What is Zoroastrianism?

Zoroastrianism is a religion that not many people know too much about or have indeed ever heard of to sum the extent of that knowledge is that it's the religion that Freddie Mercury belonged to but the fact is or Astron ism historically speaking is one of the most important religions to have ever existed [Applause] the religion of Zoroastrianism is old it's very old it originates in what is today Iran in the region known as Persia with the appearance of the prophets and quote-unquote founder Zarathustra also known as Zoroaster in Greek now asked with similar ancient figures like him it's very very hard basically impossible to pin down an exact date for when he lived but scholars suggest that he might have lived around well between 1400 to 1200 BCE while others also say that it may have lived around 800 BCE so there isn't consensus about this the religion practiced in Persia prior to zarathustra's mission was a kind of polytheism or paganism very closely connected to the Vedic tradition in India from which other religions like Hinduism and Jainism and Buddhism also later developed this can be seen by the fact that many of the gods cross over between the two traditions but have slightly different names based on the language this includes gods like Saraswathi and Indra and and many others the deities worshipped by the Persians were associated with things like water and fire as well as natural phenomena or abstract concepts like love for wisdom the cult and worships running these deities included things like offerings and animal sacrifice all performed by a class of priests very similar to the Brahmins of the Indian context the prophet and founder Zarathustra most likely belonged to this class of priests it is said that he would wander around Persia looking for wisdom and truth and during these travels he would see a lot of injustice a lot of violence and just a lot of nasty stuff in general which would of course influence the very ethically based message that he would later convey and his life according to tradition is said to have changed dramatically one day when he was celebrating a spring festival and during this festival he went down to the water to fetch or fetch some water for the festival and after he had been standing in waist high water and returned to shore being thus ritually purified he then suddenly had an intense vision of light and in this light he experienced the presence of the god Ahura Mazda and six other radiant beings from which he then received his first revelation the god Ahura Mazda was nothing new to Zarathustra or the Persians he was a God who had been worshipped prior to this and whose name literally means Lord wisdom he was one of the more exalted gods in the pantheon belonging to a group of God's called the era's the Indian equivalent of which is a Shura but we're so unique about the revelation that Zarathustra received and that he would convey was that Ahura Mazda was no longer just some God he was now the one uncreated eternal God who was the creator of the world and of everything good hurah Mazda was the guardian and embodiment of a concept called Asha meaning the order of the universe and in a moral sense also represented things like righteousness and justice the opposite of this is a term called drudge synonymous with things like evil falsehood and violence these forces were not the creation of Ahura Mazda but by another immortal being called Angra Mainyu or the hostile spirit in the teachings of Zarathustra the world of creation is a constant battlefield between the forces of Asha and drudge between good and evil light and darkness Zarathustra himself left behind a collection of hymns known as the gothis which was first orally transmitted and then written down under the sasanian empire the gatha's can be considered these sort of most sacred scriptures to the sir astron and are part of a larger collection of sacred texts called the avesta the rest of which was written after Zoroaster or Zarathustra and by priests a question that quickly arises with this very strongly dualistic outlook is the very nature of Zoroastrianism theology some claim that Sir Astron ism is a monotheistic religion while others say that is a dualistic faith or dualistic theology scholars and zoroastrians alike have never really been able to agree on whether or not sir astron ism is a monotheistic religion or not but if it is that would be pretty significant because then it would be most likely the oldest monotheistic religion in the world that we know of scholars like Mary Boyce argues for the dualistic alternative describing Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu as equally uncreated opposing forces while others like Farhan Meir proposes a view where is our thirst rest original message was that there was but one God and dualistic forces were part of his creation thus below him but perhaps it's wiser to look at this from a more nuanced perspective and not try to define Zoroastrianism with such arbitrary and anachronistic really terms like monotheism or polytheism there have been other arguments like that of James Boyd and Donald Crosby who suggest that none of the above explanations are good enough instead they propose that quote in brief the interpretation we favor is that Sir Astron ism combines cosmogonic dualism and eschatological monotheism in a matter unique to itself among the major religions in the world this combination results in a religious outlook which cannot be categorized as either straightforward dualism or straightforward monotheism the fact is that the old Iranian or Persian pantheon of gods remain in the saw astron system at least according to later interpretations of its theological ideas when the Prophet had his first vision at the river it is said that he saw along with the hood a master himself a group of six lesser beings these are known as the spenta mainyu or six lesser divinities all representing different attributes of the high god like righteousness devotion and health while remaining hierarchically beneath him and sort of part of his creation there are sometimes considered emanations of Ahura Mazda were the symbolism of a torch lighting other torch used to describe this process of emanation another term used to describe these lesser divinities is ameesha spent us or holy immortals but this term is also used to refer to any lesser deity who emanates from Ahura Mazda and includes most of the old gods of the Pantheon thus worship and veneration of the old gods continued under Zoroastrianism and especially of the highest six divinities because these represented attributes of the high god hora Mazda and were thus worshiped separately the exception to this is another group of deities known as the Davis which also has an Indian equivalent of the same name these guards represent things like violence and war and thus they serve the hostile spirit Angra Mainyu rather than a Mazda and Zarathustra very strongly rejected any worship of these Devas these deities in Zoroastrian cosmology creation is seen as cyclical and often divided into three phases the first of which is called simply creation it's the first phase when how the Mazda God creates the world in a perfect state free from all evil and all darkness but as soon as this creation comes about the evil spirit Angra Mainyu attacks it and infiltrates it with darkness and an evilness and this starts the second phase known as mixture when both good and evil light in darkness exists alongside each other in the world and are battling this is the time we live in now so obviously giant pandas are the creation of Ahura Mazda while stepping in water with your socks on is clearly the creation of under menu human beings are also important players in this cosmic battle and much like the good deities have a responsibility to promote righteousness and goodness and expel evil and darkness from the world this is done in a number of ways but primarily through the basic moral principle that was laid down by Zarathustra which is good thoughts good words and good deeds thus humans and creation have a clear purpose and so Astron ISM that is to gradually expel the forces of Angra Mainyu of evil