When one thinks of a religion, any religion, the uppermost question in one’s mind is, “Who was its founder and from where did it come? What was His message?” If you gaze up into the sky at night, you’ll see that there are other planets besides ours and since ours is inhabited, there’s no reason to believe that others are not. In fact, according to occult literature, planets closer to the Sun have beings far more evolved than us, and distant planets have less evolved beings. Hence, there is reason to believe that humans are not as spiritually evolved.

The ‘intelligence’ on these planets comprise entities naturally possessing greater power and understanding, due to which they can communicate with other parts of the Universe and access the precise spiritual condition of those parts. They may even feel a great sense of compassion for spiritually backward planets and may even offer themselves to be used as instruments of help to less-evolved parts of the Universe.

During primitive times when history was not recorded, the Paleolithic man depended on Nature for food and shelter. He believed the sky, sun, moon, earth, rivers and trees were presided over by invisible intelligence. He offered adoration, homage, even sacrifice in return of Nature’s bounties. However, the kingdom of Nature’s bounty was not absolute. Stricken by natural calamities like volcanoes, earthquakes and storms and smitten by disease and pestilence, man soon learnt to bow to the powers of Nature, giving rise to savage rituals and senseless sacrifice to appease the darker side of Nature. This culminated in Devil-worship and black-magic before the final destruction of great civilizations and cultures like Sodom, Atlantis, Lemuria, Babylon, Sumerian and Egyptian empires.

Ancient Iran was also in the gloom of black-magic and evil beliefs thousands of years ago, when Saoshyants were sent as benefactors to restore religion to its pristine purity. Amongst them were Gayomard, Hoshang, Faridoon, Temurasp and Jamsheed – all known in Avestan literature as Paoiryo-Tkaeshas or the first leaders. However, in the days of King Gustasp of the Kayanian Dynesty, Mazdayasni religion was seriously challenged by Deva-Yasni or the powers of evil. A prophet was therefore required to appear on the scene at that point in history. He did appear with the creed of Ashoi or Pristine Purity which has survived till today with at least a few of its distinctive features preserved practically intact. The prophet was Zarathushtra, descendant of Spitama.

Prophets have a divine mysterious mode of birth when they arrive on the physical plane, unlike ordinary humans. Prophets come from the super-human plane, from a higher stage of evolution and voluntarily incarnate as humans to help humanity. They come from a plane where high-intelligences are nearer to truth, purity, dignity and beauty. For prophets to incarnate on Earth is a form of self-sacrifice which means that they have to step down into a lower vibrational-field in every way – physically, mentally and spiritually. No prophet can incarnate as a human-baby without the intense suffering of learning to operate his consciousness gradually through infancy to maturity. The inexorable law of Nature is that prophets have to suffer in spite of (or because of) having Divine Memory.

So, why do these divine souls come as prophets? To give a message, required by a certain group of people at a certain point in history – For eg., Christ gave the message of Love and forgiveness; Islam taught brotherhood; Krishna’s message was also Love and Zarathushtra’s message was Purity and Ashoi. A prophet’s doctrine spreads even after his death although prophets stand in a particular geographical dimension. When Zarathushtra preached, he influenced the entire Persian Empire because his Ashoi is the highest spiritual-truth. Hence, what our Prophet did cannot be measured either in his own time or later times or even today because it lives inside the heart of every follower, forever! ASHOI is profound, it is priceless. We know it as the voice of conscience!

The pages of all our religious-scriptures are inspired with ASHOI which transcends all philosophy. Purity is lustrous and self-illuminating like fire which is the outward physical manifestation of it. ASHOI is like the Vedic Moksh-Mantra of Aum. It is the beginning and the end (the alpha and the omega) of all spiritual thought. ASHOI is the first and the last word which leaves nothing more to say. ASHOI comprises every good thought, word and deed, caught and pinned down in a crisp, compressed and compact word which can become the Maha-Mantra of ultimate salvation if applied to everything in our day-to-day living. The coming of Zarthushtra, who gifted us ASHOI, was a benediction to the whole world. He inspired all of humanity, teaching us the deepest secrets of life which can lead us to the divine path if only we can follow it as a conscious day to day decision in all that we do.

There’s nothing wrong in enjoying life or seeking material well-being, but these should be in moderation – they should not totally absorb us because they are only the surface aspects of our lives. The real purpose of life is Spiritual Evolution for which, from time to time, a higher soul is sent to Earth. We call him a Prophet and Zarathustra was the Prophet of ASHOI!