Zarathustra's influence on Judeo-Christianity and Islam....

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Stephen Van Eck states that without Zarathushtra, Judaism would be hard to

recognize, and both Christianity and Islam would probably never have existed,

and yet, coming from the Christian tradition, i regret to say, that i have never

been informed about Zarathushtra's influence on Christianity.

 

It is my belief that spiritually-minded individuals, and there are many more

'spiritually-minded' rather than 'religiously-minded' individuals today....would

be highly interested in this fact of Zarathushtra's influence on their

particular spiritual tradition...and why should they NOT BE interested?!

 

Why have the founding fathers and religious leaders kept these facts from the

rank and file? Could it be for reasons of power and money, as " Knowledge " is

" Power " , and knowledge also leads to Sahaja Yogis being able to be their own

Master, their own Teacher, and their own Guru. " Sahaja Yogis " ....are, of course,

those persons who have their " Second Birth of the Spirit " ...who are " Born

Again " , whereby the Spirit Within (the Highest Self) becomes the dominant

spiritual force rather than the lower (egotistical) self dominating.

 

In any case, the day of the power of religious leaders to prevent this knowledge

from becoming common knowledge is over. Not only that, but the facts are all

being revealed as to how each spiritual tradition is as it were...a stepping

stone or foundation upon which the next one is built.

 

Spiritual knowledge has been given to humanity from the 'foundation' to the

'roof' of spiritual knowledge, and Shri Mataji has come and topped off all this

Spiritual Knowledge of all Incarnations and Prophets, etc. and She has

integrated it all, so that we can now see the True Spiritual Picture, and not

the limited man-made picture passed on for so long from uninformed and unknowing

and unspiritual religious leaders. Please understand that 'to be religious' is

not the same as being 'truly spiritual'. Jesus Himself railed against the

religious leaders of His Time!

 

But God Almighty works differently from religious leaders. He does not send

spiritual knowledge to Earth for only certain people and not for others to

enjoy. There is one thing i am sure of, and this is that He would never have

expected us to become spiritually separated from each other because of external

man-made religious doctrines and dogmas, which were not formed by the Divine

Incarnations and prophets, but by their followers.

 

However, commonsense is at last emerging, and Shri Mataji has clearly explained

that all spiritual traditons come from the same Tree of Life and that their

spiritual knowledge is interdependant like the different pieces of a puzzle

which are all needed in order to complete the Divine Picture.

 

Now is the opportune time for us all to become aware of God Almighty's constant

concern for the spiritual evolution of humanity, and how He has sent His

Messengers of All Spiritual Traditions, each of whom have brought the different

pieces of the Divine Puzzle to humanity at various times.

 

It is now the time to embrace the essence of the spiritual teachings from all

spiritual traditions as no individual spiritual traditon has all the pieces of

the Divine Puzzle. Wasn't that clever of God Almighty to so spread His Message!

Does not He have a Divine Sense of Humour! For....after all....it is also well

known in all of these spiritual traditions that God Almighty is not a respecter

of persons, but that He freely gives His Knowledge to ALL.

 

In that spirit, i hope you appreciate this information about Zarathushtra, which

gives some indication of his the spiritual influence that he brought to three

different spiritual traditions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam!

 

best wishes to all,

 

Violet

 

 

The Forgotten Source

By Stephen Van Eck

 

" Also Sprach Zarathustra " - This composition by Richard Strauss, featured in

" 2001 " , is a piece of powerful drama: rich in majesty, awe-inspiring, and with

devastating portent. It is an appropriate memorial to the Persian prophet

Zarathustra, whom the Greeks called Zoroaster.

 

Zarathustra's influence upon Judeo-Christianity and all of Western Civilization

is little told, but should not be underestimated. His life and words changed the

course of Western Civilization, setting it on a course that departed from the

static cultures of the ancient Middle East. Without his impact, Judaism would be

hard to recognize, and both Christianity and Islam would probably never have

existed.

 

It is largely to Zarathustra that Western Civilization owes its fundamental

concept of linear time, as opposed to the cyclic and essentially static

conceptions of ancient times. This concept, which was implicit in Zarathustra's

doctrines, makes the notion of progress, reform, and advancement possible.

