Part II: Divine Asha and Free Will.
The Ashavan Path.
Ashavidans know that our souls (urvans) are born in the material world to know life’s experiences and thereby learn the Ashavan path. Ashavan men and women perform their just duties to themselves, their families, and all the worthy. This is done by learning the wisdom of Asha, cultivating within ourselves the strength to act upon that wisdom, and through practicing good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. Ashavans strive to strengthen their Sraosha, that is, their conscience and internal “hearkening” to God’s will. They endeavor to develop within themselves honesty, self-discipline, diligence, and the willingness to wait for material rewards until they can afford or deserve them. Ashavans provide for their material sustenance through productive and beneficial work, but they shun excessive, soul-destroying greed that diverts them from the righteous path. They shun immorality, disrespect for others, vulgarity of speech, dishonorable actions, and dishonesty to themselves and others. [p. 411]
Within these divinely-ordained bounds, an Ashavan strives to enjoy all aspects of life. This includes any pleasures that may be experienced in accord with healthfulness, ethics and honor, respect toward others, mental and spiritual growth, honesty, and prudence. However, Ashavans (both Ashavidans and those of other faiths) will not put pleasure above their vital duties to their family, their community, and their race. For an Ashavidan knows that, through the process of natural selection, certain basic attitudes and moral values have enabled religions, cultures, nations, and races to survive in nature (see Cattell 1972, 15). Therefore, they will fight the deranged followers of the Lie—the Drugvants who propagate ignoble and evil thoughts, words, and deeds. Ashavans will oppose by any necessary means those who cleverly confuse and distort Asha-ordained moral and cultural values. For those are the values through which individual persons and groups physically and spiritually prosper. [pp. 411–412]
Free Will and Cause and Effect.
Anyone—through subservience to a drugvant (evil) ideology or through ignorance or personal laziness—may deceive themselves into denying Asha’s laws of cause and effect. But no man or woman, no nation or race that violates its decrees can survive in this world or be fit for happiness in the next. This is true because we are also subject to those portions of Asha’s Law more directly affecting the quality of our souls. Those are the physical and moral laws of the universe, the laws of human psychology and of social and political harmony. And contrary to the blasphemous universalistic dogmas, our Creator has decreed through Asha that the thoughts, words, and deeds that benefit the individual soul are the same that benefit our family, our nation, and our race. [p. 412]
Consequently, well-formed marriages between men and women and strong child-nurturing families provide a firm foundation for a stable society and for the psychological well-being of its members. Therefore, the only sacred Ashavid ritual is the marriage ceremony. However, many good people live in drugvant-dominated societies in which the prevailing conceptions of reality and purpose contradict Asha/Natural Law. For such unfortunate men and women, not much lasting earthly good is forthcoming even when they have achieved a profitable, harmonious, and virtuous family life if they ignore the moral decay and cultural and political chaos that grows all around them. For such chaos, if not stopped by the courageous actions of Ashavans, will gradually destroy all goodness, one’s own kind, and the family itself. [p. 412]
Such decaying societies, as in early twenty-first-century West Europe and North America, are afflicted by what Plato and Aristotle termed an inferior “nomos”—an increasingly ignoble, confused, and lie-infested culture. Under such conditions, many may accept the growing chaos because of their own intellectual weakness or ignorance or an inherent lack of goodness. Others may cling to the only theology or ideology that they have ever known regardless of how defective it may be. Even persons who are otherwise Ashavans may fear ostracism from their less enlightened peers. This fear of social isolation may even override their opposition to the powerful liars who are destroying their people. Regardless of the reasons for inaction, the law of cause and effect decrees that all must endure the consequences when the enlightened fail to stop a drugvant liar elite. [pp. 412–413]
The Ashavid Profession of Faith.