until the third and final phase is reached it's called separation creation is once again in a perfect paradisal state given the fact that Sir Arthur stressed message was so ethically based he introduced certain ideas that were revolutionary for his time for example in his thought people would be judged after death and this judgment would lead either to reward or punishment and most importantly departed souls were judged based on their actions in this life and not on things like riches or status which was the case in the earlier pagan religion thus reward was open to anyone and so was punishments we didn't matter if you were rich what status you had if you've been a bad person you would end up being punished after death if you had been deemed good and then you'll be able to cross a bridge into a paradise of delights but if you had been bad then that bridge would contract to the size of a blades edge and you would most likely fall down into hell a place of great torment and torture furthermore at the end of time when the Battle of good and evil is over all the bodies of the Dead will be resurrected and subjected to a Last Judgement Bonamassa after which you will either live in hell or remain in the paradise like land of the perfected creation which is now free from all evil and darkness in terms of practice or Astron isms gone through a number of developments throughout history though astron been rather negatively referred to as fire worshippers by the Muslim conquerors for example but this is a rather misleading term it is true that fire plays an important role in the practice and symbolism of the faith serving as the symbol for purity and God's wisdom and light fire as well as water appeared to have been a important part of ritual fuzzer Astron since the very inception but the appearance of things like fire temples or heightened platforms with fire altars appear to have been a much later development probably sometime in the again during the Achaemenid Empire but nonetheless fires and temples did become and still remain very important aspects of the faith and their practice connected to this fire and it's representation of purity is the idea of ritual purity which is one of the most important as Effects of this faith it is the duty of every person to keep clean because you know dirtiness or uncleanliness is an aspect or manifestation of evil and darkness this led to certain laws regarding ritual purity which unfortunately for example limited women and their movements during their menstrual periods for example because they were seen as unclean for its duration one can also see similar ideas expressed in the rather famous funerary rites of the Zoroastrians as the body was considered unclean and once the soul has departed from it the body was taken out to an open space where it would be eaten by animals and then the bones would later be collected to await the day of resurrection why should keep in mind that this is all connected to the cosmic battle between Asha and Raj and thus seen as a necessary and logical measure to fulfill our purpose in creation moreover another important ritual practice of Zoroastrianism is the celebration of seven yearly festivals all connected to these six Amisha spent thus the higher divinities and one also connected to fire which could be seen as the sort of lifeblood of all of them and the festival of fire is known as no rules or also known today as Persian New Year on the day of the spring equinox and this was meant originally to signify because the summer is coming to signify the partial and temporary victory of light over darkness the priests of Zoroastrianism is called Magi a term that was used by the Greeks to refer to the entire religion as well a fun fact is that according to the New Testaments there was three Magi that visited Jesus in Bethlehem women carrying gifts also known as sometimes as the three wise men in fact this connection to other religions is partly what makes or astron isms so special if you remember what I said in the beginning so astron ISM is arguably one of the most important religions in history and this is partly due to how much it has affected the religions of the world concepts introduced by the Zoroastrians like Heaven and Hell the Day of Resurrection and the Last Judgment as well as the dualistic cosmology with an evil adversary through God and his servants the Devas and even the idea of a coming say you're in Abrahamic terms in Messiah it is highly probable that these ideas made it into Judaism in the post exile period and thus very much influenced its development going forward these ideas were then later picked up by both Christianity and Islam and serves as some of the most fundamental aspects of these religions so it isn't entirely wrong to say that many of the fundamental principles of the three Abrahamic world religions as well as the Baha'i faith have their direct origins in Zoroastrianism and the teachings of Zarathustra after its initial spreads or asterism really only became a significant force on the world scene with the appearance of the Achaemenid Empire also known as the Persian Empire which adopted the ration ISM as a kind of state religion now this is the Empire of course with Cyrus the Great and barriers and Circe's and all these people its doctrines further developed over time and as it continued to serve as the state religion for the other empires to Silla kids and the sasanian x' it sort of remains strong right up into the time of the Arab invasion at the advent of Islam after which it kind of started to decline it is true that the conquering Muslims often gave us or Aston's I would say a hard time that for much of history since then they have been an oppressed minority but one should also remember that in many periods and by many people those westerns but also considered among the al-kitab the people of the book and thus they were considered protected people by the Muslims but this doesn't change the fact that oppression still happened of course temples were destroyed and so on but one should be careful not to use a reading of history that is too black or whites in any of the two extreme directions as a result of these historical circumstances many of those are Astraea new India and over time they're developed two rather distinct groups often referred to as on the one hand the iranian Zoroastrians and on the other the indian parsy's the latter of which for demur curie belonged to a discussion on the history and distinction of these two groups will have to be saved for another time but this grouping still remains today but nonetheless the persecution and oppression that the Zoroastrians have faced especially in Iran cannot be ignored in a video like this it still continues to this day under the current Iranian leadership and it's this unfortunate history has been a contributing factor to the religions decline in numbers the actual number of Zoroastrians in the world today is difficult to know for sure partly due to the state of affairs in Iran but a study conducted in 2012 by the Federation of Zoroastrian associations of North America shows that the numbers might be slightly above 100,000 people which of course isn't a lot and most of these live in India or Central Iran with also diaspora communities in places like North America and Great Britain indeed Zoroastrianism is sometimes called a dying religion due to its decreasing numbers and partly due to its reluctance to accept any converts the reality might be such that in the near future there won't be any Zoroastrians left and this will be a shame because it's a fascinating and rich tradition and one that is incredibly significant for our world heritage and the development of the so called world religions we probably wouldn't be where we are without Zoroastrianism and Zarathustra but let's continue this discussion in the comments for example do you think that Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic or a dualistic faith and do you think there's any chance of it surviving into the future to any zoroastrians out there I hope I have represented your faith in a fair and acceptable manner and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 722,824

