History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 5

by Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla

 

CHAPTER V

 

AHURA MAZDA

 

Ahura Mazda is the name Zarathushtra gives to God. The Iranians, as we shall see later, had brought to their new homeland several gods of the Indo-Iranian pantheon. Zarathushtra does not mention them by name in his hymns. This omission is not accidental; it is deliberate. His is altogether a new religion. No wonder he tells his hearers that he speaks to them words that are unheard of before.^[1] All thinking and doing, whether human or divine, is done through the mind. It is knowledge or wisdom which creates, moulds, and guides anything and everything. He, therefore, clothes the idea of godhead with wisdom and names him 'Ahura Mazda.' This collocation means literally, 'The Lord Wisdom' or 'The Wise Lord.' The first element of this compound, Ahura, 'Lord,' is one of the Indo-Iranian generic forms of godhead and Zarathushtra confers upon it the Iranian epithet Mazda, 'Wise.' The Aryan and Semitic gods that preceded Ahura Mazda were nature-gods Some of them later rose to a higher spiritual level and acquired spiritual epithets. Ahura Mazda was never a nature-god. He was what he ever is, the highly spiritual being. Apart from its use in the Gathas, the term Mazda is found in its derivative form Mazdaka, used as a Median proper name in 715 b.c. in the Assyrian inscriptions of Sargon. Moreover, the compound Ahura Mazda itself is found in its Assyrian equivalent Assara Mazas in an inscription of Assurbanipal. Though the inscription bears the date of the reign of king Assurbanipal, it records the use of this Assyrian form of Ahura Mazda in the latter part of the second millennium.

Zarathushtra uses the divine name variously as the metrical composition of the hymns requires. He employs the combinations Ahura Mazda and Mazda Ahura or the forms Ahura or Mazda respectively, designating God in all cases. In many instances the terms Ahura and Mazda are used separately in a single strophe, the one at the opening and the other at the close with different exhortations and prayers to each, yet in both cases as applied to the Supreme Being, Ahura Mazda.

Ahura Mazda is the Being par excellence. Ahura Mazda sits at the apex among the celestial beings of Garonmana. He is not begotten, nor is there one like unto him. Beyond him, apart from him, and without him nothing exists. He is the supreme being through whom everything exists. He is brighter than the brightest of creation, higher than the highest heavens, older than the oldest in the universe. He is the best one.^[2] He knows no elder, he has no equal. There is none to dispute his supremacy and contest his place Nor is there one to struggle successfully with him for the mastery of the heavens. He is the first and foremost. He is the most perfect being. He is almighty.^[3] He is the absolute sovereign.^[4] He is beneficent.^[5] He is changeless.^[6] He is the same now and for ever.^[7] He was, he is, and he will be the same transcendent being, moving all, yet moved by none. In the midst of the manifold changes wrought by him in the universe, the Lord God remains changeless and unaffected, for he is mighty.^[8] He will decide victory between the rival hosts of good and evil.^[9] He is the most worthy of invocation,^[10] and the first possessor of felicity and joy.^[11] There is none before him.^[12] He is the greatest of all.^[13] He is the only God proper, than whom there is none higher. Everything comes from him and through him He is the lord of all. Many are his attributes. They are not accidents of his being, as will be shown below, but are his very essence.

The nature of Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda is spirit in his being. The cardinal attribute Spirit or Beneficent Spirit or Most Beneficent Spirit is his very essence. Zarathushtra acquaints mankind for the first time in the history of religions with the concept of the godhead that is most incomparable in sublimity and unprecedented in the grandeur of nobility. He is higher than the highest being worshipped by mankind before his day. He is devoid of all anthropomorphic traits which characterized the Aryan and Semitic gods. Man, however, can comprehend abstract ideas and spiritual conceptions when they are put before him in words and expressions clothed in the garb of earthly imagery and compassed in human language. Zarathushtra, therefore, speaks of Ahura Mazda in human analogy. He conceives of Ahura Mazda in thought and apprehends him with his eye.^[14] He asks him to teach by the word of his mouth^[15] and to tell him with the very tongue of his mouth.^[16] He is also spoken of as distributing good and evil to men by his own hands,^[17] and as observing with his eyes all things hidden and open.^[18] He lives in the empyrean enthroned in his majesty.^[19] He is ever present in the straight paths that lead mankind to righteousness.^[20] In his resplendence he lives in the heavenly realms and wears the firmament as his garment.^[21] Yahweh, likewise, covers himself with light as with a garment. Expressions like these are symbolical and they are not to be taken literally, since Ahura Mazda, as the whole tone of the Gathas proves, is to be seen or conceived only through the mind's eye. The finite can describe the infinite through finite analogies and similes alone.

