Iran, which in ancient times, under the name of Persia, stretched over vast territories and had successive kingdoms and empires of great brilliance in the history of civilisation, owes many valuable spiritual aspects that any scholar of humanity and particularly of religion, art, ethics, philosophy and spirituality should know at least a little about.
This short text is an invitation to study the religiosity and spirituality of this historic civilisation and its people, and will briefly and almost superficially, given the complexity and subtlety of Mazdeism or Zoroastrianism, touch on a few aspects: the conception of Divinity in its transcendence, immanence and qualities, the vision of its manifestation, or descent to Earth or avatarisation, and the presence of heavenly spirits among us. Although many centuries have passed since the hymns, texts, dialogues and rites shone in their genesis, transformations and splendour, since Madzeism is one of the oldest historical religions, probably born between the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, we believe that whenever, in a sincere quest, we study, think and meditate on the Divinity with aspiration and love, and from a good conception, some openness or connection between It and us is re-established, which is very beneficial, amid the superficialisation and dispersion of modern day-to-day life, both for us immortal spirits and for Humanity.
The Persians achieved a vision, or came to a conception, of God or the Supreme Divinity, called Ahura (Lord) Mazda (Wisdom), for some better translated as the Sublime Wisdom, also called Hormazd, and expressed it in various hymns and texts, surviving well expressed in one of the gathas, or hymns of Zoroaster, or of whoever wrote in his name:
When I conceived You, O Mazda,
As the First and the Last,
As the Most Adorable,
As the Progenitor of Good Thought,
As the Creator of the eternal Law of Truth and Light,
As the Lord Judge of our actions in Life,
Make room then in my vision for You.
Gathas: Yasna, or ch. 31-8.
They also discerned that Ahura Mazda had his holy or kindly aspect or spirit, Spenta (beneficent, increaser) Mainyu (spirit), and was the creator and preserver of a cosmic order (Asa, or asha), which was based on certain principles and qualities of his, the Amesha Spenta, explained as good mind (vohu mana), righteousness (asha), self-control or mastery (khshatra, hence the kshatryas in India, the other Indo-European branch, the warrior caste, and hence the strong presence of a spiritual cavalry in Iran), serenity (armayti), fulfilment (hauvartat) and immortality (ameratat, the same as the Indian amrita). These Amesha Spenta can therefore be identified both as six divine qualities and as great individualised celestial spirits, and it is believed that Jews and Christians formed the notion of Archangels from them.
It wasn't until later, as they weren't mentioned in Zoroaster's primordial hymns or gathas, that the participation of the celestial counterpart of every human being, the Fravashi, was added to Divine Providence on Earth.
Originally, Zoroastrianism was not a dualistic religion and it was only later that it was considered that the Divinity, with its emanations of light and good, was opposed by a being and mental state called Angra Mainyu, or Ahrimam, so that Life had to be seen as a struggle between good and evil, in the heavens, but not so much with Ahura Mazda, but between Spenta and Angra, and even more so, of course, on earth between evil beings and those who are just or kind, and this kind of Guardian Angel, Fravashi, then came into play.
It's therefore not surprising that the Iranians have never liked or accepted the name given to them by US or Western imperialism: the axis of evil. For them, for well-founded and constantly proven reasons, the source of evil on Earth is ignorance, arrogance, ambition and violence, and in recent times especially Western imperialism, which has caused so much conflict and suffering.
Although the impact on the three Religions of the Book (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) is more widely recognised, the ever-changing Iranian religion also influenced Mahayana Buddhism, taking hold in the first centuries in the area of the Indo-Scythian kingdoms in eastern Iran, and from there spreading to Chinese Turkestan, China, Korea and Japan.
The first translators of Buddhist texts into Chinese were the Parthians from Persia, and through their influence the figure of Sakya Muni (Buddha, the silent sage of the Sakya clan) diminished, while that of the luminous beings and future Buddhas, the bodhisattvas, such as Amitabha Buddha, of the Infinite Light and who presides over the paradise of the West, sukhavati, similar to the land of Light or lucidity of Manichaeism, the religion that succeeded Zoroastrianism, grew.
Now it will be another bodhisattva Maitreya or Ajita who will correspond to Mitra invictus, the invincible Sun, and above all to the Saoshyant of Zoroastrianism, that divine manifestation who will come to bring the full Light to Earth, something that Jews and Christians, with the idea of the Messiah, and Islam, with the final coming of the prophet, especially the Shi'a, the majority in Iran and Iraq, who most believe in such a coming, through the unveiling of the hidden 12th imam, the Madhi.
The coming of the divine envoy promised by Zoroaster had a correspondence in human beings, and nothing racist but universalist, as he explained in Yasna 48, 12:
‘The saviours (Saoshyants) who will come from the peoples
are those who, through good thought (vohuman),
commit themselves by their actions to fulfil
the duties that you, Mazda, Sublime Wisdom,
have transmitted as true justice. ’
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| Capa
de livro trazido da Índia quando estive em Bombaim em diálogo com um
sacerdote madzeísta ou parsi: Zoroastro resplandecente |
This aspect of the avatarisation or descent of the Divinity, in the dimension of initiatic Zoroatrism and the Perennial Wisdom, and which touches or is incumbent upon all of us, was explained in an even more spiritual way by a notable scholar and connoisseur of the sacredness of Iran, Henry Corbin, by the following phrase and idea:
‘The bond that unites each believer with the Saoshyant to come, the bond that makes him also a Saoshyant in this world, results from his realising or fulfilling the pre-existential choice [in the primordial emanation or before incarnating] of his fravarti or fravashi (his angelic counterpart, his heavenly Self): to make manifest, or to be, the world of Light.’
- Ó Fravashi, Fravashi...
How many of us are faithful to the call, the inspirations, the illuminations of our Guardian Angel, our Fravashi, our Spiritual Self, the divine face (or conception) that we love and adore the most? How many times during the day do we cultivate these connections, through prayer, breathing, giving thanks, meditating, sacrificing, loving?
Let's be more lucid in what forms and disinforms us, let's fight more creatively for the Light, the Good and the Truth and let's courageously radiate them in encounters with the forces of ignorance, lies, hatred, cruelty and therefore Evil that surround us so much today, so that we can deserve to feel the spiritual, celestial and Divine presence or connection in our heart and true being, and thus generate more lucid, peaceful and loving Earth in Humanity and the Cosmos in solidarity and multipolarity...
This text was written in portuguese, and today 0.9.24, translatd to english.
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