Ancient civilizations to that time, particularly Egyptian, were profoundly

conservative, believing that the ideal order had been handed down to them by the

gods in some mythical Golden Age. Their task was to adhere to the established

traditions as closely as possible; to reform or modify them in any way would be

a deviation from and diminution of the ideal.

 

Zarathusta gave Persian (and through them, Greek) thought a teleological

dimension, with a purpose and a goal to history. All people, he declared, were

participants in a supernatural battle between Good and Evil, the battleground

for which was the Earth, and the very body of the individual man as well.

 

This essential dualism was adopted by the Jews, who only after exposure to

Zoroastrianism incorporated both a demonology and an angelology to their

religion. Retroactively, what was only a snake in the Genesis tale came to be

irrevocably associated with the Devil, and belief in demonic possession

eventually came to be a cultural obsession, as amply reflected in the Gospels.

 

Zarathustra claimed special Divine revelation, and had attempted to establish

the worship of one Supreme God (Athura Mazda) in the 7th Century B.C., but after

his death the earlier Aryan polytheism re-emerged. But many other features of

his theology endured to the present time, through the religions that superseded

it.

 

The Babylonian Captivity of the 6th Century BC transformed Judaism in a profound

way, exposing the Jews to Zoroastrianism, which was virtually the state religion

of Babylon at the time. Until then, the Jewish conception of the afterlife was

vague. A shadowy existence in Sheol, the underworld, land of the dead, (not to

be confused with hell!) was all they had to look forward to. Zarathustra,

however, had preached the bodily resurrection of the dead, who would face a Last

Judgment (both individual and general) to determine their ultimate fate in the

next life, either paradise or torment. Daniel was the first Jewish prophet to

refer to resurrection, judgment, and reward or punishment (12:2), and insofar as

he was an advisor to King Darius (erroneously referred to as a Mede), he was in

a position to know the state religion thoroughly.

 

The new doctrine of resurrection was not universally accepted by the Jews, and

remained a point of contention for centuries until its ultimate acceptance. The

Gospels (Matthew 22:23) record that the dispute was still going on during the

time of Christ, with the Sadducees denying and the Pharisees affirming it. It

may be a mere coincidence, but notice the similarity between the names

" Pharisee " and " Farsi " or " Parsee " , the Persians from whom the doctrine of

resurrection was borrowed.

 

Exposure to Zoroastrianism substantially altered Jewish Messianism as well.

Zarathustra predicted the imminent coming of a World Savior (Saoshant), who

would be born of a virgin, and who would lead humanity in the final battle

against Evil. Jewish Messianism incorporated these conceptions with their

pre-existing expectations of a Davidic King who would redeem the Jewish nation

from foreign oppression.

 

It was at this time, in response to their captivity, that the era of apocalyptic

literature commenced in Judaism, based on Babylonian models and incorporating

their symbolism. This was to have a strong influence on later Christian

thinking/superstition. But with the key elements of resurrection, judgment,

reward or punishment, a Savior, apocalyptical belief, and the ultimate

destruction of the forces of Evil, it can be concluded that Jewish and Christian

eschatology is Zoroastrian from start to finish.

 

Not just eschatology, either. Much of the tradition and sacramental ritual of

Christianity, particularly Catholicism, traces back to Zoroastrian precursors.

Zoroastrian faithful would mark their foreheads with ash before approaching the

sacred fire, a gesture that resembles the Ash Wednesday tradition. Part of their

purification before participating in ritual was the confession of sins,

categorized (as Catholics do) as consisting of thought, word, or deed.

Zoroastrianism also has a eucharistic ritual, the haoma ritual, in which the

god Haoma was sacrificed (or rather, his presence in a plant). The worshippers

would drink the juice in expectation of eventual immortality. Finally,

Zoroastrians observed All Soul's Day, like the Catholics reflecting a belief in

intercession both by and for the dead.

 

We should also note that the story of the Magi, who were said to have visited

the newborn Jesus, resembles an earlier story of Magi who looked for a star

foretelling the birth of a Savior, in this case Mithras. Magi were not kings,

but Zorastrian astrologers, and the birthday of Mithras on December 25th was

deliberately borrowed by the Church to be that of their Christ, whose actual

date of birth is undocumented and unknown.

