Many religions have holy books: among the Jews this is the Torah, among Christians this is the Bible. Muslims honor the Qur'an, Buddhists - Tripitaku, Hindus generally have a whole library of sacred literature. And among the Zoroastrians this is Avesta.
A brief explanation of the essence of Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism - the oldest of the monotheistic prophetic religions, still exists.
Translated as "Good faith."
Zoroastrians are mistakenly called fire worshipers. In fact, this is not so: fire in the Zoroastrian tradition is a key element - this is a “portrait” of Ahur Mazda.
Zoroastrians do not worship fire as a god, but endlessly worship it as a source of light and heat, as well as a symbol of purification and self-purification. The fact is that any other element capable of self-cleaning can not be updated in a matter of moments, time must pass before the water, earth or air is cleaned. And the fire can both cleanse and cleanse itself in an extremely short time.
They also do not consider the sun to be their god; the sun is the eye of Ahur Mazda.
Ahura (Lord) Mazda (the Wise), or Ohrimazd - the Creator of the World, the supreme deity of the Aryans in Zoroastrian cosmogony.
Our world is a training ground for the struggle between Good and Evil
Ahura Mazda - the embodiment of goodness, justice, truth and other positive qualities.
His opponent is called Ahriman, or Angra Mainyu - the embodiment and source of absolute evil, the god of darkness and death.
He is the twin brother of Ahur Mazda, and the twins, even in simple real life, almost always oppose each other.
But in our history, the confrontation is serious: the whole world is at stake.
The deity of Ahura Mazda created our world, people, animals, birds, fish and insects, plants, mountains, water, earth, air and fire. He endowed people with free will - this is an important aspect - and called them into assistants in the fight against evil. Useful animals, which are called good in Zoroastrianism, are also connected to this struggle on the side of Ahur Mazda.
Ahriman, in turn, created diseases, hunger, darkness, death. He created poisonous plants, snakes, rodents, harmful insects and other harmful representatives of the fauna so that they would help him in the war against the Good. He also took advantage of the fact that people were created with free will, and tried in every way to draw a person to his side.
In the embodied world, Ahriman has no power, either spiritual or physical. He himself can not do anything.
And empowering the god of darkness is none other than people who are endowed with free will and can act as they please.
The main struggle between Good and Evil is within us
I thought a bad thought, said a bad word, did an evil deed - rendered service to Ahriman.
People, thanks to free will, act both on the side of Light and on the side of Darkness, committing certain actions that begin with thoughts.
If a person lives righteously, he purifies this world from darkness, expels evil from the planet with the help of good, truth and justice. In the same way, this principle works in the opposite direction: if a person does not live the truth, does evil, he gives evil energy to Ahriman, who begins to win on this battlefield.
Zoroastrians call themselves the word "hamkar" - an employee. All people on the planet are employees of either Ahura Mazda or Ahriman at different points in their lives. Representatives of Zoroastrianism serve Ahura Mazda in the name of order in this world, the key moral commandments: good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
As a result, according to the Avesta, the forces of Good will prevail.
In Zoroastrianism there is Paradise and Hell
After death, a person’s soul wanders, then comes to Chinvat Bridge, where he will be judged by his deeds, after which the deceased’s own soul will appear to him and lead him to where the judges decided: to Paradise or Hell.
In Paradise, heavenly bliss awaits the soul, and in Hell, visiting Ahriman, hellish torments await the soul of a wicked one.
Avesta - what is it
Avesta is a scripture written in Aryan. Modern scholars call this language Avestan or Gatic - from the word "ghats." Ghats are hymns authored by Zarathushtra himself.
The Avesta consists of 21 Nazca (parts), it is so many words that the main prayer formula of Akhuna Vai-rya contains in itself. This formula of Ahura Mazda was personally dictated by Zarathushtra, saying that he had uttered it before embodying our world, and thanks to this formula he overthrew Ahriman, bound him and plunged into darkness for three thousand years.
There are only 21 words in prayer, but in order to explain this prayer formula, a whole chapter was written with explanations and comments.
The meaning of the word "avesta": the response of the gods, clear combined instructions.
The first seven parts contain prayer and theological texts, gatas - hymns, the content of which is the glorification and praise of the Creator of the World Ahur Mazda, the establishment of law and order, and also tells about the origin of the world and humanity.
