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| Home > History of religion > Zoroastrianism > Concept of God in Zorostrianism
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| | Concept of God in Zorostrianism
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God of Zoroastrian religion is known as Ahura Mazda. `Ahura` means `The Lord` or `The Living` and `Mazda` means `the Wise`. Hence, Ahura Mazda means `the wise living God`. At times even the single word `Ahura` or `Mazda` indicates the same. The Wise Lord of all that exists Ahura Mazda stands for a strict form of a monotheistic God.
God has been described also as `immanent in the religious sense that man can enter into close and loving relations with him as his father, brother and friend. " In the philosophical sense of `transcendence` God remains beyond human speech, as the Upanishads, the Bible and later on St. Thomas Aquinas have maintained. In this sense God can be described only through analogies and that also most haltingly, most probably concealing more than revealing the ineffable nature of God. Keeping this meaning of `transcendent`, we can state the attributes of God only religiously, for the purpose of entering into fellowship with him, which fellowship is very real for the worshippers. Two things have to be kept in mind.
First, when mentioning the attributes of God, we have to keep in mind that the finite can describe the infinite through finite analogies and similes only. Secondly, Zoroastrianism tries to put a member of intermediaries called the Angels between Ahura Mazda and man in order to show that man can deal with God only indirectly with the help of his intermediaries and finally through his prophet Zarathustra. Here we are reminded of Plotinus who also described a number of Emanations of the Absolute there putting a distance between men and the Absolute.
Ahura Mazda is the first and greatest of all beings. He is not begotten and none is like him. He is the most perfect Being, as Anselm and Descartes have called God. But from these meta-physical attributes, Ahura Mazda has been described as a loving father, brother and friend. God responds to the prayers of his worshippers. Ahura Mazda is also known as the creator of the whole universe, angels, animals and man. This creation takes place out of the creative and spontaneous free act of God.
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