Keywords: What is Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism Crash course, Zoroastrianism explained, Zoroastrianism creation story, Zoroastrianism and christianity, Islam, Zarathustra, Zoroaster, Persia, Zoroastrian history, history, Zoroastrianism in Iran, Prayer, Documentary, Temple, Fire temples, What is Magi, Magi in the Bible, Zoroaster religion, Introduction to Zoroastrianism, Persian religion, First monotheistic, monotheism, Ahura Mazda, Angra Mainyu, Ahriman, Amesha Spenta, Deva

Id: Z30Z5cOR5BA

Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 30 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/resintooth]

A few things wrong in this video some more major than others. At 4:52 Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion, there is only one God and that is Ahura Mazda and all evil is the absence of the good God Ahura Mazda, like a shadow. However, there is Spenta Mainyu (the progressive mentality) who is opposed by the evil force of Angra Mainyu later known as Ahriman. This cosmological confusion during the Sassanid times caused a lot of problems and deviations like Zurvanism.
Also at 6:21 they are not the Spenta Mainyu's there is only 1 Spenta Mainyu, rather they are called the Amesha Spentas meaning bounteous/progressive immortals which Spenta Mainyu and Vohu Manah are a part of. Then the part you refer to for Amesha Spenta's should be about the Yazata's meaning deities worthy of worship like Mithra that entered the Zoroastrian pantheon from pre-zoroastrianism. at 12:43 it is a very common misconception that there were 3 magi, in the Gospel of Matthew no number is given to the Magi however it is in plural form.

[u/WildBlueHorse]

This video is very educational and helpful for me. I am Iranian-American, and I’ve been fascinated by Zoroastrianism. Thank you for making this video.