Immortality

An extract from Zarathushtra: The Transcendental Vision by Phiroz Mehta

Continued from part 1

Because of its ambivalence, the psyche injects both good and evil influences into the psychical atmosphere. The psyche also draws upon and is affected by the accumulated store of good and evil psychical energy enveloping the world, like the pure as well as the polluted air which encloses the earth and which we all breathe. Whereas we usually have little choice where the quality of the air we breathe is concerned, we do have considerable freedom of choice where the psychical atmosphere is concerned, for this depends upon what company we keep, upon our cultural and spiritual interests and upon being aware of our own psychological states.

Here we must consider an important teaching of Zarathushtra, namely, his doctrine of the twin mainyu — the twin spirits or twin powers, the one promoting and the other spoiling or destroying well-being and the purpose of existence.

In his very first sermon, Zarathushtra says to the assembled people:

Now to the eager ones I will speak of the Two created by Mazda — this is for the wise.

Ys. 30.1

Here the Two are not specified Zarathushtra continues:

(I shall sing) hymns unto Ahura and the praises of Vohu Manah; (and explain) the sacred lore of Asha also, so that you may attain perfection in realms of light.

In the next verse he exhorts the people:

Give ear to the highest (truths). Let each one, man by man, consider them with an illumined mind, before deciding for himself which of the two paths he decides to tread. Wake up each one of you and spread this (message) before the great ushering of the New Age (of the worship of the One God, Ahura Mazda).

Ys. 30.2

In the third verse he states the nature of the twin spirits. They are co-workers, but they are opposed in thought, word and deed. The “good” twin (as stated in the fourth verse) generates life and promotes spiritual growth, whilst the “bad” twin is the agent of dissolution.

One may wonder why Ahura Mazda should produce a good and also a bad spirit — two opposite energies. Any manifestation, material or biological or cultural, requires the stimulus, challenge and friction caused by contrasting energy; intellectual and aesthetic development, and moral and spiritual advancement is promoted thereby. If a person was deprived of the activity of the inferior, of the less good (the “bad”) and its consequences, he would remain lacking in true discernment. This does not mean that he himself must deliberately do evil. He himself needs to observe evil done around him by those who are immature enough to indulge in it, and thereby learn how to live in accord with asha. Therefore Zarathushtra categorically states: “Thus it is that Creation’s purpose is fulfilled.”

All Perfected Holy ones know that God is inconceivable and indescribable by us at our present level. God creates. This means that the primordial, undifferentiated Creative Energy is stirred out of its vibrant, quiescent state and the Cosmos comes into being — Manifestation in an infinite variety of forms. All Creation is an existence — a standing out of (ex + sistere, to stand) the one Source. Activity, movement, form, shape, change, life and death, always involve the constant interaction of the complementary opposites composing all duality. Without the operation of such duality there could be no existence, no manifestation of God.

Since all manifestation is a dynamic process of constant change, there is the perpetual interaction of what we call good and evil, construction and dissolution, positive and negative, male and female. All existence is of and in God, but God is not confined to existence. God is. Though God is unknown and unknowable, we can see and touch and know a small portion of Manifestation (the reflection of God projected out of God by God’s own magic play, maya), and grow in virtue (asha) and realize God’s and our own, perfect humanity, human godliness.

All existence tends this way, yearning towards its specific perfection — the gem, the flower, the thorn, the tree, the ant, the viper, the Holy One, the angel, the demon, ad infinitum. God that is remains, for us, the Mystery. Does God, seeing God’s divine signature throughout the pulsating immensity — all existence — ever know God? God knows. Or, maybe, God does not care to know. Mystery! Wondrous Mystery! Be reverent by letting the Mystery be. Such is the Way of Purity, and Wisdom and Love, of asha and vohu manah and armaiti. And by treading that Way, Creation’s purpose for man is fulfilled.

That is what Zarathushtra teaches. Man is free to choose his path. The Creative Energy functions in terms of duality, giving rise to gaya on the one hand — life, growth and fulfilment — and to ajyaiti on the other — degeneration, decay and dissolution — which is a transformation process leading to a different kind of existence. Zarathushtra unequivocally extols and upholds Truth and exhorts man to live in accordance with it. He himself is its shining Exemplar. Whoso lives thus realises haurvatat, supreme well-being, and ameretat, immortality.

Continued in part 3, part 4 and part 5

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