Zoroaster taught a new religion; but this must not be taken as meaning that everything he taught came, so to say, out of his own head. His doctrine was rooted in the old Iranian--or Aryan--folk-religion, of which we can only form an approximate representation by comparison with the religion of the Veda. The newly discovered Hittite inscriptions have now thrown a welcome ray of light on the primitive Iranian creed (Ed. Meyer, Sitzungsberichie der Preuss. Akadeinie, 1908). In these inscriptions Mitra, Varuna, Indra and N~satya are mentioned as deities of the Iranian kings of Mitaiii at the beginning of the I4th century—all of them names with which we are familiar from the Indian pantheon. The Aryan folkreligion was polytheistic. Worship was paid to popular divinities, such as the war-god and dragon-slayer Indra, to natural forces and elements such as fire, but the Aryans also believed in the ruling of moral powers and of an eternal law in nature (v. Ed. Meyer in the article Persia: History, § Ancient). On solemn occasions the inspiring drink soma (haoma) ministered to the enjoyment of the devout. Numerous coincidences with the Indian religion survive in Zoroastrianism, side by side with astonishing diversities. The most striking difference between Zoroaster’s doctrine of God and the old religion of India lies in this, that while in the Avesta the evil spirits are called do-eva (Modern Persian dry), the Aryans of India, in common with the Italians, Celts and Letts, gave the name of dëva to their good spirits, the spirits of light. An alternative designation for deity in the Rigveda is asura. In the more recent hymns of the Rig- Veda and in later India, on the other hand, only evil spirits are understood by asuras, while in Iran the corresponding word ahura was~ and ever has continued to be, the designation of God the Lord. Thus ahura-daëva, dëva-asura in Zoroastrian and in later Brahman theology are in their meanings diametrically opposed. Teachings and Beliefs Zoroastrian beliefs include a concept of good and evil as a dualism. This dualism can take one of two forms: a cosmic dualism between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu (an evil spirit of violence and death), or an ethical dualism residing in human consciousness.
Zoroaster says of himself that he had received from God a commission to purify religion (Yasna, 44, 9). He purified it I from the grossly sensual elements of daëva worship, and uplifted the idea of religion to a higher and purer sphere. The motley body of Aryan folk-belief, when subjected to the unifying thought of a speculative brain, was transformed to a selfcontained theory of the universe and a logical dualistic principle. But this dualism is a temporally limited dualism--no more than an episode in the world-whole--and is destined to terminate in monotheism. Later sects sought to rise from it to a higher unity in other ways. Thus the Zarvanites represented Ormazd and Ahriman as twin sons proceeding from the fundamental principle of all-Zrvana Akarana, or limitless time. |
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