About Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is the ancient, pre-Islamic religion of Persia (modern-day Iran). It survives there in isolated areas but primarily exists in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Persian immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called ParsiismZoroastrianism
About
Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE, Zoroastrianism contains both monotheistic and dualistic features. Although a fairly small religion today, numbering about 200,000 adherents, it shares many central concepts with the major world religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Texts
The Zoroastrian sacred text is the Avesta (“Book of the Law”), a fragmentary collection of sacred writings. Compiled over many centuries, the Avesta was not completed until Persia’s Sassanid dynasty (226-641 AD).
It consists of: liturgical works with hymns ascribed to Zarathustra (the Gathas); invocations and rituals to be used at festivals; hymns of praise; and spells against demons and prescriptions for purification.
The Prophet, it is stated, laughed when he was born, the only child to do so, and Zoroastrianism stresses a life of abundance and joy. This religion of Joy teaches one that Happiness comes unto him who brings happiness to others. (Ys 43.1)
The Zoroastrian, man and woman, clad in the sacred armour of a white muslin Sudreh and girded with the Kusti woven from 72 threads of white lamb’s wool, is a soldier of Ahura Mazda – Lord of Light and Wisdom. Zoroastrianism believes that man has free will to either choose the life-enhancing forces of Asha and Harmony or strengthen Ahrimanic disharmony to take the world towards disorder.
“Hear with your ears, the Highest Truths I preach And with Illumined Minds, weigh them with care. Before you choose which of the two Paths to tread, Deciding man by man, each one for each.” (Ys 30.2)
Memories however, remain. The Oral tradition preserved the most important teachings: Humata Hukta Huvarashta: Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds; one’s own capacity to make one’s fate. Perhaps, this is the driving force behind the focus on action, as Zoroastrians spread across the world, be it in the worlds of science, commerce, education, philanthropy, the arts and crafts, even the multi-layered cuisine of the community.
The Zoroastrians have lived by a belief in the need to work towards the Frashokereti or the Glory at the end of Time when all will be made perfect. It has not been an easy journey but a Joyous Flame binds them together, their capacity to adapt to circumstances has enabled this population of less than 100,000 worldwide, to integrate both East and West. This is the people who came and have settled in Singapore for the past 200 years.
Beliefs
The Zoroastrian concept of God incorporates both monotheism and dualism. In his visions, Zarathustra was taken up to heaven, where Ahura Mazda revealed that he had an opponent, Aura Mainyu, the spirit and promoter of evil. Ahura Mazda charged Zarathustra with the task of inviting all human beings to choose between him (good) and Aura Mainyu (evil).
Zoroaster taught that man must enlist in this cosmic struggle because of his capacity of free choice. Thus Zoroastrianism is a highly ethical religion in which the choice of good over evil has cosmic importance. Zarathustra taught that humans are free to choose between right and wrong, truth and lie, and light and dark, and that their choices would affect their eternal destiny.
The Zoroastrian afterlife is determined by the balance of the good and evil deeds, words, and thoughts of the whole life. For those whose good deeds outweigh the bad, heaven awaits. Those who did more evil than good go to hell (which has several levels corresponding to degrees of wickedness). There is an intermediate stage for those whose deeds weigh out equally.
Many of Zoroaster’s ideas, including ethical monotheism, heaven, hell, angels, demons, the resurrection of the body, and the messiah figure, have notable parallels in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Practices
Today’s Zoroastrians (Parsis) practice an important coming of age ritual, in which all young Parsis must be initiated when they reach the age of seven (in India) or 10 (in Persia). They receive the shirt (sadre) and the girdle (kusti), which they are to wear their whole life.
Burial
Zoroastrian burial rites center on exposure of the dead. After death, a dog is brought before the corpse (preferably a “four-eyed” dog, i.e., with a spot above each eye, believed to increase the efficacy of its gaze). The rite is repeated five times a day. After the first one, fire is brought into the room where it is kept burning until three days after the removal of the corpse to the Tower of Silence. The removal must be done during the daytime.
The interior of the Tower of Silence is built in three concentric circles, one each for men, women, and children. The corpses are exposed there naked. The vultures do not take long—an hour or two at the most—to strip the flesh off the bones, and these, dried by the sun, are later swept into the central well. Formerly the bones were kept in an ossuary, the astodan, to preserve them from rain and animals. The morning of the fourth day is marked by the most solemn observance in the death ritual, for it is then that the departed soul reaches the next world and appears before the deities who are to pass judgment over it.
Three Types of Purification
Purification
- Padyab, or ablution
- Nahn, or bath
- Bareshnum, a complicated ritual performed at special places with the participation of a dog (whose left ear is touched by the candidate and whose gaze puts the evil spirits to flight) and lasting several days
The Zoroastrian system of penance entails reciting the patet, the firm resolve not to sin again, and the confession of sins to a dastur or to an ordinary priest if a dastur is not obtainable.
The chief ceremony, the Yasna, essentially a sacrifice of haoma (the sacred liquor), is celebrated before the sacred fire with recitation of large parts of the Avesta. There also are offerings of bread and milk and, formerly, of meat or animal fat.
The sacred fire must be kept burning continually and has to be fed at least five times a day. Prayers also are recited five times a day. The founding of a new fire involves a very elaborate ceremony. There are also rites for purification and for regeneration of a fire.