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The initial declaration of the Principles of
Global ethics proclaimed by the 1993 Parliament of World’s Religion
reads:
“The world is in agony. The agony is so
pervasive and urgent that we are compelled to name its manifestations so
that the depth of the pain may be made clear.
Peace eludes us…the planet is being
destroyed… neighbors live in fear….women and men are estranged from each
other…children die.
We condemn the poverty that stifles life’s
potential; the hunger that weakens the human body; the economic
disparities that threaten so many with ruin.
We condemn the social disarray of the
nations; the disregard for justice which pushes citizens to the margin;
the anarchy overtaking the communities; and the insane death of children
from violence. In particular we condemn aggression and the hatred in the
name of religion.”
The above declaration of the late 20th
century, reflects an extraordinary semblance to the lament (Ys 29.1) of
the soul of Universe (Gevush Urvan) in the verbalization of
Zarathushtra some 4000 years ago. In the Gathic scripture, the soul of the
Universe laments to Ahura Mazda about its oppressed state, through anger (aeshemo),
fury (hazas), outrage (remo), aggression
(deres), and rapine (tevis), and pleads for
the calling of a Divine savior to restore order. The above affirmation of
the world body, clearly reveals, the likeness of the misery and the
anguish prevailing in the world over an exceptionally long period of time.
The above scenario is an unequivocal
confirmation that in the long span of four millennia little has changed in
human attitude towards their planet and towards the fellowship of human
brotherhood. Today planet earth sustains over six billion human beings.
Lives are snuffed out by the thousands, from Mozambique to Somalia
through starvation, and from ethnic cleansing in Europe to conflicts in
the name of religion and freedom in the Middle East. The disparity of
wealth between ‘the have’ and ‘the have not’ feeds fuel to the fire of
indiscriminate hatred and terrorism.
One often wonders if it would make any
difference to the leaders of the world community in United Nations and to
the world in general, what a dwindling group of some 180,000
Zarathushtrians have to say about the behavior of human towards Nature
and its ecosystem that sustains them. However, what Zarathushtis have to
say only chronicles what the first prophet of mankind, the first Aryan
Manthran had declared then and is equally pertinent in 21st
century of the present day world.
Zarathushtra in his hymns, does not discuss
specific issues, he does not provide direct solutions to precise problems
we face in the world today for he is oblivious to them. The words of Asho
Zarathusht are the dictate to a Righteous way of life, They are a
roadmap that points to the Path of Asha, the path of purity and
cleanliness in this physical world. He, through his inspirational message
preaches the mankind TO THINK and unravel the meaning implicit in
his words. The aim of Daena Vanghui the Good Religion, is
to appreciate and hold sacred, the elements of nature - heavens, water,
earth, plant, animal and human, and to use them with moderation and
reverence. The tenets are unequivocal about never to abuse
the Nature with excess, or to defile the elements with
pollution, or to diminish them with greed (Ys 32.3-5).
Today we see wide spread devastation around,
with the acid rain, the greenhouse effect, the depletion of ozone layer,
indiscriminate deforestation of plant kingdom, pollution of our water with
chemical waste, and wanton contamination of plant and animal habitat
through thousands of gallons of oil spill only because of the erroneous
judgment of human beings. We are here reminded of the reflections of
late Prof. Carl Sagan on a meeting of the “Global Forum of Spiritual
and Parliamentary Leaders” held in Moscow 1990, when he said, “ ……there
was a general consensus that humans have become predators on the
biosphere, always taking never giving. ‘We have not inherited the earth
from our ancestors, but have borrowed it from our children”. In bridging
creation and religion the professor continues, “…there is nothing in the
Judeo-Christian, Muslim tradition that approaches the cherishing of nature
as in the Hindu-Buddhist tradition or among Native American. Indeed both
western religion and science assert that nature should not be viewed as
sacred.” He further concedes that , “ a poignant metaphor of stewardship
has emerged recently…. The idea that humans are the caretakers of the
earth, put here for the purpose and accountable now and into the
indefinite future, to the landlord.”