The transcendental immanence of Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda has his celestial mansions in the highest heavens, upon the vast expanse of the earth and in the hearts of the righteous persons. He is transcendent in as much as he is infinitely more sublime and greater than his creatures. Yet he is not so remote and ineffable as not to be approached and addressed and greeted by his ardent worshippers. He is immanent in the sense that man can enter into close and loving relations with him, and own him as his father and brother and friend.^[22] He befriends those who seek his friendship and loves those who long for his love.^[23] Zarathushtra addresses Ahura Mazda as his friend.^[24] He is life's safest anchorage and Zarathushtra, in his misfortunes, pours out his heart in his divine friend's bosom and cries unto him for help and protection as a friend helps a friend.^[25] He lovingly helps those who flee unto him in their distress and betake themselves to his protection. There is none other than he who shields men against harm and they invoke his protection through Asha.^[26] We sleep secure because he guards us lovingly and we live in safety because he stands by our side when we awake out of sleep. His goodness towards us knows no bounds. Immortality, holiness, power, and perfection are his gifts to those who deserve them through their deeds and words and prayers.^[27] Man can become his friend and companion through his words and deeds of righteousness.^[28] He is invoked to bestow upon the pious the good things of life for his love of them.^[29] With his good understanding, man can imitate him and be like unto him by promoting the welfare of all around him through righteousness.^[30]

The prophet prays for his vision and communion with him.^[31] He strives to approach him through Good Mind,^[32] and through his devoted supplications.^[33] With outstretched hands he aspires to reach him with songs of praise on his lips.^[34] Thus will he continue his praise, he says, as long as he has strength and vigour,^[35] and adds that the stars and the sun and the dawn all unite in singing praise unto him.^[36] Consumed with the fervour of religious emotion, he implores Ahura Mazda to rise up for him,^[37] and to come to him and manifest himself to him in his own person.^[38] Sraosha comes with Vohu Manah unto him whom Ahura Mazda desires.^[39]

Ahura Mazda is the creator. Creation is a free act of the divine goodness of Ahura Mazda.^[40] In the beginning when he lived in his supreme self-sufficiency, he conceived the thought to clothe the heavenly realm with light.^[41] He created light, and darkness was there, for darkness shadows light.^[42] He is the father and creator of Vohu Manah,^[43] of Asha,^[44] of Khshathra,^[45] of Armaiti,^[46] of Haurvatat and Ameretat,^[47] and of Geush Tashan.^[48] The joy-giving cattle and this universe are his creations.^[49] He upholds the earth and firmament from falling.^[50] He made the moon wax and wane, and determined the path of the sun and stars.^[51] He yoked swiftness to wind and clouds.^[52] He clothed the heavenly realms with light.^[53] He it was who made morning and noon and night.^[54] He created kine, waters and plants.^[55] He created human beings and their spirits, breathed life in their bodies and endowed them with the freedom of will.^[56] He inspired love between the son and father.^[57] He made sleep and wakefulness.^[58] He is the beneficent dispenser of blessings to mankind.^[59] Weal and woe are ordained by him.^[60]

Ahura Mazda is the lord of wisdom. The very name of the godhead embodies in itself great wisdom. Ahura Mazda is the wise lord.^[61] He has created the universe through his wisdom and rules it through wisdom. He is the most knowing one.^[62] He is the far-seeing one,^[63] and so is he the all-seeing one.^[64] He knows all that is done in the past and all that will be done in the future, and judges through his omniscience.^[65] Zarathushtra seeks knowledge from him of what will be and what will not be.^[66] Through his Best Mind he knows man's desert at the reckoning.^[67] Human beings have their masks drawn on their faces and none can see what is hidden within. But Ahura Mazda has an eye over them all and with penetrating eyes he sees their open and secret faults.^[68] None can deceive his wisdom,^[69] for he is undeceivable.^[70] He is the consummate teacher of those who believingly hear him and become of one mind with him and who, inspired by Asha and Vohu Manah, exalt him by their words and deeds.^[71]

