Zarathustra’s Hymns — The Gathas
The Teaching
With outspread hands in petition for that help, O Mazda, first of all things I will pray for the works of the holy spirit, O Thou the Right, whereby I may please the will of Good Thought.
I who would serve you, O Mazda Ahura, and Good Thought — do ye give through the Right the blessings of both worlds, the bodily and that of Thought, which set the faithful in felicity.
I who have set my heart on watching over the soul, in union with Good Thought, shall, as long as I have power and strength, teach men to seek after Right.
Commentary
The Gathas of Zarathustra are among the oldest surviving spiritual texts in the world, possibly 3,500 years old, presenting a vision of the cosmos as the arena of a fundamental choice between Truth (Asha) and Lie (Druj).
This is not simplistic moral dualism. The deeper Zoroastrian insight, that every conscious being participates in the ongoing creation and maintenance of cosmic order through their choices, is the same as the Buddhist teaching on karma, the Stoic teaching on living according to the Logos.
Zarathustra is identified by some scholars as having influenced the Platonic tradition, Jewish apocalyptic thought, and through both, early Christianity. The angels, the Last Judgment, the resurrection, all may have roots in Zoroastrian cosmology.
Themes
Connections 6
Arose apart
No known transmission between Stoicism and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape.
Unsure
Persian rule from 539 BCE (Isaiah 45 calls Cyrus ‘anointed’). Persian influence on Jewish angels, resurrection and the end-times is argued, not settled.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hermeticism and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Taoism and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape. Zoroastrian temples stood in Tang Chang’an, but no exchange of ideas is known.
Unsure
Contact through Persia (the Magi of Matthew 2; the Church of the East under the Sasanians). Zoroastrian influence on Christian end-times, by way of Judaism, is argued.