It is indeed remarkable that highly reputed
astrophysicist concludes, on the threshold of 21st century
then, with the words that essentially resonates the message of the first
Prophet of mankind. Zarathushtra initiates his Gathic hymns with an
appeal to his God, for “ the support of the Holy Mentality/Spirit (Spenta
Mainyu) so I may perform all action in consonance with Thy divine
Law of Asha, to bring wisdom to the Good Mind, to provide solace to the
Soul of the living world.” (Ys 28.1).
Implicit in the above enduring message is the
covenant that the soul of human creation makes with the Creator to
preserve and protect the creation against all adversities, before
descending to the earth. This is documented in the Younger Avestan Book of
Creation, Bundahisn (3.23-24). Humans are thus charged with the crucial
responsibility to be the stewards of the creation, to help refresh and
renovate Purity, Righteousness and unconditional Love in the material
world, to bring it in close proximity to the Spiritual existence (Ys
30.9).
The Creation myth of the ancient societies
reflect the values that have developed in their interaction with the
environment. This is particularly true for the Native Indians of North
America. While these values did not converge into the worship of a single
deity with Supreme Wisdom; their fundamental principal of the unity and
interconnectedness of all creation is astonishingly compatible with the
primordial Zarathushtrian concept on the one hand, and the modern
understanding of the emergence of the Universe on the other. Their
reverence for their planet is profoundly expressed as McDonagh quotes
Chief Seattle of Duwamish Indians in his book ‘To Care for Earth’
saying,
“ The rivers are our brothers, they quench our
thirst…the air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same
breath – the beast, the trees, and the human”
The traditions that followed Zarathushtrian,
era, apparently had lost this profound kinship with Nature. Western church
has to some degree lost the global vision of the need for harmony or
oneness in the cosmos. Harold Oliver, professor of Philosophical Theology
at Boston university says, “ The awakening of ecological consciousness in
the 1960s had an immediate effect on theology, because the theorist of the
new movement laid the primary responsibility for the ecological crisis at
the door of Christianity itself. It was argued that the wanton
exploitation of nature in the name of technological progress was rooted in
Judaeo-Christian doctrine of creation which mandated the human subduing of
the earth.” It was the sermon of Joseph Sittler in 1964 on the
“The Care of the earth” that revealed to a wider public, the
enhanced sense of ecological consciousness which was extrapolated to an
appeal for a renewed theological accountability for the natural world.
In contrast many earlier traditions such as
the Hindu, Buddhist and even Platonic secular philosophy, encouraged
renunciation of the material, and path of ascetic life style as a course
to spiritual evolution. We note that in the history of our own religion
when some two thousand years after the time of the Prophet, in the early
Sasanian era, rose the prophet Mani, an Iranian of Noble Partian descent,
to proclaim a heterodoxy that amalgamated Zoroastrianism with the
fundamental tenets of Judaeo-Christian and Gnostic tradition. He portrayed
his credence for the material creation as evil and held that the best
course for mankind was to lead a gentle, ascetic life, dying as a celibate
for the salvation of their soul. This was in fundamental violation to
the Zarathushtrian doctrine which declared a life of fullness with
moderation and care for the environment through Righteousness, to
evolve spiritually in harmony with Nature.
Despite its antiquity, the teaching of Asho
Zarathusht in this respect is unique. He postulated that spiritual and
physical are the two complements of the Single Oneness and that it is
through the preservation and protection of the material world, through
respect and reverence for the Creation of Ahura Mazda, that humans will
attain the spiritual perfection. The view of mankind in covenant with the
Creator, assumes that when humans violate any part of the created order
–the immutable order of Asha – it is harmful to the whole. Depletion of
ozone layer and the acid rain are the glaring examples of human negligence
that has markedly perturbed the order of Nature. Charles McCoy in his
essay Creation and Covenant elaborates that:
“God makes covenant in creation with the
whole of the natural order (Jer.33.20-25). Humanity is created within
the same covenant of creation, a covenant that Adam breaks beginning the
faithlessness of humans to God (Hos.6.7). God upholds the covenant and
makes anew with Noah, with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.”
