Mind alone can understand and realize the supreme mind and Zarathushtra longs to approach Mazda through Vohu Manah.2 Mind is the repository both of knowledge upon which rests the enlightenment of life, and pure thoughts which form the basis of good conduct. He developed this dual aspect of mind to a prominent degree and prayed that Vohu Manah might bless him with his presence. He had not long to wait, for Vohu Manah, he who impersonates the divine mind, one day came to him and inquired who he was and to whom he belonged and what he wished for. Seeing Vohu Manah, Zarathushtra got a glimpse of Ahura Mazda, whom he now conceived as holy, and for the first time felt himself acquainted with the words of wisdom.
When his ardent desire to meet Vohu Manah is fulfilled he now aspires through him to greet Ahura Mazda himself. His one consuming passion now is to see Mazda face to face and hold communion with him, so that he may have the most comprehensive understanding of the divinity. He desires and yearns and prays that Mazda may vouchsafe unto him his heart's longing. Devotion for Mazda wells up in his heart, and he is filled with the divine spirit. He feels himself lifted above the earth, and in his supreme moments of transcendent ecstasy he has the beatific vision of Mazda. He has now found Mazda and he pours out his devout heart at his feet. He longs to be alone with him, belong wholly to him, and live in his love and attachment. He praises him, worships him, makes songs of devotion to him, he yearns to weave his personality with Mazda like the warp and woof, and he longs to lose himself in the divine bosom. His whole life is bound up in one idea: Ahura Mazda.
Zarathushtra has thought out many problems of life but he is still unsatisfied with his discoveries. He has doubts on many points,11 and who but Mazda can solve them satisfactorily? He asks Mazda for whom has he created the weal-dispensing cattle, who has marked out the path of the sun and the stars, by whom does the moon wax and wane, who has yoked swiftness to winds and clouds, who withholds the earth and the sky from falling down, who made the waters and the trees, what artificer made light and darkness and wakefulness and sleep, who made the dawn and the day and the night that remind man of the intelligence of his duty, who is the creator of Good Mind, who formed the blessed devotion in the divine kingdom and who with wisdom made the son dutiful to his father, how should devotion embrace those to whom his religion is proclaimed, whether devotion furthered righteousness through deeds, how was the prayer to be addressed to him, who was righteous and who was wicked, with whom did the enemy of all side and who was like unto him, was not the person that repudiated Mazda's beneficence himself the enemy, how was the wickedness of those who ran counter to the rules of righteousness and good thought to be put down, how was wickedness to be brought into the hands of righteousness, who would gain victory when the powers of righteousness and wickedness came to grips, who would smite victoriously the enemy with the mighty words of Mazda, how would recompense to the righteous and retribution to the wicked be accorded at the reckoning, how the best existence was to be won, would the divine kingdom be made known to God's faithful through Good Mind, what were the ordinances of Mazda,29 how should he, Zarathushtra, approach Mazda with love, with what goodness would his soul win felicity, and many such questions pertaining to the way of life. He felt Mazda's inspiring presence within him, he heard his whispers. Mazda spoke through his mind and he was enlightened. He sought instruction from Mazda and had now acquired it.
Zaratushtra: the Gathic Period 1000 B.C.
