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Gathas of Zarathushtra
The History of Zoroastrianism
The Zarathushtrian Assembly
Dina G. McIntyre has been a student of the teachings of Zarathushtra since the early 1980s, and was the Editor of a 12 lesson course on the Gathas called An Introduction to the Gathas of Zarathushtra, which she distributed world-wide in 1989-90. She has consolidated those lessons on this website.
" Why do I like the Gathas. The reasons are as numerous as the sky is full of stars. But the bottom line is: I like them because, as a woman of the 20th, and now the 21st century, living on this planet, in this small galaxy, they are relevant to my life. They engage both my mind and my heart.... The Gathas suggest that something of God lives in each one of us, that we all are part of the same Whole. If this idea is true (and I am inclined to think it is) then it requires some interesting conclusions. It means that although a given individual may perfect himself or herself, we cannot reach ultimate perfection, unless everyone does. It makes us see the concept of haurvatat, completeness, wholeness, in a new light. It makes us appreciate that the purpose of life is not just to look out for ourselves, but also to help each other. When my neighbor is diminished, I am diminished. If I don't make it, you don't make it. It is an interesting paradox that in searching for God, Zarathushtra discovers the brotherhood of man (or all the living). The Gathas are full of neat paradoxes, which reconcile themselves beautifully. I call this one the paradox of the community and the individual. We all are part of the same Whole (one large community), yet the perfecting of that whole depends on individual choices (the individual), which individual choices include helping ourselves and each other (the individual ad the community)."
The Zarathushtrian Assembly
The History of Zoroastrianism
The Zarathushtrian Assembly
The Zarathushtrian Assembly holds the Gathas as the only doctrinal documents and other parts of the Staota Yesnya as their supplements of explanatory and devotional importance. The remaining parts of the extant Avesta and Pahlavi writings have their ethical, historical, geographical, and anthropological values and are of great importance. They are of significant help in better understanding the Staota Yesnya from philological and sometimes philosophical points of view.
This does not mean that The Assembly advocates the often heard slogan of "Back to the Gathas." The Gathas are not the past to go back to them. They are the guide and as such, they are the present and the future. The slogan or motto, if any, should be: "Forward with the Gathas!"
What, therefore, is needed is neither revision nor modification nor reformation, but restoration. We must resort to the Gathas, so far unconsciously kept above the reach of people, in order to restore ourselves to the Good Conscience, the true Zarathushtrian religion. The restoration of the pure and pristine Gathic principles in every wake of life-both mental and physical-would automatically mean modernization, rather continuous modernizing process. It shall keep us always abreast of time, abreast with a foresight.
The History of Zoroastrianism
The History of Zoroastrianism
The History of Zoroastrianism
Dastur Maneckji Dhalla was a high priest of the Parsis as well as a trained scholar. The History of Zoroastrianism, New York, 1938, repr. 1963, 1977, 1985.