McCoy further develops an understanding of the
covenantal theology and ethics by expressing the process of creation
historically when he says:
“ The world created by God ‘in the beginning’
is not complete, but is created in process towards increasing fulfillment
and towards final consummation. Humanity as a part of this created order
is also created incomplete and in process towards further growth and
towards fulfillment.”
Writing in the last decade of the 20th
century McCoy is inadvertently reflecting a paraphrase of Zarathushtrian
tenet. As per the Zarathushtrian theology the Universal Mind in consonance
with the Progressive/Holy Mentality first created the
perfect Spiritual existence, Mainyava (Phl. Menog) absolute
in purity, absolute in the order of Truth, perfect in unconditional Love,
compassion and beyond defilement. Along the same pattern, followed the
creation of the other complement - the world of actuality – the
Gaethya (Phl. Getig) with one exception. Included within the
corporeal creation, was the pivotal genesis of mankind, gifted with the
spark of the Divine - the Good Mind – and endowed with absolute
Freedom of choice, to be exercised with moderation. Mankind,
through the benevolence of the Creator and following the Spenta Mainyu
must evolve to comprehend the material creation and to preserve it. Even
to an average intellect, it is apparent that mankind has FAILED
MISERABLY in their mission to link their Good Mind, Freedom of
choice, and Moderation efficiently and effectively. For if they had
the state of the world would not be unchanged over 4000 years. It is in
the misuse/abuse of the Good Mind –Vohu Mananh – that lies
at the very basis of the ethical duality of Good and Evil that has flawed
and contaminated the otherwise flawless physical creation.
The challenge that was put to the mankind by
Asho Zarathusht, and that other traditions in recent times has come to
realize, is to be the Guardian, the Custodian; not just of the creations
around but first and foremost of the creation within. Only through the
recognition of the wholeness, only through spiritual harmony of mind and
body within, that human can progress spiritually to effectively combat the
pollution, of the cosmic waste without.
Mankind in general, over time is unfailingly
caught up in a race of greed and ego, terminating in mistrust and
distortion. Though many are unaware of Zarathushtra’s primal message,
those who should be conscious have largely forgotten the fundamental
objective of his tenets. The Make of car, size of Bank account and footage
of the Living area, has become the markers for judging of prestige. While
nothing is wrong with all of the above, as the tenets uniquely endorse a
full life, these markers engender a potent malaise of the spiritual, when
these material excesses, become ends in themselves.
In order for human to acknowledge the
wholeness and interdependence with their universe, it is a prerequisite,
that one identifies first, with oneness of the body and mind, of the
physical with the spiritual, in the little ‘world’ within oneself. This
can then serve as the focal point for convergence to perceive the Spirit
in the world at large. What brings an environment of harmony within – a
Microcosmic Haurvatat -will lead to harmony with the environment without
–the Macrocosmic Haurvatat.
In this year of the UNESCO celebration of
anniversary of Zarathushtra it is perfectly congruous to say that the
teachings of the Prophet “ to live in harmony interconnected within
the human brotherhood and through it with the universe as a whole” are
as fresh and as relevant NOW as they were THEN, when he taught
them some four Millennia ago. As Rabindranath Tagore said:
“Best in people works for long obscure
ages….till it finds a voice,
for that voice becomes the voice of Mankind, no longer confined to a
particular time or people…Zarathushtra’s voice is still a living voice…
It is not a voice to guide a small community of Man….
He declared that the Sun of Truth is for all….that its light
is to unite the far and near. This ideal gives us our place
as collaborators with God in distributing his blessings over the world.”
[i]
Appeared in the 3000 year anniversary of Zoroastrianism (UNESCO
declaration) special issue of HAMZOR (publication of the World
Zoroastrian Organization) issue 3, 2003, pps.24-27. |
