One of the great masters of mankind, Rabindranath Tagore [1861-1941, and I have many texts about him in this blog], wrote a very valuable text on Iranian soul and religious history that is very useful in our days when USA and Israel are trying to vilify, opress and destroy Iran, in a very treacherous attack and bombardment and with so much ignorance about the dignity and bravure of Iranian people being shown by the western politicians and medias. Surely, many times it will be not just ignorance but also hate of Iran, the fighters for truth and justice, as Rabindranath Tagore describes them.
In our days, in USA, Donald Trump, his secretaries of State and advisers are of such an utter ignorance only compared to their arrogance and hubris, and are all the time misleading people and trying to portray Iranian government as a terrorist regime when the inverse is the reality, as is patent for every sincere seeker of the truth.
The megalomanic Trump, the brutality of the fanatical warmongers secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Lyndsey Graham and others, with their pride and vanity, hate and envy is seen and exposed wherever they spoke, specially in conferences and interviews.
They lie so much, so much, that who can rely on them, who can hold any negotiation with them, like the sincere and brave Iranian people, they will broke any guarantee, as they think that are from the superior elite or race or religion, misleading the patriotics of Maga, and the evangelicals, these ones with fake blessings and fake prophecies, expectations and missions, the one most abhorrent is the confession by some servicemen that their comander was saying or instructing them that Trump is an envoy of God to begin the Armagedon and then the return of Jesus for the Last Jugement, as it is told in imaginative and fake Apocalyps, surely not of S. John. And there is people so ignorant, so brainwashed that believe on what such hypocrites and fake believers say...
Indeed the Old Testament is so full of lies and mystifications, with a notion of God, Yahave, so primitive and violent, so full of laws and prescriptions, racism and supremacy, that only fanatics maintain that level of understanding or expect still today the Messias to come, or become impressed by some crazy evangelical advisers of Trump imposing the hands over him for the war on Iran.
As Rabindranath Tagore touched some of these aspects, let us read him in his so simple as precious introduction to The Divine Songs of Zarathustra, published by Dinshad Jijibhai Irani and Irach J. S. Taraporewala, hundred years ago, in which I have jus underlined the best parts to be meditated. And I would suggest with this beautiful song of the Zarathusthra: Главная авестийская мантра ou sob este título: AHUNA VAIRYA - MANTRA ( ZOROASTRISMO)
«The most important of all outstanding facts of Iranian
history is the religious reform brought about by
Zarathushtra. He was the first man we know who
gave a definitely moral character and direction to
religion, and at the same time preached the doctrine
of monotheism, which offered an eternal foundation of
reality to goodness as an ideal of perfection. All
religions of the primitive type try to keep men bound
with regulations of external observances. These, no
doubt, have the hypnotic effect of vaguely suggesting
a realm of right and wrong; but the dimness of their
light produces phantasms leaving men to aberrations.
Zarathushtra was the greatest of all the pioneer prophets who showed the path of freedom to men, the
freedom of moral choice, the freedom from blind
obedience to unmeaning injunctions, freedom from
the multiplicity of shrines which draw our worship
away from the single-minded chastity of devotion. To
most of us it sounds like a truism to-day when we are told that the moral goodness of a deed comes from
the goodness of intention. But it is a truth which once came to a man like a revelation of light in the
darkness and has not yet reached all the obscure corners
of humanity. There are men we still see around us
who fearfully follow, hoping thereby to gain merit,
the path of blind formalisms, which have no living
moral source in the mind. This will make us understand the greatness of Zarathushtra. Though surrounded by believers in magical rites, he proclaimed in
those dark days of unreason, that religion has its truth
in its moral significance, not in external practices of
imaginary value; that it is to uphold man in his life
of good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
The outer expression of truth reaches its white light
of simplicity through its inner realisation. True
simplicity is the physiognomy of perfection. In the
primitive stage of spiritual growth, when man is dimly
aware of the mystery of the infinite in his life and the
world, when he does not fully know the inward
character of his relationship with this truth, his first
feeling is either that of dread or of a greed of gain.
