March 26- Birth of Zoroaster

Zoroaster (Persian: زرتشت, Gujarati :ઝરથુશ્ત્ 736;, Kurdish: Zerdeşt) was an ancient Iranian prophet who preached in Bactria and the founder of Zoroastrianism, which was the national religion of the Sassanian dynasty of the Persian Empire, and played an important role in the earlier Achaemenean and Parthian regimes. The original form of his name was Zarathushtra (Zaraθu�tra), but he is usually known in English as Zoroaster (after the Greek version, Ζωροάστρης , Zoroastres). In Persian the name takes the form of Zartosht.

Zoroaster is generally accepted as a historical figure, but efforts to date Zoroaster vary widely. Scholarly estimates are usually roughly near 1700 BC. Others, however, give earlier estimates, making him a candidate as the founder of the earliest religion based on revealed scripture, while still others place him in the 6th century BC, which would make him contemporary to the rise of the Achaemenids.

Introduction

Zoroastrian areas once stretched from Anatolia as the religion of the Mede in the western part of the Iranian plateau to the Persian Gulf, and its followers once numbered in the millions. Its followers today, located principally in South Asia and Iran, as well as throughout the diaspora, number much less, but the religion is alive and dynamic.

Many traits of this ancient Iranian religion of Aryan origin, which has strong similarities before its reformation to the Hinduism of Northern India and the Viking or Norse religion in Northern Europe, are present in modern Persians, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, and Eurasian peoples. Many traits of the Zoroastrian faith are still present in all Iranian peoples' cultures and traditions from Kurdistan and the Caucausus to Iran and Central Asia.

The origin of the religion is ascribed to the prophet Zarathushtra, who is commonly known in the Western world as Zoroaster, the Greek version of his name. The etymology of his name is disputed and several different explanations exist. The modern Persian form of the prophet's name is Zartosht (زرتشت).

Zoroaster came to reform ancient Indo-Iranian religious practices (some of which were parallel to the Vedic religion of ancient India).

According to different scholarly histories, Zoroaster lived in the eastern part of Iran or in Bactria. His dates are contested, but were clearly between the 18th and the 11th centuries BCE (although Plato put Zoroaster in the 64th century BCE). Zoroaster is thought to have composed the Gathas, poems which were assiduously preserved by his followers through centuries of oral transmission, before the whole of the Avesta (in which the Gathas are a central portion) were committed to writing in the Parthian or Sassanian periods. The Gathic dialect is similar to the Vedic Rig Veda and thus Zoroaster has sometimes been dated as roughly contemporary to the Rig Veda, normally ascribed to c.1500-1250 BCE.

The faith is often claimed to be the earliest monotheistic religion, since Zoroaster requires devotion to the single God Ahura Mazda. However, Zoroastrianism also has a dualistic nature (Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu), with an additional series of six important angel-like entities called the Amesha Spentas. In modern Zoroastrianism they are interpreted as aspects or emanations of Ahura Mazda (the Supreme Being), who form a heptad that is good and constructive. They are opposed to another group of seven who are evil and destructive. It is this persistent conflict between good and evil that distinguishes Zoroastrianism from monotheistic frameworks that have only one power as supreme. By requiring its adherents to have faith and belief in equally opposing powers Zoroastrianism characterizes itself as dualistic.

Zoroastrianism may also be known as Mazdayasna ("Worship of Wisdom") by some of its followers after the Zoroastrian name of God, Ahura Mazda ("Divine Wisdom"). A modern Persian form is Behdin ("Good Religion/Law," see below for the role of daena Law). Zoroastrians may refer to themselves as Zartoshti ("Zoroastrians"), Mazdayasni ("Wisdom-Worshippers") and Behdini ("Followers of the Good Religion"), and Zarathustrian.

Principal beliefs

Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything which can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth. Zoroastrian morality is summed up in the simple phrase, "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds" (Pendar-e Nik, Goftar-e Nik, Kerdar-e Nik in the present day Persian, Homaato, Hokhto, Hovarasht, in Avestan). Daena (din in modern Persian) is the eternal Law, whose order was revealed to humanity through the Mathra-Spenta "Holy Words". Daena has been used to mean religion, faith, law, even as a translation for the Hindu and Buddhist term Dharma: it is the correct order of the universe, which humanity naturally must follow through the Kusti "Holy Path" in order to be a Behdini "Follower of the Proper/Good Religion".

Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice; of life as a battle-ground between moral and immoral forces, represented by Spenta Mainyu and its satanic antithesis Angra Mainyu, the 'good spirit' and 'evil spirit' emanations of Ahura Mazda. This opposition may have emerged from the Indo-Iranian distinction between two forms of spiritual beings, ahuras and daevas. In Zoroastrianism, daevas are portrayed as demonic and destructive while ahuras help to uphold the moral law.

Additionally, there are some 20 abstract terms that are regarded as emanations or aspects of Ahura Mazda. In later Avestan literature they are personified as an archangel retinue of The Wise Lord. Some historians believe that these archangels were reabsorptions of pre-Zoroastrian deities, daevas. There are six that are mentioned more often than the rest. These are: Vohu Mano (Good Mind), Asha (Truth), Khshatra (Good Dominion), Armaiti (Piety), Haurvatat (Perfection), and Ameretat (Immortality).

