Zorastrianism - Founded by the Prophet Zarathustra

Zoroastrianism is the oldest of the revealed world-religions, and it has probably had more influence on mankind, directly and indirectly, than any other single faith.

What is Zoroastrianism?
Zoroastrians are the followers of the great Iranian prophet, Spitaman Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek; Zarthosht in India and Persia). Scholars and historians generally date his life sometime between 1500 and 600 BC, with consensus that is was around 1000 BC based on his style of writing.
Zarathustra lived and preached somewhere around the Aral Sea, about three and a half thousand years ago, circa 1000 B.C.E.


Zoroastrianism became the state religion of various Persian empires, until the 7th Century AC. When followers of Islam invaded Persia in 650 AC, the Zoroastrians fled to India, where they are concentrated today, leaving very few behind. Those who remained behind survived centuries of religious persecution and today number only about 17,000.

The Zoroastrian religion believes humanity is to grow and evolve towards a God that respects his creation and wants that creation to collaborate in the task of preserving, nourishing, fostering the World they live in. In order to do so, a Zoroastrian is supposed to progress towards God (Ahura Mazda) by his own choices, choosing to do good, and to avoid choosing to do wrong or evil. Zoroastrianism is thus the first truly ethical religion of mankind and teaches that mortals achieve their goal of God-likeness and spiritual completeness by fighting evil through good thoughts, words and deeds.

Mazdayasna (The Worship of the Wise), another name for Zoroastrianism, teaches the equality of all mortals before their Wise creator God; who only sees a difference in righteousness among mortals. Thus there is equality of race, nation, gender and social position.

In its most sacred prayer the Ahunavar (Choice of the Lord), Zoroastrians are taught that their Lord and leader are to be chosen, through a Good Mind - a mind that is a well-informed and benevolent - and only on account of their individual righteousness. This sets the basis for a spiritual and political democracy as far back as around 4000 years ago! Only an informed and unbiased mind is capable of making a truly righteous choice and this is the message of righteousness that Zarathustra taught.

Zoroastrianism has only about 140,000 members today. Yet its importance to humanity and its impact on the theology of Christianity and other religions that followed is much greater than its small membership might suggest. The influence on other later religions includes the beliefs surrounding God and Satan, heaven and hell, the soul, resurrection, and the final judgment, etc. It is one of the oldest religions still in existence and is believed to be the first monotheistic religion.

The sacred text of the Zoroastrians is called the Avesta-E-Zend (Avesta for short), comprising five Gathas which are songs composed by the prophet Zarathustra. Most of his teachings were lost due to invaders destruction of their books and the murder and imprisonment of those wise men who passed on the knowledge through oral tradition. But over the last centuries, scholars have pieced together the history and texts to bring out the essential truths that had been obscured.

The symbol of Faravahar, also known as Farohar, signifies the final goal of a true Zarthosti to live in a manner befitting the progress of the soul towards Ahura Mazda.