 

They may also have borrowed the story of the temptation in the desert, since an

earlier legend places Zarathustra himself in the same situation. The principal

demon (Ahriman) promised Zarathustra earthly power if he would forsake the

worship of the One Supreme God. Ahriman, like Satan, failed.

 

For a final interesting parallel, the three days that Jesus was said to have

been in the grave may have been due to the Zoroastriann belief that the soul

remains in the body for three days before departing. Three days would establish

that he was dead, yet leave his soul in a position to re-animate his body.

 

As a Messiah, Jesus functioned purely along Zoroastrian lines. While purportedly

of the Davidic line, he offered only redemption from sin, rather than national

salvation for the Jews. He was a World Savior, rather than a Jewish Messiah.

Jews did not recognize him as their Messiah, and in a real sense he was not.

Their Messianic expectations, those which originated prior to the captivity,

went unfulfilled; in fact their nation was ultimately destroyed. Neither did

Jesus effect a final triumph over Evil; this has been reserved for a Second

Coming, in conjunction with the Last Judgment and the reward of Heaven or the

punishment of Hell.

 

Although Zoroastrianism is almost extinct today, it lives on in its spiritual

descendants. Zarathustra, a prophet beyond any in the Old Testament, still

speaks today, unrecognized by his children.

 

http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/mine/zoroastianism.htm

 

 

The Illumination of Zarathushtra...

 

When he was thirty years old, one early morning, he went to fetch some water

from the river. It was around dawn. The sky had just turned color and the sun

was about to rise. As he had gone into the waters of the river, Vohu Mana (the

angel of the Good Mind) appears to him, and opens the portal to the Divine Light

of Ahura Mazda. This was the first moment of Illumination and the first

Revelations of Zarathushtra.

 

In his vision, he perceived Ahura Mazda as the Wise Lord of Creation, and the

six emanations of Ahura Mazda, the Amesha Spentas as the guardians and artisans

of this physical world. He perceived the laws upon which the universe operated,

and understood the inter-relationship between Ahura Mazda, the Amesha Spentas,

and the Creation.

 

Perhaps we try to personify these images and abstract notions, and try to think

of them as angels, but in truth, Zarathushtra understood them as the abstract

notions that they were.

 

Propagation (the sharing of his acquired wisdom with the world)...

 

After his illumination, Zarathushtra wanted to share his acquired wisdom with

the world, yet he did not know where to start. He made a decision to invite all

his family and relatives to listen to his teachings. And then in a family

gathering, he explained his understandings to them.

 

When he finished explaining, his cousin, Maedyoimaha, decided to join him, and

became the first follower of his teachings. And his wife Hvovi also embraced his

teachings becoming his second follower. His children, one by one, decided to

accept his philosophy as their way of life. (According to another record, it

took his cousin ten years before he accepted to follow Zarathushtra's teachings

and become his

first convert.)

 

Zarathushtra's Challenges....

 

Zarathushtra then decided to share his teachings with his fellow citizens. When

he started teaching others in the street of the city, he met with a deeply

rooted resistance from the priests, who had based their entire life and

livelihood on the old religions. Zarathushtra tried many different techniques,

and every time he met with renewed opposition and greater resistance. In fact,

over the next twelve years, he only managed to win 22 people over to his

philosophy, including his wife and children, and his first disciple, his cousin.

 

Having met such frustration, and such vehement opposition from the rulers and

priests of his own land, he decided to leave his homeland for other countries.

He then mobilized his followers, and the group of 23 people started their

migration.

 

To whichever land they came, and in whatever city that stayed, he tried to teach

others about his philosophy, yet in every place they met with predictable

opposition, partly due to the self-interested preemptive strikes of the rulers

and priests, and partly because of the ignorance of the people, and their

unwillingness to change.

 

Finally, they had heard that a of the King of a nearby country, King Vishtaspa,

was a wise and just man and if there was one person in the whole world who might

be open to listen to new teachings, it would be him. And they set off in that

direction.

 

http://www.zarathushtra.com/z/life/illumina.htm