the main testimony, for a very ancient date for the Iranian Manthran is linguistical.

The RigVedas and the Gathas are contemporary and their language is extremely close. There are certain persons that appear in both. Since the earliest RigVedas have been dated to before 1500 BC, we are now certain that Zarathushtra lived at least at that time and probably centuries before, since the RigVedas were sung many years before they were put into writing. The importance of Zarathushtra's date will become evident when we study the influences this ancient Persian religion had on both Eastern and Western religions.

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