Chapter One
Birth and Maturation
“Oh, what a fearful dream it was I dreamt! Pourushaspa, Pourushaspa, help me!”
“What is it Dughdova, what is it? What ails you? What do you fear so? Why have you sprung in such torment from your sleep? Why are you so alarmed? Why do you tremble so?”
“I dreamt a dreadful dream, Pourushaspa, most dreadful!”
"Tell of your fearsome dream! Tell me what you have seen which has caused you such agitation!”
“I dreamt a cloud as great as a body of royal falcon feathers rise to cover the sky. It turned the brightest of days into the darkest of nights before all men’s eyes. Abruptly this cloud split asunder allowing torrents of odious animals to teem forth from the heavens. Lions, tigers, hyenas, and wolves poured down all terrifying and large. On one side I saw the tigers of the plains and on the other I saw the whales of the deep waters. From the distance there came dragons, pumas, and leopards, all sharp-teethed and steel-taloned. In the midst of these beasts I discerned one considerably more alarming than the others. This beast was more dazzling than any I have ever seen. It rushed upon me to tear apart my belly with its sharp claws and to rip the fetus from my womb. As it was about to swallow it, the infant turned to me and cried: ‘Do not be alarmed for these beasts can do no harm unto me! The Lord of Judgment watches over me. Thus, I do not fear these beasts neither are they able to hurt me. Do not dread them but trust in the Almighty Creator."
As I heard his words my soul awakened to find a mount descending from the heavens unto the earth. From above this mount there rose a glorious sun which stripped away the clouds. This mountain drew nigh unto me and I beheld a handsome youth with the stature and splendor of Jamshid rise from its depths. He held a burning branch in one hand and a holy scripture in the other. He thrust the scripture at the beasts whereupon they sped away in terror, leaving but three behind: a wolf, a tiger and a lion. Upon seeing this the youth went unto these creatures and set fire to them with the blazing branch. He thereupon lifted my infant, brought him to me, placed him back in my womb, and breathed upon me. At once I was whole again. He turned to me and spoke:
‘Fear no enemy, rid yourself of sorrow and think of naught but of your unborn son for the Creator watches over him and the world awaits his coming. The child you carry is a great prophet sent by the Creator to spread the word of the Lord among mankind."
Having spoken, the youth disappeared and I awoke. Yet, I still tremble and shake from that fearsome dream.”
Pourushaspa, that most honest of husbands, held his beloved spouse who was five months with child to his breast and declared that they should go to the soothsayer that he might interpret her wondrous dream.
"Oh great Sage, wise to the secrets of the constellations, guide me! My spouse has dreamt a most bewildering dream which she shall recount you. We have passed a perturbed night awake and quivering in fear within one another’s embrace."
“Dugdova, dearest, most chaste and pious neighbor whose honest name is known to all, recount what you have seen in your dream.”
Dughdova retold her dream whilst the sage listened in silent expectation. When she had done he raised his head to say: “Oh, Pourushaspa, Dugdova, kind neighbors, I bear you glad tidings. The stars are privy to good fortune for you. All posterity shall praise and laud you. Dugdova, may your wishes be realized in the infant you carry, may your name rise unto Saturn and may no other ever compare with it. Now rise and go home. Come back in four days to learn the exact meaning of this dream.”
“Welcome, to my home, most welcome! I have been impatiently awaiting you! Listen, listen well to the news I bear you!
It is wondrous strange!
From Bahram , Anahita , Tir , and Mehr who face the sun I do see things-things which none has ever seen: events unseen and unheard of by men!
Oh, Dughdova, blessed mother, the child you carry shall surpass and excel all men! That night of your dream you were five months and twenty three days with child. When you bear your infant the world shall know a new life and light. He shall come forth into this world with a smile upon his countenance to symbolize the felicity of his birth. His blessed name shall be Zarathustra-shining star. He shall be born on the day of Khordat in the month of Farvardine --six days after the advent of spring. He shall come into the world on a day more joyful than any yet known to us. The benevolent in creed, the pure and the righteous shall ever after celebrate this blessed day. And yet, Dughdova, your son shall have many a wicked, spiteful enemy. These people shall rise to wage war upon your child in order to extinguish the light of his wisdom and intuition. However, these wars shall all fail for his light shall daily shine brighter until it becomes the eternal brilliant sun.
