| In the Zend Avesta, the foe of Ahura Mazda is the son of Angra Mainyu, Azi Zahak. Azi is the Avestan word for “serpent” or “dragon,” synonymous with Sanskrit ahi, meaning “serpent.” (5) According to Dr. Haug, the concept of the resurrection of the dead can be credited to Zoroastrianism, “The belief in the resurrection of the body at the time of the last judgment also forms one of the Zoroastrian dogmas.” (6) Directly from the Yasht we read: “We sacrifice unto the awful kingly Glory, made by Mazda .... That will cleave unto the victorious Saoshyant and his helpers, when he shall restore the world, which will (thenceforth) never grow old and never die, never decaying and never rotting, ever living and ever increasing, and master of its wish, when the dead will rise, when life and immortality will come, and the world will be restored at its wish; When the creation will grow deathless, - the prosperous creation of the Good Spirit, - and the Druj shall perish, though she may rush on every side to kill the holy beings; she and her hundredfold brood shall perish, as it is the will of the Lord. For its brightness and glory, I will offer it a sacrifice ....” (7) Not only does this passage clearly illustrate the “resurrection of the dead” but the “awaiting of the Saoshyant.” It sounds to me like Zarathustra was saying, “when the rains come again, the mushrooms will grow up again, and all will be replenished in the soil and all the sacrifices we made cutting up the mushrooms and spreading them out in the fields to produce more progeny and newly born sons will come to fruition and you can eat them again and you won’t die although you will have felt like it, and the worms will perish and not stand a chance at eating the mushrooms.” In the next section we read about “winds carrying the body away” and the question of how it will be resurrected again. In Chapter 31 of the Bundehesh, the question is asked: “The body which the wind has carried away and the waves have swallowed how will it be recreated, how will the resurrection of the dead take place?” To this answered Ormazd: “When through me the corn which is laid in the earth grows again and comes once more to life, when I have given to the trees veins according to their kinds, … when I have placed the child in the mother,… when I have given to the waters feet that they might run, I have created the clouds which take up the water of the earth and send it down again in rain where I will, …. When I have created each and all of these things, would it be harder for me to bring about the resurrection? … Remember, all this has been once, and I have created it, and can I not recreate what has already been?” (8) Again, we are left with the impression that the winds carry the mushroom spores, and the entire death and resurrection theme, along with the coming messiah theme, are both intimately related to the mushroom and the forces of nature. |
The doctrine of good and evil being embodied in god and the devil or “Satan” comes down to us from Zoroastrianism into Judaism and then into Christianity. Zoroastrianism was the first religion to create a concept of dualism and the embodiment of those two forms as deities. This concept appeared in the Vedic tradition only as energies but not as deities. In later Hinduism, as deities took on more and more characteristics and personas there became a whole pantheon of good and bad deities. But once again, as we have already seen, these were nothing more than “nature spirits” attached to plants and fungi, not real entities in some war between good and evil forces for control over the earth. (9) The Day of Judgement, the weighing of the soul. The registration of acts good and bad in the books to be weighed by Gabriel, have Jewish roots, prior to Islam, and were originally borrowed from Zoroastrians. The Persian Magi hold that on the day of judgement two angels named Mehr and Sarush will stand on the bridge and examine everyone who passes, then a report is presented to God, and sentence is passed. If the balance is more than a hair in weight in one direction or the other, that will be the judgement. (10) On the road to heaven is the bridge called the Mahomed Al Sirat. This bridge lays over the abyss of hell, and is thin as a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword. Muslims easily pass over the bridge, led by Mohamed but the wicked miss their footing and fall into hell. The Jews have their own version of the bridge of hell, which according to them is no broader than a thread. The Jews and the Mahomedans both borrowed from the Zoroastrians who teach that on the last day all men will be obliged to pass over a bridge called Pul Chinavad. (11) Angels, archangels, daemons and their hierarchies and divisions between good and evil did not take place during the time of the Gathas (Avesta’s of Zoroaster) and there was no such thing yet at this time. Eventually, in time, Archangels such as Good Mind and Righteous Order, Perfect Sovereignty, Divine Plenty, Devotion, Wholeness and Immortality were eventually pitted against the Archangels of Evil Mind and False Appearance, Cowardice, Hypocrisy, Misery and Extinction. (12) (5) ibid, p. 56 (6) ibid, p. 67-68; Haug's Essays, p. 216 (7) Zamyad Yasht 19, 88-90 (8) The Fountainhead of Religion, p. 70 (9) ibid, p. 7 (10) ibid; Sales Koran, Prel. Dis. p. 71; See Also Zend Avesta, part III, West Mainyu Khurd, p. 134 (11) ibid, p. 4-5; Sale's Koran, Prel. Dis. p. 78 (12) Occidental Mythology, p. 192-93 |