This drives him into wild exaggeration in worship, into
frenzied convulsion of ceremonialism. But in Zarathushtra’s teachings, which are best reflected in his
Gathas, we have hardly any mention of the ritualism
of worship. Conduct and its moral motives, such as
Vohumano, Asha and Aramaiti, have received almost
the sole attention in them.
The orthodox Persian form of worship in ancient Iran
included animal sacrifices and offering of haoma to the
daevas. That all this should be discountenanced by
Zarathushtra not only shows his courage, but the
strength of his realisation of the Supreme Being as
Spirit. We are told that it has been mentioned by
Plutarch: ‘ Zarathushtra taught the Persians to
sacrifice to Ahura Mazda ‘ vows and thanksgivings.’ The distance between faith in the efficacy of bloodstained magical rites and cultivation of moral and
spiritual ideals as the true form of worship is immense.
It is amazing to see how Zarathushtra was the first
among men who crossed this distance with a certainty
of realisation which imparted such a fervour of faith
in his life and his words. The truth which filled his
mind was not a thing borrowed from books or received
from teachers. He did not come to it by following a
prescribed path of tradition. It flashed upon him as
an illumination of his entire life, almost like a communication to his personal self, and he proclaimed
the utmost immediacy of his knowledge in these words :
“When I conceived of Thee, O Mazda, as the very
First and the Last, as the most Adorable One, as the
Father of Good Thought, as the Creator of Truth and
Right, as the Lord Judge of our actions in life, then
I made a place for Thee in my very eyes.’’—Yasna, 31-8.
(Translation by D. J. Irani.)
It was the direct stirring of his soul which made
him say :—
“Thus do I announce the Greatest of all. I weave
my songs of praise for Him through Truth, helpful
and beneficent to all that live. Let Ahura Mazda
listen to them with His Holy Spirit, for the Good
Mind instructed me to adore Him; by His Wisdom
let Him teach me about what is best.’’-—Yasna, 45-6.
The truth which is not reached through the analytical process of reasoning, and does not depend for proof
on some corroboration of outward facts, or the prevalent faith and practice of the people—the truth,
which comes like an inspiration out of context with
its surroundings, brings with it an assurance that it
has been sent from a divine source of wisdom; that
the individual who has received it is specially chosen —
and therefore has his responsibility as the messenger
of God. Zarathushtra felt this sacredness of his mission —
and believed himself to be the direct medium of communication of Divine Truth.
So long as man deals with his God as the dispenser of benefits to the worshipper, who knows the secret —
of propitiating him, he tries to keep him for his own
self or for the tribe to which he belongs. But directly —
the moral or spiritual nature of God is apprehended, this knowledge is thrown open to all humanity; and
then the idea of God, which once gave unity only to
a special people, transcends limitations of race and —
gathers together all human beings within one spiritual
circle of union. Zarathushtra was the first prophet
who emancipated religion from the exclusive narrow-
ness of the tribal God, the God of a chosen people,
and offered it to the universal man. This is a great
fact in the history of religion. The Master said, when
the enlightenment came to him:
“Verily I believe Thee, O Ahura Mazda, to be the
Supreme Benevolent Providence, when Sraosha [o Anjo ou a voz da Consciência] came
to me with the Good Mind, when first I received
and became wise with Thy words! And though
the task be difficult, though woe may come to me,
I shall proclaim to all mankind Thy message, which
Thou declarest to be the best.’—Yasna, 43-II.
He prays to Mazda:
“This I ask Thee, tell me truly, O Ahura, the
religion that is best for all mankind—the religion,
based on truth, which should prosper all that is mine,
the religion which establishes our actions in order and
Justice by the Divine Songs of Perfect Piety, which
has, for its intelligent desire of desires, the desire for
Thee, O Mazda !’’—Yasna, 44-10.
