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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.
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Based on a Presentation at 12th North American
Zarathushtrian Congress in Chicago, July 2002 |
