History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 50

To know God one must become God is the dictum of mysticism. Religions have looked to divine revelation as the real source of divine wisdom. The faculties of the human mind, it is believed by men of mystic temperament, cannot give the true knowledge of God. Knowledge gathered through the senses is illusive. Reason is not capable of comprehending God. To attempt to see him through the medium of reason is to lose him. Intuition is higher than reason. Though reason may conduct the adept to the divine portal, intuition alone can enable him to penetrate into the sanctuary and have a vision of God. Human intelligence is debarred from entering this inner sphere. Divine wisdom dawns upon the mind when it renounces its own thoughts and reflection, and loses all self-consciousness. In such an entirely passive and receptive state of ecstasy, the mind is divinely illumined. It is the outcome of immediate contact of the pure mind with God. The mind that yearns to know God must seek its union with the divine mind. The transcendental insight gives a supra-rational apprehension of divine wisdom. Truth dawns thus upon him, and shines in its effulgence, while an ecstatic insight is aroused in him and in a moment of ecstasy, when the devotee transcends all self-consciousness, the wave of the occult light surges in upon him, and the mysterious something sweeps, like a meteor, over his soul giving a sudden flash that illumines the inner world. The nightingale in its transport of joy sings to the glory of God, until it becomes half frenzied. When the mystic is bathed in devotion, he is so intoxicated with the divine wisdom that he thinks himself one with the Divine. In this condition the devotee does not meditate upon God, he feels him; he does not think of God, he owns him.

The allegorical method of interpreting religious texts. From very early times some theologians of both the East and the West ​have maintained that the prophets adapt themselves to the mode of thinking of the masses and use parables and legends to express their views. The sacred texts, they say, are written in a way which contains a double meaning, the one is the surface meaning, which can be understood by the masses, and the other is the inner or hidden meaning meant for the initiated. The Sophists and Stoics resorted to the method of allegorically interpreting Greek mythology to meet the attacks of sceptical criticism. The Alexandrian Jewish and Christian theologians, Philo and Origen, spoke of the literal and spiritual meanings of the sacred books. The first, they wrote, was the bodily part of the text meant for the majority and the second was its spiritual part which was understood by those few who could find the revealed kernel, hidden by God in the outer textual shell. The Gnostics and the Neo-Platonists thus attempted to explain Oriental and Occidental myths by allegorical interpretation. The Ismailis, the Sect of the Seven and other schools that flourished in Iran from the ninth century, called themselves the Bātinis or the esoterics as opposed to the Zāhiris or the exoterics or literalists. Their method of interpreting the sacred texts on the allegorical basis is called tā'wil.

This method of interpreting religious texts persists throughout the various periods of the history of the religions of the world. Legends and myths, traditional dogmas and superstitious customs, historical errors and textual discrepancies, primitive beliefs and practices are all invested with the mysterious meanings. Statements which often repel both intelligence and conscience find an easy expedient in allegory. The esoterics generally seek in the sacred texts what their own thinking is willing to find and read in them what is rooted in their minds. They read the subjective meaning into the texts and draw unwarranted implications from them. Forces of nature, animate or inanimate objects are all given a new meaning and explained as symbolizing some ethical idea, some aspects of man's consciousness, some expression of the divine in man. Rational explanations are attempted for apparently absurd customs to preserve them against rational criticism. Symbolic significance is attached to puerile legends. Unbridled by the canons of reason and undeterred by any regard for historical sense and critical acumen, the esoteric interpreters of religions generally produce allegorizing extravagances.

