CC BY
12PROJECTION OF THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD IN THE SYSTEM OF AVESTA VALUES
Makhmudova Guli Tilabovna
DSc, Professor, Department "Philosophy and Logic", National University of Uzbekistan named
after Mirzo Ulugbek https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7752201
. The article highlights the essence of Avesta dualism and the problems of its manifestation in all aspects of material and spiritual life. In particular, in Avesta, the religious and philosophical teachings of ideas about the material and spiritual world are described in the form of personification. The evolution of Zoroastrianism is not limited to the fantasy of animism, but also includes a gradual reflection on the origin and end of life. In the article, the dualistic worldview characteristic of Zoroastrianism is analyzed in the context of a person's naive immersion in fantasy, rising to the level of rational perception of nature and mental phenomena. In fact, in Zoroastrianism and the Avesta, the material and spiritual world is not only a matter of thought (consciousness), but rather, it is one of the special features of Zoroastrian religion as a vision of the division of the whole material world and the world of spirits, ruled by Ahura Mazda and Anhra Mainyu.
It is known that complex and controversial problems related to the study of Avesta and its cultural-historical interpretation have existed in Avesta studies for a long time. Without solving these, it is difficult to understand the material and spiritual culture of the ancient Eastern peoples, their religious views, beliefs, views on the structure of the world and society at the level of modern scientific requirements. At the same time, in recent years, studies summarizing all scientific information related to the Avesta and Zoroastrianism have appeared. Philosophical approaches to the religious teachings reflected in the Avesta are expanding in such studies [1.]
Ahura Mazda creates the material world from minu (menog - the spiritual world, the world of spirits), that is, the material world is a symbol of goodness at first, after mixing evil into it, the hetig ("astumand" - bony, material) world is formed (Yasna, 60-Hot).
"The philosophical essence of Zoroastrianism and the Avesta is expressed in the following ontological, dialectical ideas:
firstly, the basis of the world is created by Ahura Mazda and is composed of corporeal (material) and spiritual (ideal) beings subject to his creative principle. This principle ultimately dictates the triumph of the ideals of Ahura Mazda;
secondly, this victory is achieved through the struggle (dialectic) of two opposing spirits representing the ideas of creativity and destruction;
thirdly, this struggle takes place in a certain time and space (the perception of time and space) and ends with the victory of the moral principle - "good thought, good word, good deed" (ethics)" [2.115].
Askar Mahkam expresses the meaning of spiritual world - miynu in his comments to the Avesta as follows: miynu - "...another world or a world before the creation of the material world. Miynu or mainyu will become a building again at the end of the material world. The paradise or paradise in our understanding corresponds to the meaning of minu. According to the sources, every
animate and inanimate thing existed in the world of nose and mouth before entering the material world. ... Miynu is not a phenomenon unique to people alone, but animals, plants, even inanimate objects, etc., have their own minu in the world of minu" [3.309].
In addition to the concepts of "Miynu" and "getig", the Hots also have the concepts of "animate" and "inanimate", and "inanimate" refers only to the material world and is not used in relation to the spiritual world. The concepts of "living" and "non-living" are close to the philosophical categories of "existence" and "non-existence":
Yasna
28.2. Zavt: O Ahura, I long to meet You with Goodness,
My body is filled with a good soul,
I would like paradise for the reward of your righteous path [4.156].
Yasna,
30.4. When two twins collide, they are the same in the beginning,
One chose life, the other said death.
Telling the truth goes to heaven, Lies go to hell [4.159].
Thus existence is divided into two. Man's place in existence is determined in relation to these two worlds. Man occupies an intermediate position in relation to them, because, on the one hand, he has intelligence, wisdom and will that belong to spirituality, which enter the human body through the fravash (soul). So, a person embodies physicality and spirituality.
