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Religious Gathekas

(To be read at the Service of Universal Worship)

Religious Gatheka Number 24

Zarathushtra

The life and teaching of Zarathushtra give an example to those who tread the spiritual path of the manner in which to begin the spiritual journey. Zarathushtra is said to have been born from the huma tree. The interpretation of this idea is that the Spirit of Guidance does not come direct from Heaven, he is born from the human family; the tree is the family.

It has been a great error of some religious people that out of their devotion for their Master they placed him, through their imagination, on a pedestal where they themselves could not ever prove him to be when it came to reasoning. It can only stand in the horizon of faith. No doubt, faith is the foundation. Faith is the lamp which lightens the path, but reason is the globe over it to make its light appear.

The purpose of this whole creation is fulfilled in attaining that perfection which is for a human being to attain. All the saints, sages, prophets and masters of humanity have been human beings; and divine perfection they have shown in fulfilling the purpose of being human.

Zarathushtra's spiritual attainment came by his communication with nature first. He appreciated, adored and worshipped the sublimity of nature, and he saw wisdom hidden in the whole creation. He learned and recognized from that the being of the Creator, acknowledged His perfect wisdom, and then devoted his whole life to glorifying the name of God. To those who followed him in the path of spiritual attainment he showed the different aspects of nature, and asked them what they could see behind it.

He pointed out to his followers that the form and line and color and movement that they saw before them and which attracted them so much must have been accomplished by an expert artist. It could all work mechanically and be perfect, but no mechanism, however perfect, can run without the help of an individual. Therefore he showed to them that God is not an object which the imagination has made, though He is molded by man's imagination outwardly. In reality, God is the Being; such a perfect Being, that, if outwardly compared with other living beings of this world, He is beyond comparison. He is the Only Being.

The way of worship taught by Zarathushtra was to worship God by offering homage to nature. For nature suggests to the soul the endless and unlimited Being hidden behind it all.