They placed him as having lived some 200 years earlier. The writings written in Pahlavi, the language of Avesta commentary, gave the date of his birth as somewhere between 630 and 618 b.c.e., about a hundred years before the time of the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great. When Zarathustra was 15, according to the local custom he was considered an adult. He put on the sacred sash of the existing Iranian religion and took up adult duties. However he was restless. Born into violent times, he had seen much human suffering. Even at this young age he had begun to consider the question of righteousness and the conflict between good and evil in the world. At the age of 20, over his parents’ objections, he left home and began a period of wandering inquiring about the nature of righteousness.
From the age of 20 to the age of 30 Zarathustra lived in solitude on a mountain, searching for answers. At the age of 30, in order to participate as a member of a priestly family in the spring festival, he went to the famous Daitya River, where one of his priestly duties was to go to the river at dawn to draw water from the deepest and purest part of the stream for the morning ceremony. As he waded back to the riverbank a glorious angel, Vohu Mana, stood before him. The angel asked him who he was and what was the most important thing in his life. Zarathustra replied that he wanted most of all to be righteous and pure and to gain wisdom. With that the angel took Zarathustra into the presence of Ahura Mazda and the archangels.
Zarathustra understood that he had received a special calling. He also understood that the way would be diffi cult because it meant opposing the old religion and the princes who used it to their own ends. During the next few years he often felt despair and called on Ahura Mazda to help him. He received other visions, seven in all, in which one by one all of the archangels, or Benefi cent Immortals, appeared to him. These visions helped him to remain faithful to his work. From the age of 30, when he received his revelation, to the age of 42, when he was accepted as a prophet by Vishtaspa, the king of Bactria, Zarathustra wandered from place to place, from the west to the east of Iran.
Zarathustra arose as a prophet who strongly denounced the ritual practices of the warrior societies, the groups of young men who wandered the countryside in a state of drunkenness, stealing and slaughtering cattle and terrorizing people. An outspoken reformer, Zarathustra fought against the cruel and bloody practice of animal sacrifi ce, the use of intoxicating herbs, and the excesses of the old religion that whipped young men into a frenzy and sent them into battle. Never afraid to speak out, he openly scorned the “mumbling” priests and sacrifi cers. Instead of ritual he demanded that people turn their hearts and minds to Ahura Mazda.
Zarathustra preached the notion of one true god, Ahura Mazda, who had created human life and all things visible and invisible. Along with all the things of the earth, two opposing forces were created. One force, Spenta Mainyu, the holy spirit, represented Truth and Goodness. The other, a destructive spirit that came to be called Angra Mainyu, represented the Lie. Zarathustra saw a world of ethical good in which people worked to maintain life by marrying, bringing up children, raising cattle, and farming. They would think good thoughts and do good deeds, turning away from evil and creating a peaceful, loving society. After death people would be judged according to how they had chosen to live their lives. It was up to humans to choose Truth over The Lie. He also taught that the world would end and that at that time the righteous would be saved and the evildoers would go down into the underworld.
The Miraculous Origins of Zoroastrianism