The material and spiritual worlds have a unique structure. The material world is a projection (image) of the spiritual world. The spiritual world consists of three levels, the basis of which is the divine mind of Ahura Mazda. The next steps are Ashah-Vahishta (Ashi is a helper in the good deeds of faithful servants, whoever he approaches will surely be lucky and achieve happiness. Whoever he follows, his good intentions will come true. In the book of Yasht, kings, heroes, and even Zarathushtra himself turned to Ashi for luck and happiness. bor) [5.52], Vohumana (Vahu Mana is the first representative of Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism - the Angel of Good Will. That is, Vahu Mana is one of the divine functions of Ahura Mazda. The main condition for causing the joy of the angel of good intention Vahu Mana (literally translated "Good thought, good intention") is to choose the path of Truth, here the path of the Supreme Mind Mazda, and to be steadfast in it [5.26]. In the Avesta, Vahu Mana also goes by the name geush urvan, "ghost of the bull". After all, Vahu appears to people in the form of the Holy Bull. In the religious sense, this symbol is the emanation of the Supreme Godhead, it is called tajalli [5.26]. They were created by Ahura Mazda and represent his characteristics, according to which the spiritual ("intellectual") world remains intact without disintegration; also these deities mediate between Ahura Mazda and man:
Yasna, 28-1.
"I stretch out my hand, Holy Spirit, I pray to You,
(O Mazda), in your way of truth, I pray this:
Joy Goodwill, joy to Govshirvan" [5.25].
The material (astumand) world also has its own structure, its basis is made up of natural elements - minerals, earth, water and plants. These elements correspond to the Ahuras (gods of goodness). Ahura Mazda in the spiritual world corresponds to Xshatra Varya (i.e. Kawais -judgment of Aryan rulers) in the physical world. Spenta Armaitiy defines the next three principles as "... Creation takes care of the whole being." People are blessed because of him. Ahura Mazda
created it to create green pastures for flocks. He is the owner of ten thousand medicinal herbs. He is the angel of peace of being and a rationally created earth, from which satiety, sanctity, well-being, calm, stable life are given. Spenta Armaiti is one of the mother goddesses and she is the protector of the Earth over the material world. In the spiritual world, in the spiritual realm, he is the guardian of qualities such as mental peace, intelligence, purity, and friendly benevolence to goodness. Spenta Armaitiy comes to the Earth as a blessing and a gift of fruitfulness. He grows ten thousand kinds of medicinal plants. In "Videvdot" the word Spenta Armaiti comes in the sense of "ground, earth" [6.343], together with the deity Ashah-Arta, he holds the universe together and directs its proper movement. Also, the deities Khurdod (meaning "perfection", "correctness") and Amurdod ("eternity") stand in the physical world to protect the health of people and animals and remind us about eternity, the consequence and indicator of which is the fatness and softness of cattle. Thus, the structure and operation of the material world is in accordance with the structure of the spiritual world.
Yasna, 30.7.
"Who will be the judge? If goodness is true,
Give him long life, longevity, wise mind to his soul.
From this gift, you will not sin, and you will not be burned in the ordeal.
Those who are helped by the Immortal Angels, the emanations of Ahura Mazda (Immortal Angels: Authority, Good Thought, Truth, Perfect Mind), and their forms of manifestation, support their supplications in faith and belief, such beings deserve a long life. They will pass the test with boiling ore (copper) on the Day of Judgment. That is, Sraosha (goddess of discipline) and Rashnu (the angel who separates the truth from the truth) do not have difficulty in answering their questions" [5.39-40].
Yasna, 44.17.
"I have a request to you, Ahura, tell me the truth,
Is it that hard to reach you?
I have a dream to connect with Khurdodu Ameretot
Give strength to my voice, (let my speech ring)
Oratory, let my speech be connected to the Truth.
Zarathustra dreams of making his ideas known to the masses with the sound of a drum. In his speech, Ahura Mazda aims to resound the Truth and to have a good effect on people, to convince them. By the way, in Zoroastrian prayers, chanting prayers and takbirs in a loud voice is a common requirement. This can be seen in Yashtlar's chants: "My prayer to this good fortune is with a full voice"; The many repetitions like "this is my prayer for happiness, my voice is always" clearly prove it" [5.175].