The blazing torch you saw in the hand of the youth was none other than the spirit of the Lord which is the protector of mankind against evil. The letter with which the youth burned the beasts is a holy epistle which your son will advocate to sow the seeds of goodness. The torch of the dream is the mark he shall carry as prophet. With this mark he shall daunt the wicked and the unrighteous.
The name of your son will eternally reign in the world. The three beasts you witnessed burn in your dream by the torch are the three greatest enemies of your son. They are the most perfidious villains who will rise to any manner of knavery to destroy your child. In the end, they themselves shall be overcome and they will perish. Your son will be the prophet of truth and he shall guide mankind along the path of honesty. The depraved and the evil-minded shall wage war on him but just as the light of the sun will not be blemished so too will the malice of these knaves and ignorant ones not come to fruition against your child.
The unblemished pearl of his thoughts shall embrace the world and their radiance shall impress mankind. He who obeys Zarathustra’s teachings will enjoy a life of perfect harmony while the worst manner of existence shall come to he who turns away from these teachings.
Oh Dughdova, may I live to see the victories of your son in this world that I might be permitted to dedicate my life to his calling!”
Spring winds began to blow, clouds sighed and the sun smiled upon the globe. Grass grew, pregnant buds bloomed, and nightingales courted flowers as the aged Earth gave birth to a new life.
On the day of Khordat in the month of Farvardine ‘shining star’ was born unto us. It is said:
At his birth the waters and all plants were jocund.
At his birth the waters and the plants soared.
At his birth those created in Holy Wisdom hailed their own salvation.
Blessed are we unto whom that religious guardian the Holy Zarathustra is born!
At the hour of his birth, unlike other infants, he smiled a smile so delightful and enchanting that it warmed the hearts of all who saw it.
Zarathustra’s spring birth, his sweet laughter, and the fulfillment of the prophecy filled the souls of the pure with mirth and envenomed the spirits of the wicked . Before nightfall the city throbbed with the joy of this miraculous birth and the wicked came to hear of it.
In those days there were numerous sorcerers in the city: they were witless, proud, corrupt people whose lives passed in idle dedication to falsehood, greed and roguery. They strove to exert their evil power over the hearts and minds of men. These abominable perjurers wished nothing but ignorance, perdition and pain for the masses that they might continue to manipulate the minds of the commoners in order to remain their all-powerful leaders. They held that their authority had been bestowed upon them from on high. They claimed to represent the supernatural and to be supported by divine aid and they asserted to be the intermediary between the people and Mithra, Sol, and the other deities. These sorcerers demanded to be consulted over every dilemma and challenge in human life.
The misguided ones turned to these necromancers and karapans in their fears of the gods. They trusted these evil wishers in all their difficulties and sought their guidance. These devil’s advocates profited of the widespread ignorance and terror to further mislead the masses. They resorted to ambiguities, enigmas, and sophism to lead men along the path of iniquity in order to strip them of their possessions. This dissembling troupe of tricksters thrived on unlimited common ignorance.
In opposition to the necromancers was yet another group: the wise and the sagacious with their wisdom and power of cogitation. This group, though small in number, was exceedingly powerful for it consisted of the only people the sorcerers truly feared. There existed a ceaseless struggle between these two opposites. The wise relentlessly spoke out against the sorcerers and denounced their power whilst they toiled to lead men along the path of truth. They incessantly strove to strip the masks of these usurers to publicly acclaim them as the treacherous, avaricious gluttons they were. If these necromancers wished evil, pain and eternal grief on the people it was but to provide themselves with easier access to more wealth and riches for the gloomier and more abrasive a picture of the world they painted the more dependent became the people on these omnivores and the more flourishing became their trade.
The sorcerers thrust themselves into the task of destroying the wise. However, as they held no weapon powerful enough to withstand the strength of sagacity, profundity, and depth of the sages they resorted to a single means of warfare: bloodshed. They hunted the wise and should they find the merest trace of wisdom in any man they would set upon him to brutally butcher and persecute him. They would grasp his noble throat red-handedly and wring from him his rich life.
In this epoch when the fight between dark and light, wisdom and ignorance, and sagacity and sorcery had reached its climax there came forth into the world a long sought sage to spread knowledge and joy upon the earth: his coming made the heart of the sorcerers quake within their breasts. Pain, anxiety and dread pressed upon the souls of these cozeners lest this blessed birth destroy their lifestakes by awakening men unto the truth. These basest dregs of humanity schemed the destruction of the infant while the parents, friends, and adorers of the child kept perpetual vigil over his crib.
