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Zarathushtrian Formula For Success In Life[i]

Series:

Personal Perspective

Effective Living

Author:
Mehta, Kayomarsh
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I would like to share the main guiding principles of the religion of Zarathushtra. In the Gathas, Asho Zarathushtra lays out a simple, yet profound, guide for living our life. These are very specific things that we can work on incorporating in our life to achieve success in our life. If we inculcate these concepts, we can empower ourselves to change our lives and begin to be on the road to Success. These are very simple things to do in our day to day life. But because they are simple, they are also very simple not to do in our daily lives.

First and foremost, we must believe, respect and adore the Supreme Creator with Infinite Wisdom – Ahura Mazda, Hormazd.

Second, we must actively work to develop our Good Mind –Behman (Vohuman). To succeed in this life, we must have a burning desire within us to do so. We must want to be somebody. Be a future thinker. Think about what can happen in the future and set difficult yet realistic goals for 3 mos, 6 mos, 1yr, 3yrs, 5yrs from today. Have goals that motivate us and make us stretch to reach them. We must have a Big Dream.  The dream must be something that is very important to us. Have a Big Dream and then have a Plan to pursue that dream. Develop a positive winning Attitude.

Third, we must inculcate Ardebehest –Asha in our daily life. Asha is Righteousness and Divine Order. We must always speak the Truth. We must always do what is Right. Our reputation is everything. Do what is right and stand for what we believe in. We do not want to be average and ordinary. We are born in this world to make a difference. We have to be tough to succeed.

Fourth principle to practice is Shehrevar- work hard to Help others. Work hard and Live Right. Be Passionate for what we can do for others. Having developed a positive Attitude, we need to generate benevolent Activity. Do good deeds. Help others. Live a life of self sacrifice. If we help others, we get Khashathraa – the Power of God, to do more and more Good for others.

Fifth principle is Spendarmad or Spenta Aaaramaiti. We must develop Faith in Ahura Mazda, an unflinching faith in our religion and its teachings. This Faith will help us to fulfill our dream. We must develop a positive Attitude about life. No one likes a dull, disillusioned, depressing, doggone crybaby. If we just like something, we will never be good at something. We must love what we do, and not just like what we do.  We have to love it with a Passion. Whatever we do, we must make a total commitment. All we can control is our Attitude and our Activity.

The Gathas teach us that if we incorporate the above five sequences in our daily life then  our soul (Urvan) will begin to experience the consequences of  Khordaad and Amerdaad – Perfection and Immortality.

Zarathushtra’s formula for success is:

Hormazd + Behman + Ardebehest + Shehrevar + Spenta Aaramaiti

 =  Khordaad + Amerdaad.

We have a tendency to put successful persons on a pedestal. I want to stress to you that each and every one of us has the same potential. If we want to be successful in reaching our dream, we’ve got to learn to work hard. We’ve got to learn to do the right thing. We’ve got to do our best. We’ve got to give it our all. All we can do is all we can do. All we can do is everything. Right? God should come first, family second and work or business should come third. Only when we get our priorities in order, we have a chance to be all the person we want to be.

People want to feel good. Praise and reward others at every chance that we get. Empower them so that they can function to their full capacity. Don’t let anyone tell us that we can not do what we want to do. Life don’t give us what we want. Life don’t give us what we love to have. Life gives us what we will accept. Life gives us what we will fight for. If we accept to be average and ordinary, then that’s what we will be. We will have difficulties in our life, failures in our life. In our life things are not going to work right all the time. We must never quit. We must pay the price in building this mental toughness. When we fail, we should not give up. We must fail forward. We must be able to pick it up and go for it one more time. Refuse to be rejected and learn to reject the rejection. The only thing standing between us and our Dreams is our willingness to do the things that we need to do. Focus on doing that and be consistent and persistent.

Let today be the new beginning for the rest of our life. We are the captain of our ship. We are the Master of our Destiny. Let us Empower ourselves. Let us Make a decision to totally and completely change our life for the service of our community in the days to come. Almost everybody gets there, almost everybody is over the hump, almost everybody has it going, almost everybody is the way of life to almost everybody, But the winners they DO IT. What do they do? They do whatever it takes to get the job done. They do good deeds. They help others. They live a life of self sacrifice. They DO IT and DO IT and DO IT until they reach their goals.

We are here for a flicker, time is running out.  Let us have a sense of urgency and let us do it and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it until we reach our goal of Perfection and Immortality.

[i] Based on a Presentation at 12th North American Zarathushtrian Congress in Chicago, July 2002