In the material world there are two more forms of existence - space and time. For example, in the 72nd Hat of the Yasna and in the Hurmuzd yasht, Vaya (Voya) is the goddess of the air, Rom (Romona) is the goddess of pastures (i.e. the whole earth) (when together they represent space), and time is infinite and long, irreversible, moving from the past to the future. The eternity of time will have a limited circle by the order of Ahura Mazda and will include 12 thousand years, during which time the world will change four times every three thousand years. In the first period, Ahura Mazda creates the world of ideas. In this ideal world there will be all the images that Ahura Mazda will later create in the material world.
In the second period, Ahura Mazda creates the sky, stars, moon and sun. It is during this period that the Anhra Mainyu sky enters the firmament, where it creates evil planets, comets and meteors that destroy the uniform movement of the celestial bodies. There will be an open struggle between two opposing forces. Both sides gather forces that support what they create. As a result of this struggle, the whole world is set in motion, the world of Good and Evil appears.
Ahura Mazda assigns to each planet one of his noble spirits to protect against Anhra Mainyu. This period also lasts for three thousand years. The creation of the world does not end there. According to one of the legends, Ahura Mazda "created the whole world in his body, then from his head he created the sky, from his feet - the earth, from his tears - water, from his hair -plants, from his soul - fire" [7.181].
Avesta dualism is visible in all aspects of material and spiritual life: in the natural world light and darkness, hot and cold, useful and harmful, in the spiritual and moral front - the struggle between good and evil, beauty and deformity, in social life - justice and injustice, useful and harmful works, the battle between the good works of Ahura Mazda and the harmful thoughts of Anhra Mainyu in religious belief.
"Yasna: The 3rd song of Ushtavaiti "Goh" this chapter is mainly cosmogonic, it consists of clauses in the spirit of warning about the fate of this world, the coming of the Holy One (Osushiant) who saves the world from sins and leads to paradise, the fate of the souls of believers and non-believers in the other world, first of all those near and then those who come from afar. " [5.179].
M.N. According to Wolf, Zoroastrianism's "cosmological and ontological ideas correspond to a certain extent to the views of Ancient Greek philosophers. In Zoroastrianism, space and time are understood as infinite. Space is divided into two parts: infinite light, the Circle of Good, and infinite darkness, the Circle of Evil. The world of Ahura Mazda is a circle that can be understood through the mind, the world of Angro Mainu - through the senses. Honor creates a finite time slice consisting of three periods from infinite time. During the first period, the universe exists in an unmanifested, ideal version, which can be compared to Plato's world of ideas. This is connected to the concept of "fravash", that is, the souls of the pious, waiting to appear in the material world. During the second period, the material world is created, and evil intervenes during its creation. A circle is created where good and evil are mixed, that is, the circle of life. The third period is the period of cleansing the world from evil with the help of fire from the depths of the earth" [8.36].
Thus, in Zoroastrianism, time is understood as linear and infinite, within which a certain period is limited, after which the physical world will perish.
The concept of "infinite time" cannot appear in the thinking based on myths and legends, in mythology, because such thinking used the concept of cyclical, reversible time. In this concept, time is limited by the duration of the returning year, month, day, season, that is, such time is always coming to an end, ending, and beginning again. The concept of "infinite time" appears only during the formation of monotheistic, or more precisely, eschatological visions. According to these visions, the giants (symbols of evil) will be destroyed, the pious will win over the sinners, and the face of the universe will change completely. In the words of M. Eliade, "transfiguration" of the world takes place [9.]. Zoroaster asks Ahura Mazda when this event will take place:
Yasna, 48.2.
"Tell me if you know, O Hurmuzd, you are great
A man who believes in the punishment of lies
When Berib was victorious, O great Mazda! Can a good being find its basis?