​Desatir and Dabistan. In the early part of the last century appeared the text and translation of the Desatir, alleged to have a heavenly origin, and to have been written down in the reign of Khusru Parviz and thus to throw a flood of light on Zoroastrianism. A very heated controversy was the result of the appearance of this work. One party of eminent European scholars declared it to be a fraudulent forgery, while others of equal eminence endeavoured to prove its authenticity. The claim of the Desatir to have been written in a celestial language was put to a crucial test. Patient research has since declared the book to be an exotic, outside the pale of Zoroastrianism. And so it has been held by all Iranian scholars both of East and West.^[1]

In this work are given the teachings of various mystic schools, and the entire treatise breathes a totally different atmosphere from that of the genuine Zoroastrian works, being divergent in tone from the true spirit from its very beginning to its close. The Iranian scriptures of all periods have recognized Gayomard as the primeval man, who was the progenitor of the human race, and who, first among mortals, heard the divine word of Ormazd.^[2] But this work, on the contrary, gives a regular hierarchy of prophets who are supposed to have preceded the first man. God first revealed his secrets to one Mahabad, who was followed by thirteen other prophets in the former cycles of time bearing his name. Through them the supposed revelation came down to Gayomard and his descendants. It is alleged in this book, moreover, that all the early Pishdadian kings conformed to this religion of Mahabad, until the time that Zoroaster came and preached his fundamentally new religion. But even the new prophet's religion, we are told, was so glossed over by the Yazdanians, the followers of Mahabad, that Zoroastrianism was ultimately made to confer to the Mahabadian code.^[3]

Another Persian work entitled Dabistan, or School of Manners, written in India by Mohsan Fani in the seventeenth century, draws the greater part of its materials from the Desatir. The author of this composition mentions some fourteen sects into which he finds the Zoroastrians of his day divided. These are the Sipasian, Abadian, Jamshaspian, Samradian, Khodaiyan, ​Radian, Shidrangian, Paikarian, Milanian, Alarian, Shidabian, Akhshiyan, Zardushtian, and Mazdakian. Several of these sects are stated to have flourished from very remote times, going back to the Pahlavi and Avestan periods, nay stretching even back to a period of which history has not a word to tell. With the exception of these two works, however, we have no inkling of other sects in the genuine Iranian texts. The statements contained in them are not corroborated by any authority in the writings of the Zoroastrian priests. They do not mention them by name, they are entirely unaware of their existence. The account of the majority of these sects, as found in the Dabistan, is very meagre. We meet with some attempts in them to explain the primordial principle from which creation came into being, and we have some sort of crude metaphysics grafted on physics. Sun, fire, air, nature, water, and earth are alternately put forward as having been the physical sources of existence according to various schools of thinkers.^[4] Others still preach a strict monism, and assume that the world of phenomena was caused by illusion.^[5] The teachings of the Yazdanians and others are characterized by a belief in metempsychosis, as well as in the efficiency of rigorous austerities and ascetic virtues. Our present concern, however, is with the author's account of the Zoroastrian mystics, and we shall now turn to the matter immediately.

Zoroastrian mystics. At this period we meet with some Parsi thinkers who were not satisfied with the formal side of religion, and looked with indifference upon the ritual observances. Outward formalism and literal interpretation of the teachings of the prophet failed to meet with the longings of these men of mystic temperament. They ever remained in search of mysteries hidden beneath the outward garb of dogmas and rituals. The Parsi priesthood could not satisfy the wants of such ecstatic enthusiasts. They revolted from authority, and set about thinking for themselves. These dissenters as a body lived a life different from that led by their neighbours. Many of them found consolation in the teachings of the Hindu Yogis and became their willing disciples. Under these circumstances we have to turn to the Dabistan for the general information of this sect, as the historic Parsi works are silent over the question and do not even notice its existence.

​Azar Kaivan and his disciples. The author of the Dabistan gives us an elaborate account of the Zoroastrian mystics whom he met in Patna, in Kashmir, and in Lahore during the seventeenth century.^[6] The most illustrious of these mystic teachers was Dastur Azar Kaivan who came from Persia and settled in Patna,^[7] and lived for years in seclusion far from the public gaze.^[8] Some of the most prominent disciples of this recluse sage were the Mobads Farzan Bahram of Shiraz, Hushiyyar of Surat, Sarosh, and Khuda Jui. They extravagantly trace their lineage back to Mahabad, to Sam, Godrej, Rustam, Jamasp, Zoroaster, and Noshirvan. Let us now pass on to a brief notice of the literary activity of these hermit priests.