Ashavidans know that the world’s religions were founded and transformed by people over many generations. They also understand that there has been only one original and divinely-inspired faith. It is the pristine Ashavan revelation of the first recorded Saoshyant, who was Spitama Zarathustra of the ancient Irano-Aryans. Ashavidans venerate this Ashavid creed and its great Prophet, and the faithful proclaim these words paraphrased from the Avesta’s Yasna 1:23 and 3:24:
I profess myself a Mazda worshipper and a follower of Zarathustra, opposing all evil and lies, evil-doers and liars, and fighting the propagators of evil and deception, and I accept the Ashavan revelation, which is the Ashavid creed and all of Asha’s Truth. [p. 413]
Ashavidans solemnly vow to practice Zarathustra’s ancient moral doctrine that is based on the Ahuravan Golden Rule. Therefore, they live in harmony with the Dâdîstân-Ȋ Dînîk (XCIV, Chp. 94, 5) when it says “that nature only is good when it shall not do to another whatever is not good for its own self….” An Ashavidan vows to preserve divine creation—the purity of water, air, plants, and the separate animal and human species that inhabit the earth. [p. 414]
Ashavidans learn the Gathas’ wisdom and the wisdom gleaned from the Avesta and Pahlavi Texts. The faithful also reject the many corruptions to which these later manuscripts have been subjected. Ashavidans use their knowledge to improve themselves and any others who are capable of being worthy. An Ashavidan who is a true Ashavan understands the wisdom of the Avesta’s surviving Miscellaneous Fragments (3:1), which says:
All good thoughts and all good words and all good deeds are thought and spoken and done with intelligence, and all evil thoughts and words and deeds are thought and spoken and done with folly. [p. 414]
Likewise, Ashavans understand the truth as stated in the Dinkard (Bk. IX, 36:2): “The maintenance of righteousness is through the practice of it.” In this regard, the one statement that captures the very essence of true spirituality is Zarathustra’s Ashem Vohu prayer:
Asha-derived Righteousness is the best good and brings bless. Happiness comes to the person who does what is right solely for the sake of doing what is right and best.
That is, one’s thoughts must choose goodness and justice for its own sake and must learn what is truly best and leads to the best result. Then one must act on that knowledge and conviction. [p. 114]
Ashavans Versus Drugvants.
Ashavans, who are the followers of Asha, will inevitably come into conflict with Drugvants, who are followers of the Lie. The Lie is whatever defies Natural Law and, therefore, brings corruption and misery to other persons and to whole communities or nations. Most types of drugvants are recognized by all counties. Subsequently, all governments establish police organizations to protect against those we label as criminals. However, in some countries the government itself inflicts the greatest harm to society. This is especially true of regimes guided by a Marxist ideology. But great harm can also be inflicted by unrestrained private enterprises that have no regard for the natural environment or for national sovereignty or Asha-based cultural values. Moreover, in the Western world, those who crusade for anti-Asha social causes or for unnecessary wars are very harmful, but the greatest drugvant power of all is the privately-owned collection of totalitarian culture destroyers called the “mass media” of communications.
Regarding such powerful dangers to society, Ashavans are not pacifists. They are bound by the laws of nature, by the necessity of self-preservation, to fight evil forces whenever and wherever they appear. A determined political opposition acting through established civil institutions is, of course, the most rational and preferred course of action. However, Zarathustra made it clear that force may sometimes be necessary to overthrow a tyrannical government and/or a powerful private tyranny. In his opposition to his own era’s corrupt Kavi rulers, mind-clouding and drug-pushing Karapan priests, and murderous land-pirate mairya raiders, this conviction can be seen in two particular stanzas of his Gathas:
Let no one listen to the evil words spoken by the followers of the Lie. For they will bring down the family, the clan, the town, and the nation to misery and ruin. So, resist them, and strike them down with your weapons! [Yasna 31:18 in Ashavid p. 81]
May all those of evil deeds be pressed down by their own false doctrines, and may they perish with angry and tormented wailings. May good rulers wreak death and destruction upon them and so bring peace and rejoicing to homes and villages. Let the evil-doers be brought down from their high places by the chains of death. And let the reckoning come soon! [Yasna 53:8 in Ashavid p. 110]
Therefore, Ashavans speak truthfully, work honestly for their livelihood, treat others with respect and fairness, and place high value on speaking the truth. They help keep clean the waters and all harmless plants and animals, and they defend their families, their culture, their nation, and their own kind against all foreign and domestic foes. They oppose mind-altering and poisonous drugs, sloth, injustice, lies and liars, and they especially oppose the evils that emanate from the most powerful and influential drugvants. And to no one are these Asha-ordained obligations made clearer than to the followers of the Ashavid creed.
References (other than Ashavid):
Muller, Max, editor. (1887) 1996. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. XXXI: The Zend-Avesta, Part III, the Yasna, Visparad, Afrinagan, Gahs, and Miscellaneous Fragments. Translated by L. H. Mills. Delhi, India: D. K. Publications, Ltd.
________. (1882) 2004. Sacred Books of the East. Vol.XVIII. Pahlavi Texts, Part II, Dâdîstân-Ȋ Dînîk and The Epistles of Manuskihar. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
________. (1892) 1994. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. XXXVII. Pahlavi Texts, Part IV, Contents of the Nasks (Dinkard VIII & IX). Translated by E. W. West. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
Cattell, Raymond B. 1972. A New Morality from Science: Beyondism. New York: Pergamun Press, Inc.
