Zoroaster (c.630–c.553 BCE,) Greek form of the Avestan name Zarathuštra, present form Zaradusht, was a Persian religious leader and prophet. He is the originator or reformer of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest and, at one time in history, the most powerful, monotheistic religion in the world.
Born possibly in Rhages, Persia, Zoroaster appears as a historical person only in the initial section of the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism. As the center of a group of chieftains, one of whom was King Vishtaspa, he carried on a political, military, and the theological struggle for the defense of a holy agricultural state against Turanian and Vedic aggressors.
According to legend, Zoroaster had visions of Ahura Mazdā (“Wise Lord,”) which led him to preach against polytheism. The central tenet of his system is that the world demonstrates the struggle between Ormuzd and Ahriman (the creator and the devil, or, the good spirit and the evil principle,) in which, in the end, good will eventually triumph.
Zoroaster composed the Gathas, 17 Avestan hymns that advocate material and spiritual well-being of devotees. By the time of his death, Zoroastrianism had spread to a large part of Persia.
Zarathustra has been the object of much scholarly attention, especially for the influence of his teachings on religions that subsequently emerged in the Middle East. Well-known biographies of Zoroaster include A. V. Williams Jackson’s Zoroaster: The Prophet of Ancient Iran (1899) and E Herzfeld’s Zoroaster and His World (1947.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Zoroaster
Satisfaction linked with dishonor or with harm to others is a prison for the seeker.
—Zoroaster
When you doubt, abstain.
—Zoroaster
Topics: Doubt
Doing good to others is not a duty, it is a joy, for it increases our own health and happiness.
—Zoroaster
Topics: Health
For a thinking man is where Wisdom is at home.
—Zoroaster
Truth is best (of all that is) good. As desired, what is being desired is truth for him who (represents) the best truth.
—Zoroaster
Be good, be kind, be humane, and charitable; love your fellows; console the afflicted; pardon those who have done you wrong.
—Zoroaster
Topics: Kindness
A knife of the keenest steel requires the whetstone, and the wisest man needs advice.
—Zoroaster
Suffer no anxiety, for he who is a sufferer of anxiety becomes regardless of enjoyment of the world and the spirit, and contraction happens to his body and soul.
—Zoroaster
Topics: Worry
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