Mystic literature during the period. These Parsi mystics composed several treatises in Persian, which, as we have already seen, was the literary medium of this period. Among the more important works that have thus come down to us are Jam-i Kaikhusru, Makashefat-i Kaivani, Khishtab, Zaredasht Afshar, and Zindah Rud. The author of the last three allege that their works are translations into Persian from the original Pahlavi books written in the days of the Sasanian kings Hormazd and Khusru Parviz. A search through the literary content of these writings, however, shows that their philosophical dissertations mostly reproduce the teachings of Greek philosophy, current in India in the seventeenth century through its Arabic version. For instance, the Khishtab opens with the prophet Mahabad's descriptions of the four generative principles of things, which are nothing else but the material, formal, efficient, and final causes of Aristotle. The authors fantastically credit the legendary and real kings and princes of Persia with the philosophical ideas, which on very little examination can easily be traced to their original Greek sources. These royal personages are styled prophets or seers and depicted as advancing some original argument for the proof of the existence of God, his eternal attributes, and regarding other kindred subjects. Even the warrior heroes Zal and Rustam seem occasionally to have proclaimed a truce to warfare, and to have devoutly sat down in more peaceful pursuit of metaphysical investigations; for some of the philosophical disquisitions stand in their names too.

​The alleged twofold meaning of the Avesta. These esoteric interpreters of the sacred works asserted that Zoroaster had couched his teachings in figurative and enigmatic language.^[9] The Zoroastrian scriptures were accordingly divided into 'Great Zend' and 'Little Zend,'^[10] the first being followed by the adepts and initiates, and the second by the masses. The figurative language of the former hid the deeper truths from the ignorant.

The author, then, cites some instances and explains the difference between the exoteric and the esoteric interpretations of the Avestan texts. For instance, when it is said that the archangel Bahman held a conference with Zoroaster and asked him to close his eyes, the vulgar, according to the Dabistan, understand that Bahman assumed human form and addressed the prophet like a mortal; but the adept is to understand by this that the true essence of man was uncompounded, and that under such a state Bahman manifested himself before Zoroaster, and his asking the prophet to close his eyes means only that the spirit asked him to eradicate all bodily attachments and suppress carnal desires of the flesh in order to enable him to get a vision of the archangel.^[11] When the Zoroastrian texts seem to sanction animal slaughter, it is to be understood as an injunction to kill the animal propensities inherent in man.^[12] The author states further that the passages which speak of the hermits as partaking of animal food in reasonable bounds are not to be taken literally. These simply refer to the gradual control and ultimate killing of the animal nature in man.^[13] The legend that Ahriman appeared at a season festival in the guise of a glutton and devoured everything to the utter confusion of the assembly, until he was routed by preparing a dish from the flesh of a certain red cow, mixed with vinegar, garlic, and rue, at the instance of some miraculous advice, may be taken by the masses as literally true. But any one versed in esoteric wisdom, and acquainted with the doctrines inculcated by the Dabistan, knows that the killing of the red cow stands for the suppression of the sensual appetite, vinegar for the virtue of abstinence, garlic for reflection, and rue for silent reflection. All these would kill Ahrimanian propensities in man.^[14] The ignorant invest Ahriman with a personality; but, really ​speaking, he has no independent existence, for he is not an entity, and is simply the negation of existence.^[15] The aggregate of bodily passions and sensual appetites is symbolically termed Ahriman, named from the originator of evil,^[16] and Ahriman's predominance in the world is to exist only for a limited time while the tumult of youth in man and the bodily passions in man are in the ascendency and until they are ultimately curbed and eradicated.^[17] Again, the sacred books speak of Ahriman as the creator of serpents and scorpions. But these noxious creatures, according to this treatise, are nothing but allegorical expressions for the vices and passions that haunt the human mind.^[18] All such persons as stick to the exoteric interpretation of the scriptures believe that Zohak actually carried two serpents on his shoulders, but the adept understands the statement as applying to the venomous tyranny and sensuality of the wicked usurper.^[19] The legend of the flight of King Kaus to the heavens, his fall, and the subsequent restoration of this lost monarch to his kingdom by Rustam, has likewise an esoteric interpretation. The four eagles that carried the misguided king high up in the air, along with his throne, signify the four elements. The throne, explains the author, stands for the predominant bodily passions, the ascent means that a devotee can rise to a higher plane of existence by a life of abstinence and austerity, the fall denotes the revolt of the passions owing to some neglect in the observance of the ascetic practices, while Rustam's achievement, in finally bringing Kaus back from the forest, indicates the flash of proper knowledge that reclaims the erring aspirant from fatal mishap.^[20] Thus the esoteric writings veil the truth from the gaze of the vulgar. The real and deep meaning is hidden within the outer husks; and only he who grasps this inner meaning can attain to insight into the secret doctrine. This in fact is a summary of the mystic teachings of the Parsi ascetics in the Dabistan, based evidently upon the earlier doctrines of Sufism and developed under Hindu mystic influences in India.

