101 Names of God In Zoroastrianism, 101 names of God (Pazand Sad-o-yak nam-i-khoda) is a list of names of God (Ahura Mazda). The list is preserved in Persian, Pazand and Gujarati. The 101 names God are often taken during Baj (ceremonial prayer) during the Yasna ritual while continuously sprinkling with the ring made of “Hasht” (eight)...
Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (Avestan: Mazdā Ahura also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, and Hurmuz) is the creator and highest deity of Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura is “lord”, and that of Mazda is “wisdom“. Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period (c. 550 – 330 BCE) under Darius...
Paper On Hinduism This paper on Hinduism has presented by Swami Vivekananda. Volume 1, Addresses at The Parliament of Religions Swami Vivekananda represented India and Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions (1893). This was the first World’s Parliament of Religions and it was held from 11 to 27 September 1893. Delegates from...
Fire Worship Worship or deification of fire (also pyrodulia, pyrolatry or pyrolatria) is known from various religions. Fire has been an important part of human culture since the Lower Paleolithic. The earliest known traces of controlled fire were found at the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, Israel, and dated to 790,000 years ago.[1] Religious or animist notions connected to fire are assumed to reach back to such early pre-Homo...
Ancient Iranian Religion Ancient Iranian religion refers to the ancient beliefs and practices of the Iranian peoples before the rise of Zoroastrianism. The Iranian peoples emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in the 2nd-millennium BC, during which they came to dominate the Eurasian Steppe and the Iranian Plateau. Their religion is derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, and...
World Religions World religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the five—and in some cases six—largest and most internationally widespread religious movements. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are always included in the list, being known as the “Big Five”. Some scholars also include another religion, such as Taoism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, or the...
Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism, or Mazdayasna, is one of the world’s oldest religions that remains active. It is a monotheistic faith (i.e. a single creator God), centered in a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate destruction of evil. Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra), it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda (Wise...
Iranian Religions Iranian religions are religions which originated in Greater Iran. Background The beliefs, activities, and cultural events of the ancient Iranians in ancient Iran are complex matters. The ancient Iranians made references to a combination of several Aryans and non-Aryan tribes. Aryans, or ancient Iranians, worshiped natural elements such as the sun, sunlight and thunder, but they eventually shifted...
Ethical Dualism Ethical dualism (ethos,”character”, “custom”, and Latin duo, “two”) refers to the practice of imputing evil entirely and exclusively to a specific group of people, while disregarding or denying one’s own capacity to commit evil. The consequence of such stance is the creation of an “Us” versus “Them”, thereby polarizing social configurations into extremes...
Who is Zoroaster? Zoroaster also known as Zarathustra (Zarathushtra Spitama or Ashu Zarathushtra, زرتشت) was an ancient Iranian spiritual leader who founded what is now known as Zoroastrianism. His teachings challenged the existing traditions of the Indo-Iranian religion and inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Ancient Persia. He was...
Iranian philosophy Iranian philosophy (فلسفه ایرانی) or Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian roots and were considerably influenced by Zarathustra‘s teachings. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, the chronology of the subject and science of...
What Is Frashokereti? Frashokereti is the Avestan-language term for the Zoroastrian doctrine of a final renovation of the universe, when evil will be destroyed, and everything else will be then in perfect unity with God (Ahura Mazda). The doctrinal premises are (1) good will eventually prevail over evil; (2) creation was initially perfectly...
Last Judgement The Last Judgment, Last Judgement or The Day of the Lord (יום הדין, Yom Ha Din, یوم القيامة, Yawm al-Qiyāmah or یوم الدین, Yawm ad-Din) is part of the eschatological world view of the Abrahamic religions and in the Frashokereti of Zoroastrianism. Some Christian denominations consider the Second Coming of Christ to be...
Divine Light In theology, divine light (also called divine radiance or divine refulgence) is an aspect of divine presence, specifically an unknown and mysterious ability of God, angels, or human beings to express themselves communicatively through spiritual means, rather than through physical capacities. Spirituality The term light has been used in spirituality (vision, enlightenment, darshan, Tabor Light). Bible...
Religious Texts Religious texts or sacred texts (also known as scripture, or scriptures, from the Latin scriptura, meaning “writing”) are texts that religious traditions consider to be central to their practice or beliefs. Religious texts may be used to provide meaning and purpose, evoke a deeper connection with the divine, convey religious...
Creator Deity A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity or god responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a secondary creator from a...
What is Henotheism? Henotheism (meaning ‘one god‘) is the worship of a single god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks. Max Müller (1823–1900), a German philologist and orientalist, brought the term into wider usage in his...
Religion In Pre-Islamic Arabia Religion in Pre-Islamic Arabia included polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Arabian polytheism, the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, was based on the veneration of deities and spirits. Worship was directed to various gods and goddesses, including Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, Al-‘Uzzá, and Manāt,...
Ahriman Angra Mainyu (Avestan: Aŋra Mainiiu) is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism‘s hypostasis of the “destructive spirit”. The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman (Angra Mainyu is Ahura Mazda’s adversary. In the Avesta In Zoroaster’s revelation Avestan angra mainyu “seems to have been an original conception of Zoroaster’s.” In the Gathas, which are the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and are attributed to the...
Amesha Spenta In Zoroastrianism, Amesha Spenta (Avestan) is a class of divine entities literally means “Immortal (which is) holy.” Later Middle Persian variations of the term include the contraction ‘Ameshaspand’ as well as the specifically Zoroastrian ‘Mahraspand’ and ‘Amahraspand’. As the great “divine sparks” Significantly more common than the non-specific meaning of Amesha Spenta (see below) is...