The following seven parts describe astronomy, history (by the way, the Avesta is still an important historical document), medicine and all kinds of rites.
The last seven parts include a description of the laws of ethics and the existence of man in society. The modern constitutions of many countries owe their existence to the Avesta, it was for the first time that human rights were spelled out in it.
The sacred texts mention equality between men and women. Moreover, good animals are also equated with a person: after all, they are fighting along with a person to spread good and deprive the evil energy of Ahriman.
The first texts of the scripture Zarathushtra dictated to his disciples, later they were transmitted by the priests word of mouth, based on these records and was compiled by the Avesta.
In the III century BC, the sacred Avestan alphabet was composed, thanks to this the Avesta holy book was edited for the last time.
The final canonical form of the Avesta acquired by the VI century AD.
Some parts of the Avesta were destroyed by Alexander the Great during the Persian campaign. Gold ink, which was written on specially crafted cowhide skins (of which there were more than 20,000 pieces), he simply remelted. In Iran, they still do not like Macedonian, they call him "the damned Iskander."
Later, all these texts were recreated.
Nowadays, the Avesta is a holy book that is honored by the Zoroastrians living on the planet, and for other people it is a monument to the common literary heritage.
The Avesta Museum is located in the city of Khiva in Uzbekistan.
In Zoroastrianism, great importance is attached to knowledge of the Avesta.
Avesta in Europe
Avesta texts appeared on the European continent in the 18th century thanks to the French Orientalist Abraham Hyacinth Anketil-Duperron.
The scientist enlisted on an expedition that went to India, where he made friends with Zoroastrian priests. For 13 years, Duperron studied the Avestan language and the sacred texts of the Avesta, all this was taught by his fellow priests.
Zarathushtra and its religion
The Prophet Ahura Mazda and the founder of Zoroastrianism Zarathushtra Spitama was born in the east of Greater Iran into a nomad family.
The date of birth of the prophet is not known for certain, but scholars believe that the birth of Zarathushtra took place from the VI to V century BC.
In those days, compatriots of Zarathushtra worshiped the fire gods Agni, the water of Varuna, the wind of Vayu and many others. Therefore, the boy grew up in a pagan environment, at the age of 7 he joined the religion of his people, at 15 he even became a priest thanks to his poetic gift: he composed beautiful hymns and other chants for pagan rites.
When Zarathushtra was 20 years old, he decided to become a hermit and went to wander in different villages in search of wisdom and divine revelation.
He who seeks will always find, and after 10 years of wandering, a revelation has appeared to him. Once, on a warm spring morning, Zarathushtra went to the river to get water, with which to prepare a ritual drink called haoma.
Having collected water, Zarathushtra set off on his return trip, when he suddenly saw something that surprised him. It was a radiant figure that beckoned him along. The man went after the figure, and she led him to six other similar figures, among whom was Ahura Mazda in person.
Zarathushtra several times met with Ahura Mazda. During these meetings, Zarathushtra had to go through 3 tough trials, after which Ahura Mazda was convinced that this person can be trusted, and revealed divine revelations to him, answered all kinds of questions, dictated texts for the Avesta.
At first, compatriots of Zarathushtra took a fundamentally new teaching with hostility, persecution of the prophet began, and he had to leave his native land.
After 10 years of wandering, Zarathushtra finally received a gracious welcome from King Vishtaspa, who was imbued with a new teaching.
Zarathushtra acquired the official status of the country's religious teacher, honors and respect from the inhabitants of that region.
The prophet was married three times, from these marriages he had six children. One of the sons of the prophet became the high priest of Zoroastrianism.
Zarathushtra lived 77 years, he foresaw his death and began to prepare for it in 40 days, spending these days in prayers and performing rituals.
After the death of the prophet, the religion he founded not only continued to exist, but strengthened and spread throughout the countries of the Middle and Near East, as well as in several countries of Hindustan.
Zoroastrianism acquired the status of the state religion in the 3rd century AD.
Zoroastrianism in recent history
In our time, this religion is not so widespread, it was supplanted by other religions, but about 138,000 officially registered Zoroastrians live on Earth. There are Zoroastrian communities in Russia as well as in the CIS; they, like everyone else, venerate the Avesta. What do the Slavs mean by this word? A-Vesta is the first message.
The happiness of those who wish others happiness is the main moral rule of the Zoroastrians.