Zoroaster And The Teachings Of The Gathas Study Guide
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Summary of Chapter two: “Zoroaster and his teachings”
Of the Spitaman family, Pourushaspa’s son, Zarathushtra, was known to us from the Gathas, which were composed of seventeen hymns that was conserved by his group. The Gathas were very ancient poems which were discovered during the Indo-European times, and a considerable amount of them were specifically tended to God. Prophet Zarathushtra preached to his community over and over as he believed that God entrusted him to do so. Generation to generation, his teachings were verbally spoken and passed down to his tribe until the Sasanians, who were the rulers of the third empire, decided to write Zoroasters’ teachings down. The ancient language spoken and written was Middle Persian, also known as the Pahlavi language. Some of Zoroaster’s message is found in the Younger Avesta. The Gathas are written in an ancient language, which is similar in context to the Rigveda, which was written from 1700 B.C. onwards. It is therefore possible that Zoroaster lived during the period of 1700 and 1500 B.C. In the Gathas, he alludes himself as ‘Zaotar’, which…show more content… After death, the soul leaves the getig state and enter the menog state for a short period of time. According to Zoroaster, the soul is judged throughout its life, the amount of good it has accomplished. Zoroaster’s revelation taught everyone that judgement is taken place in the ‘Bridge of the Separator’, where the soul is judged on its moral achievements. Mithra conducts a scale of judgement. The scales weigh the person’s personality, words, thoughts and deeds throughout. If the scale is heavier on the good side, then the soul is sent to paradise by a beautiful maiden. On the other hand, if the scales are heavier on the bad side, the bridge turns very narrow, and a witch drags the soul down to hell. The few souls whose scales are balanced out go to Misvan Gatu, the ‘Place of the Mixed Ones’ where they lack both happiness and