Zarathustra grew and from the beginning of his development he displayed precocious behavior. His disposition differed greatly from that of others his own age. His every word and deed bespoke depths of thought, wisdom, purity and honesty. He treated all those about him with his own particular wisdom and never spoke but with penetration.
Within a few years of his birth there occurred an event which caused much speculation in the city. After this event young Zarathustra’s wisdom and genius was lauded by one and all. There was a gathering in which the necromancers displayed their powers of sorcery to the people and in which they perfected their art of knavery.
The leader of the necromancers, one considerably more experienced than his followers, stepped into the centre of the city square to spread his paraphernalia. He uttered incomprehensible words of conjuration, performed feats of wizardry and set out to astound his audience with his art. Willingly the people watched this sorcerer, breathlessly demanding more of his ensnaring performance with their avaricious looks. Hardly had the sorcerer begun his spectacle when a child stepped forth from amongst the crowd--the boy child whose radiating face and wisdom had so enchanted everyone:
“Oh leader of necromancers, great deceiver of men, how long will you persist in your shallow ways? Necromancy is but a fraud and lies are falsehoods. The only true path is the path of wisdom and thought--the path of the truth. The Almighty has endowed us with wisdom and reason that we might come to know right from wrong and that we might step forth onto the path of truth. We are to forsake lies and cozening. Wizardry is the way of the treacherous and the deceitful. Never will an illuminated mind and a steadfast intellect respond to such summons.
Oh ensnaring sorcerer, whomsoever you may succeed in beguiling you shall never waylay me!
I shall never be duped by you for I shall reveal your true countenance and I shall refute your lies with my intelligence. Gather your tools of witchcraft and leave.
Forebear cheating men so!
I do not fear you for I know how my presence torments you and how you scheme my destruction. I trust the Almighty Creator and it is this trust which saves me from you for I have sworn to undo you.”
As Zarathustra’s words came to an end the great necromancer paled and fled with his followers before the startled eyes of his audience. Never before had the people heard nor seen such behavior from a child. Never before had they beheld the sorcerers stand so much in awe of any man. They turned to this child whose wisdom and insight they had heard much of.
Once again the boy child spoke. He warned them of the necromancers and of their perfidious ways. He guided them towards the obedience of their reason.
Young Zarathustra had conquered the city with his wisdom and bearing. He repeatedly came to the aid of the needy. If he heard of one who lacked clothing he did clothe the man. He hastened to appease the troubled and the pained. He who stood in need of succor found strength in Zarathustra. From this early age did he stand in opposition to the beliefs of his time and unlike they who believed in many gods, Zarathustra adored but the Sole Creator of the universe. His adoration stood free of dread and of ignorance. He never resorted to such barbarism as sacrifice.
His worship found root in wisdom. He practiced his beliefs through good deeds whilst he strove to realize the secrets of the universe. He was a mere youth when the world came to know him in his wisdom. Men strove to know him and to profit of that wisdom.
Zarathustra grew to manhood and each day he perfected his wisdom. Daily did his comprehension of the world grow and daily did he come to know more of the universe and of men’s lives. He perpetually questioned, incessantly reasoned, unendingly talked with the sages and relentlessly argued against the beliefs of the Mithraists.
Zarathustra strove to grasp the secrets of the universe, and the misfortunes of man in society, for this he needed a refuge where he could contemplate in peace. In the end, after much thought, he chose Mount Oushidarene. He entered a cave in that blessed mountain where he commenced his illuminating philosophy.
Notes:
1-Jamshid son of Vivanghan was the first ruler to abide by Mazda's creed and was therefore given a blessed land free of evil, sin and disease to rule. Later he resorted to pride and was exiled and killed by his own vanity.
2-Bahram was the ancient divinity of war and victory.
3-Anahita was the divinity of the pure waters.
4-Tir was the divine guardian of writers.
5-Zoroastrians hold a separate name for each day of the month. Khordat would be the sixth day of every month.
6-Farvardine is the first month of the year and it is also the first month of spring in the Zoroastrian calendar. Hence, the day of Khordat in the month of Farvardine would correspond with the 26 of March.
7-The exact year of the prophet's birth has been open to much debate. However, eastern scholars have approximated it to have been around 1768 BC based upon ancient carvings found in many fire temples and upon ancient Zoroastrian scripture.
8-Mount Oushidarene is thougth to be present day Mt. Sabalan.