Specific Zoroastrian concepts

Zoroastrianism teaches many of the concepts found in the major Abrahamic faiths such as Heaven, Hell, the Last Judgment, Satan, prophecy, the coming of the Messiah, angels, and evil spirits.

According to the Gathas humans are free and responsible beings. Predestination is rejected in Zoroastrian teaching. Humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act to one another. Nothing in the Heavens and Earth has the power to force a being to do evil. Reward, punishment, happiness and grief all depend on how individuals live their life. Good befalls the people who do righteous deeds. Those who do evil have themselves to blame for their evil-doing.

Humans possess a great power. They can improve their way of living and the living conditions of others. This power is called Charitas. After death the person must walk through the Path to Judgement or Chinvat Peretum to bear responsibility for his or her actions when alive. There is a belief in heaven and hell in Zoroastrian cosmology but it is a little different than that of the Christian hell. The evil are sent to hell until the time when evil is finally defeated, at which time they will go through a purgation process, the "ordeal of molten metal", and then join Ahura Mazda and the saints. Thus, Zoroastrianism can be said to be a Universalist religion with respect to salvation.

The Prophet Zoroaster acknowledged devotion to no other god besides Ahura Mazda. The concept of Dualism plays a role when speaking of the Spenta Mainyu ("Holy Spirit") and the Angra Mainyu ("Evil Spirit"). These two have a constant battle, at the end of which the Holy Spirit will prevail by the power of Ahura Mazda.

When it comes to worship metaphysical dualism is rejected in modern orthodox traditions and beliefs. The belief that Good prevails over Evil and God's supremacy over all is similar to that of the Abrahamic faiths, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in which Satan is in no way the equal of the Abrahamic God and is a creation of God. Yet these faiths differ from Zoroastrianism precisely because they represent the evil force as being another of the supreme being's creations. In contrast, Mardanfarrokh, a Zoroastrian theologian in the 9th century CE, posited "If God is perfect in goodness and wisdom, then ignorance and evil cannot come from Him. If they could come from Him, He would not be perfect; and if He were not perfect, He should not be praised as God and perfectly good..." (117-123 from For students and novices; Complete Pazand and Sanskrit texts published by H.J. Jamasp-Asana and E.W. West; pioneer English translation by E.W. West, SBE. XXIV; transcribed Pazand text with French translation by P.J. de Menasce. From Textual sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism by Mary Boyce. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1984).

He was born around 858 in Tur, Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). Al-Hallaj's grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.

Hallaj would later marry and make a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the holy city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He travelled as far as India and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of which accompanied him on his second and third trips to Mecca. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.

During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both.

Among other Sufis, Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He would begin to make enemies, and the rulers saw him as a threat.This was exacerbated by times when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Ana al-Haqq أنا الحق, meaning "I am the Truth," or "I am God" and also, "In my turban is wrapped nothing but God?" which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, as Al-Haqq is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another statement, Hallaj would point to his cloak and say, "Maa Fil Jubbati Illa-Allah" meaning "There is nothing inside/underneath the cloak except God."

This utterance would lead him to a long trial, and subsequent imprisonment for eleven years in a Baghdad's prison . In the end, he would be tortured and publicly crucified (in some accounts he was beheaded and his hands and feet were cut off) by the Abbasid rulers for what they deemed "theological error threatening the security of the state." Many accounts tell of Al-Hallaj's calm demeanor even while he was being tortured, and indicate that he forgave those who had executed him. According to some sources, he went to his execution dancing in his chains. He died on March 26, 922.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hallaj

His story is really interesting, If you compare it with IR, You found IR is governed with same extremist mind, 1100 years ago!!
Best refrence about his life is Mantegh Alteir by Attare Neishabori

1921-Charles IV. returned

After the First World War Austria-Hungary broke up. The last king of Hungary, Charles IV., at the same time the last emperor of Austria as Charles I. lost his throne. Then the Habsburgs were detronized, Hungary became a People Republic in 1918, in 1919 became a Soviet Republic. After that the Hungarian National Assembly declared Hungary again as a kingdom and elected Mikl�s Horthy as the Regent in March 1st, 1921. But  didn't arrange for the dethronement of Charles IV., who travelled into Hungary in March 26th, 1921. He visited the Prime Minister, P�l Teleki and his previous admiral, Horthy in Budapest, and thanked the recovering of his throne. The suprised Horthy and most of the politicians and officers weren't agree with the restoration of the Habsburg dinasty, and the next-door countries mobilized. Then Charles left Hungary. Istv�n Bethlen became the new Prime Minister instead of Teleki.

But the king travelled by air into Western Hungary in October, 1921. He appointed Istv�n Rakovszky the Prime Minister. Some forces joined Charles, after that pro-Habsburg officers trumpeted a new Bolshevik revolution in Budapest. They pressed forward until Budapest. Czechoslovakia and the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom mobilized, because they also didn't want a restoration. Fortunately the royalist army was defeated by the regular and volenteer forces, led by the later Prime Minister, Gyula G�mb�s. Charles was arrested and English deported him to the island of Madeira.  The National Assembly in November 6th, 1921. detronized the Habsburg dinasty. The coup had an other consequence. The neighbouring countries, except Austria, who didn't want a Habsburg-controllod Hungary, nor the Greater Hungary, came closer.

One too many spams. That's enough trolling from you. Every post is the same from dangdaga. OK