With the undoubted assurance and hope of one who
has got a direct vision of Truth he speaks to the world :
“ Hearken unto me, Ye, who come from far and
near! Listen, for I shall speak forth now; ponder
well over all things, weigh my words with care and
clear thought. Never shall the false teacher destroy
this world for a second time; for his tongue stands
mute, his creed exposed.’””—Yasna, 45-1.
I think it can be said without doubt that such a
high conception of religion, uttered in such a clear
note of affirmation, with a sure conviction that it is a
truth of the ultimate ideal of perfection which must
be revealed to all humanity, even at the cost of martyrdom, is unique in the history of religion belonging to
such a remote dawn of civilisation.
There was a time when along with other Aryan
peoples the Persians also worshipped the elemental
gods of nature, on whose favour they depended for
the good things of life. But such favour was not to
be won by any moral duty performed or by any service
of love. In fact, it was the crude beginning of the
scientific spirit trying to unlock the hidden sources of
power in nature. But through it all there must have
been some current of deeper desire which constantly
contradicted the cult of power and indicated a world of inner good infinitely more precious than material gain. Its voice was not strong at first, nor was it
heeded by the majority of the people ; but its influence,
like the life within the seed, was silently working. Then
comes the great teacher; and in his life and mind the hidden fire of truth suddenly bursts out in a flame.
The best in the people works for long obscure ages in hints and whispers till it finds its voice, which can never again be silenced. For that voice becomes the
voice of mankind, no longer confined to a particular time or people. It works across intervals of silence
and oblivion, depression and defeat, and comes out again and again with its conquering call. It is a call
to the fighter—the fighter against untruth—against all that lures away man’s spirit from its high mission
of freedom into the meshes of materialism. And Zarathushtra’s voice is still a living voice, not a mere matter of academic interest for historical scholars who deal with the dead facts of the past. It is not a voice which is only to guide a small community of men in the daily details of their life. For have we
not seen that Zarathushtra was the first of all teachers who, in his religious teachings, sent his words to all human races across the distance of space and time ?
He was not like a man who by some chance of friction
had lighted a lamp, and knowing that it could not be
shared by all, secured it with a miser’s care for his
own domestic use. But he was the watcher in the
night, who stood on the lonely peak facing the East
and broke out singing the poems of light to the sleeping world when the sun came out on the brim of the
horizon. He declared that the sun of truth is for all, that its light is to unite the far and the near. Such a message always arouses the antagonism of those whose
habits have become nocturnal, whose vested interest is in the darkness. And there was a bitter fight in the
lifetime of the prophet between his followers and others who were addicted to the ceremonies that had
tradition on their side and not truth.
We are told that “‘ Zarathushtra was descended from a kingly family,’’ and also that the first converts
to his doctrines were of the ruling caste. But the priesthood, “the Kavis and the Karapans, often succeeded in bringing the rulers over to their side.’’ So
we find that, in this fight, the princes of the land
divided themselves into two opposite parties, as we find in India in the Kurukshetra war. ‘‘ With the
princes have the Kavis and the Karapans united, in order to corrupt man by their evil deeds.’’ Among
the princes that stood against Zarathushtra, as his enemies, the mighty Bendva might be _ included,
who is mentioned in Yasna, xlix, I-2.
From the
context we may surmise that he stood on the side of the infidels. A family or a race of princely
blood were probably the Grehma (Yasna, Xxxli, 12-14).
Regarding them it is said that they “having ailied with the Kavis and the Karapans, have established
their power in order to overpower the prophet and his
partisans. In fact, the opposition between the pious and the impious, the believers and the unbelievers,
seem very often to have led to open combat. The prophet prays to Ahura that he may grant victory
to his own, when both the armies rush together in combat, whereby they can cause defeat among the
wicked, and procure for them strife and trouble.”
There is evidence in our Indian legends that in ancient India also there have been fights between the representatives of the orthodox faith and the Kshatriyas,
who, owing to their own special vocation, had a comparative freedom of mind about the religion of external observances. The proofs are strong enough to lead us to believe that the monotheistic religious movement had its origin and principal support in the kingly caste of those days, though a great number of them fought
to oppose it.