Ahura Mazda is the law-giver and judge. With the creation of man Ahura Mazda has ordained laws for the rightful conduct of his life.^[72] The great mission of the prophet is to acquaint mankind with these and to lead all to see for themselves with their intelligence that their welfare depends on the faithful adherence to them. He exhorts his hearers to give a careful hearing to his words, understand with clear discernment what he tells them, and, with the discreet exercise of the freedom of the will, with which Ahura Mazda has endowed them, make their own choice of conduct.^[73] The divine law-giver has established the moral order in the beginning of the world.^[74] He has ordained the commandments of reward and retribution to the righteous and the wicked, and Zarathushtra asks his followers to keep them in mind and live lawful lives so that they may thereby win felicity for themselves.^[75] Every man and every woman that lives this earthly life will have to stand at the reckoning one day to receive his or her own desert, and Zarathushtra teaches them all the laws of the requitals of human conduct in which Ahura Mazda himself has instructed him.^[76] Ahura Mazda is the lord who knows and watches and judges the deeds of mortals.^[77] He holds the destinies of mankind in his hands and apportions reward and retribution unto the righteous and the wicked.^[78] The righteous souls will live in the abode of Ahura Mazda.^[79] He punishes the wrong-doers just as he rewards the righteous, but he shows compassion also and forgives when the penitent sinner casts himself on his mercy.^[80]

 

1. Ys. 31. 1.
2. Ys. 28. 8.
3. Ys. 28. 5; 33. 11.
4. Ys. 28. 7; 43. 1.
5. Ys. 48. 3.
6. Ys. 45. 10.
7. Ys. 31. 7.
8. Ys. 43. 4.
9. Ys. 44. 15.
10. Ys. 46. 9.
11. Ys. 29. 10.
12. Ys. 28. 3.
13. Ys. 45. 6.
14. Ys. 31. 8; 45. 8.
15. Ys. 28. 11.
16. Ys. 31. 3.
17. Ys. 43. 4.
18. Ys. 31. 13.
19. Ys. 28. 5; 46. 16.
20. Ys. 33. 5; 43. 3.
21. Ys. 30. 5.
22. Ys. 45. 11.
23. Ys. 44. 17.
24. Ys. 44. 1.
25. Ys. 46. 2, 7.
26. Ys. 34. 7.
27. Ys. 34. 1.
28. Ys. 31. 21, 22.
29. Ys. 33. 10.
30. Ys. 31. 16.
31. Ys. 33. 6.
32. Ys. 28. 2.
33. Ys. 50. 9.
34. Ys. 50. 8.
35. Ys. 50. 11.
36. Ys. 50. 10.
37. Ys. 33. 12.
38. Ys. 33. 7; 49. 1.
39. Ys. 44. 16.
40. Ys. 44. 7.
41. Ys. 31. 7.
42. Ys. 44. 5.
43. Ys. 31. 8; 44. 4; 45. 4.
44. Ys. 31. 7, 8; 44. 3; 47. 2.
45. Ys. 44. 7.
46. Ys. 51. 9; 44. 7; 45. 4.
47. Ys. 51. 7.
48. Ys. 31. 9; 47. 3.
49. Ys. 44. 6; 50. 11.
50. Ys. 44. 4.
51. Ys. 44. 3.
52. Ys. 44. 4.
53. Ys. 31. 7.
54. Ys. 44. 5.
55. Ys. 44. 4; 48. 6; 51. 7.
56. Ys. 31. 11; 46. 6.
57. Ys. 44. 7.
58. Ys. 44. 5.
59. Ys. 28. 5; 33. 11; 48. 3.
60. Ys. 45. 9.
61. Ys. 29. 6; 45. 3; 48. 2, 3.
62. Ys. 46. 19.
63. Ys. 33. 13.
64. Ys. 45. 4.
65. Ys. 29. 4.
66. Ys. 31. 5.
67. Ys. 32. 6, 7.
68. Ys. 31. 13.
69. Ys. 43. 6.
70. Ys. 45. 4.
71. Ys. 51. 3.
72. Ys. 46. 15; 51. 19.
73. Ys. 30. 2.
74. Ys. 46. 6.
75. Ys. 30. 11; 45. 7; 51. 6.
76. Ys. 31. 14.
77. Ys. 29. 4; 31. 8.
78. Ys. 43. 4, 5.
79. Ys. 30. 10; 48. 7; 49. 10.
80. Ys. 30. 2.