Each year on December the 26^th we commemorate the passing of the ancient Aryan prophet Zarathûshtrá. Since his message is all about “wisdom, luminosity and light,” there is NO room for gloom and mourning in his religion. Instead we focus on his legacy and celebrate his teachings.

Zarathûshtrá taught us to laugh in the face of the inevitable, to smile even at death. His wisdom speaks to us through his poetic gathas or songs. (Compare Avestan gatha to Lithuanian giedoti “to sing”)

In his religion, life means to constantly transform into light and passionate flame all that we are or meet with. His “vision” (Avestan daæná) is about “the desire to discover,” (Avestan daæná from dee “power to see” “gift of foresight.”)

His religion/vision is about the will to become godlike through the search of wisdom, through the journey, evolution of mind power/spirit.

His gift of foresight/religion was always a quest to better decipher our own souls and unleash godhood, NEVER a body of doctrines.

Zarathûshtrá taught us about an inquisitive disposition of spirit/mind, rather than a particular kind of dogma.

The ancient seer/prophet wanted us to see things not in the mundane gloom but as they will seem forever in the brilliant light of a fresh, new creation.

He called his message Mazd-Yasná. The very meaning of the word (derived from the Avestan compound Ma(n)zdá + Yasná) points at “passionate yearning for energetic mind power.”

Ma(n)zdá or Mazdá (Compare Vedic Meðá, Greek Metis) is the essence of godhood in Zoroastrianism. Ma(n)zdá/Mazdá is “passion, power of the spirit, mind-energy, imagination, creativity.”

Yasná comes from the Proto Indo European root *ya “to passionately yearn, desire” (Compare Greek zelos, Latin zelus “passionate fervor in pursuit of.”)

Hence, Mazd-Yasná is “eager desire to discover,” “intense passion to become godlike through the journey/evolution of mind-power.”

Mazd-Yasná starts with passion to question things, with fervor for discovery and unknown wisdom. The main source of questioning is the spirit/mind’s sense of wonder. This sense of wonder is called vôhü in the Avestan and is almost identical to Old Norse vé “that which is awe-inspiring, wondrous, sacred.”

Zarathûshtrá taught us at the dawn of the Indo European history to first seek the “awe-inspiring, wondrous, good things” of the spirit/mind (vôhü manö.)

He taught us to keep alive our spirit of wonder by exploring familiar things with a new, brighter light; to articulate our sense of awe/wonder by formulating QUESTIONS.

In his poetic gathas, in Yasná 44, he starts each verse except the last one with the formula tat thwá peresá “I ask a question of Thee,” (Compare Avestan peresá with Old Church Slavonic prositi, Lithuanian prasyti “to ask a question.)

Also we read in the Avesta or the book of “unknown/undiscovered wisdom” ahüirim frašnem yazamaidæ “we passionately adore the godly questioning/discourse.” For the ancient seer/prophet this very exploration, questioning “frašnem” is godly, ahuric or divine, (Avetsan frašnem comes from frašná, Vedic prasná, German fragen comes from the same root “to question.”)

The legacy of the ancient Aryan religion of Zoroastrianism is a sense of awe and wonder for a marvelous creation, nobility, simplicity, beauty, magnanimity, and passionate search for new wisdom.

Mazd-Yasná is a wondrous wisdom focused on the unleashing of the undiscovered powers of spirit/mind.

In a world of fury, hollow ideologies, inflexible dogmas, violence and suppression of questioning/ideas, this ancient wisdom might be well worthy of rediscovery.

ardeshir