Ascetic practices of the Parsi mystics. The hermits practised celibacy.^[21] They abstained from animal food,^[22] and reduced the quantity of their daily food, until many of them could live on ​food weighing ten dirhams, or a fraction of an ounce, a day^[23] or in some cases on only one such unit.^[24] Some could live without any kind of food or drink for two or three days in succession.^[25] Such devotees practised many kinds of austerities;^[26] and all of these mortifications of the flesh were undergone in religious imitation of their Hindu brethren. The chief among such austerities were those of supporting themselves on the extremities of their fingers from midnight until dawn,^[27] and of standing on the head with the feet raised in the air from nightfall unto sunrise.^[28] By rigorous discipline some such religious enthusiasts, we are told, attained the power of suppressing their breath for three hours,^[29] or even for twelve.^[30] They would thus swoon away into a state of trance,^[31] in which respiration and breathing were totally suspended, and by this utter self-abnegation the adepts reached the borders of utter selflessness. Mobad Hushiyyar, once plunged into deep water and remained underneath for full six hours before he raised his head above the surface.^[32] These devotees, like the Indian Yogis, as shown below, are credited with the power of quitting the bodily frame at pleasure, traversing the spiritual regions, and returning to the body whenever they liked.^[33] They laid claim to read the thoughts of others.^[34] They are further fantastically credited with the superhuman power of performing miracles; such as causing the sun to hide his disk and appear at night, or the stars to appear during the day, walking on the surface of water, showing themselves in the form of lightning in the heavens, metamorphosing animals, rendering themselves invisible to man, assuming various forms,^[35] appearing at one and the same time at distant places, bringing the dead to life, or causing the death of the living, producing food and wine from nothing,^[36] causing the rains to fall or to cease, producing giants to frighten others, converting broken pottery into gold,^[37] disporting in the midst of a burning fire, or swallowing it,^[38] and such like.

​Unmistakable influence of Hindu Yogism. All this self-mortification of the body and the assumption of occult powers sounds unfamiliar to Zoroastrian ears. The whole fabric of the ascetic and unworldly view of life is in direct antagonism to the active, and, in the best sense, worldly spirit of the Mazdayasnian faith. In its every detail, as indicated above, the Parsi mystic school savours of the strong influence of the Indian Yogis. The Parsi ascetics of the period seem to have been in close acquaintance with the Hindu hermits. The author of the Dabistan informs us that Mobad Hushiyyar conducted him to see some of these Hindu ascetics,^[39] and he speaks equally of Parsi adepts who were in constant touch with such Hindu monks.^[40] He further mentions a Parsi ascetic who moved about in Gujarat clad in the garments of a Hindu hermit,^[41] and who visited the great Sikh saint, Guru Har Govind.^[42] Hirbad, a great Parsi mystic, moreover, gave instructions to his disciple, Mobad Hushiyyar, either to burn or bury his body, when dead,^[43] because it mattered not whether a corpse was consigned to the fire or to the earth.^[44] Every one of its details shows the total indifference on the part of these dissenters to what was really true of Zoroastrian observance.