I have discussed in another place the growth in ancient India of the moral and spiritual element in
her religion which had accompanied the Indian Aryan people from the time of the Indo-Iranian age, showing how the struggle with its antagonistic force has continued all through the history of India. I have shown how the revolution which accompanied the teachings
of Zarathushtra, breaking out into severe fights, had its close analogy in the religious revolution in India
whose ideals are still preserved in the Bhagavadgita.
It is interesting to note that the growth of the same ideal in the same race in different geographical
situations has produced results that, in spite of their unity, have some aspect of difference. The Iranian monotheism is more ethical, while the Indian is more
metaphysical in its character. Such a difference in their respective spiritual developments was owing, no
doubt, to the more active vigour of life in the old Persians and the contemplative quietude of mind in
the Indians. This distinction in the latter arises in a great measure out of the climatic conditions of the
country, the easy fertility of the soil and the great stretch of plains in Northern India affording no con-
stant obstacles in physical nature to be daily overcome by man, while the climate of Persia is more bracing and the surface of the soil more rugged. The Zoroastrian ideal has accepted the challenge of the
principle of evil and has enlisted itself in the fight on the side of Ahura Mazda, the great, the good, the wise. In India, although the ethical side is not absent,
the emphasis has been more strongly laid on subjective realisation through a stoical suppression of
desire, and the attainment of a perfect equanimity of mind by cultivating indifference to all causes of joy and sorrow. Here the idea, over which the minds of
men brooded for ages, in an introspective intensity of
silence, was that man as a spiritual being had to realise the truth by breaking through his sheath of
self. All the desires and feelings that limit his being are keeping him shut in from the region of spiritual
freedom.
In man the spirit of creation is waiting to find its ultimate release in an meffable illumination of Truth.
The aspiration of India is for attaining the infinite in
the spirit of man. On the other hand, as I have said before, the ideal of Zoroastrian Persia is distinctly ethical. It sends its call to men to work together
with the Eternal Spirit of Good in spreading and maintaining Kshatra, the Kingdom of Righteousness, against all attacks of evil. This ideal gives us our place as
collaborators with God in distributing His blessings
over the world.
‘‘ Clear is this all to the man of wisdom as to the man - who carefully thinks; he who upholds Truth with all the might of his power, he who upholds Truth the utmost in his word and deed, he, indeed, is thy most
valued helper, O Mazda Ahura! ’’—Yasna, 31-22.
It is, in fact, of supreme moment to us that the human world is in an incessant state of war between
that which will save us and that which will drag us into the abyss of disaster. Our one hope lies in the
fact that Ahura Mazda is on our side if we choose the right course.. The law of warfare is severe in its
character; it allows no compromise. “‘ None of you,” says Zarathushtra, ‘shall find the doctrine and pre-cepts of the wicked; because thereby he will bring grief and death in his house and village, in his land
and people! No, grip your sword and cut them down !’’—Yasna, xxxi, 18.
Such a relentless attitude of fight reminds us of the Old Testament spirit. The active heroic aspect of
this [Zoroastrian] religion reflects the character of the people themselves, who later on spread their conquests far and
wide and built up great empires by the might of their sword. They accepted this world in all seriousness.
They had zest in life and confidence in their own
strength. They belonged to the western half of Asia,
and their great influence travelled through the neighbouring civilisation of India and towards the Western
Continent. Their ideal was the ideal of the fighter.
By the force of their will and deed of sacrifice they
were to conquer haurvatat, welfare in this world, and
ameratat, immortality in the other. This is the best
ideal of the West, the great truth of fight. For Paradise has to be gained through conquest. That sacred
task is for the heroes, who are to take the right side
in the battle and the right weapons.» Rabindranath Tagore
By the grace of God and Asha, the fravashis and Imams, the victory shall be of Iran...
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