Zarathustra asked Ahura Mazda, the all-knowing one, whether a person of faith overcomes Lies by virtue of his faith. Will goodness be resolved by this work? - is addressing with words like" [5.230-231].
Zoroastrian expects the world to change like this: Yasna, 34.6.
"Renew the world with truth and good thoughts I wish you could give me a reliable hint I would come to your presence with prayer in your praise.
In this passage, Zarathushtra seems to be questioning the absolute sovereignty of Ahura Mazda. But the matter is different. It is said that the renewal of the world, the return to good foundations is definitely destined. But when will this great evolution take place? If he had revealed this period with a true good mind, he expressed his intention to engage in prayers and praises more earnestly. So, prayer is a factor that accelerates the renewal of the world in the eyes of Zoroastrians" [5.125-126].
Ahura asks Mazda to reveal the means to correct, transform this world: Yasna, 44.16.
"Please, Mazda, tell me the truth Because of all your teaching in my household Will it be under your protection? Give peace to the world. Sraosha Vahumana - come with good intentions. Let such a visit be exactly as you thought.
Zarathushtra is asking Ahura Mazda to protect his family, his people, his community. He is asking to invite the savior of the world on the day of Mahshar. This is Osushiant, the future being of the lineage of Zarathustra, whose attendants are the goddess Sraosha and Ahura Mazda's angel of Good Will, Vahumana (Holy Thought)" [5.174].
Zarathustra asks whether the supporters of good and evil will be rewarded in the hereafter, and whether the pious will have the upper hand: Yasna, 51.9.
"The wicked will surely find a double punishment from Mazda:
Boiling ore and roaring fire
The wicked will burn, the good will be saved.
In paragraphs 5-6 of Hittite 51, while referring to "two paths", two destinies, developing this idea, this paragraph 51.9 wants to say that on the Day of Judgment, those who hold the skirt of Evil (Lie) will be burnt to death by melting and boiling ore. At this moment, for the servants of the Good, the melting ore will be as pleasant as freshly milked milk. So it is said that goodness is a clear reserve for a good person's heavenly destiny" [5.279].
The concept of "linear time" was used in the developed periods, when Zoroastrian teaching began to take shape (approximately from the 7th century BC) and in the period of the "Little Avesta", when Zoroastrianism returned to polytheism. This concept comes directly from the eschatological vision of the end of human history, that is, the Hereafter. Such time writes itself from one point of existence along a line. Therefore, such time also has spatial characteristics, time is directly related to space and existence.
According to the researches of M. N. Wolf, Zoroastrian conception of time influenced the formation of classical philosophy in Ancient Greece. Such an influence is clearly visible in the views of the first philosophers of Ancient Greece, such as Anaximander and Heraclitus [8.49]. For example, Anaximander's abstract concept of "apeiron" represents the interrelated, infinite and eternal existence-space-time. All things and events appear in it.
From the above considerations, it can be concluded that the concepts of existence in contemporary philosophy begin with the Zoroastrian teachings reflected in the Avesta.
L.A. Lelekov, talking about the extreme abstraction of the Zoroastrian teachings, says: "The distinguishing feature of abstract, scholastic Zoroastrianism, which is not found among other Indo-European tribes, is teleology, that is, the act of creating the universe, the final result of which is predicted, is carried out in accordance with a specific purpose from the beginning, is the ownership of a specific program. In Zoroastrianism, the material world is based on immaterial, Platonic archetypes that exist in the divine consciousness.
This transitory world is meant to serve as the stage for the battle between good and evil, otherwise it would go on forever. In no other religion was the question of the reasons for the creation of the universe and the deity himself or with the help of intermediary-creator deities engaged in unworthy craft work (with the exception of the Torah), but his reasons (motives) were simple and not connected with a separate human psyche. Before the emergence of Gnosticism, the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers did not even raise the question of who needed the idea of pre-planning the act of creation of the universe. Similarly, the question of the reasons for the creation of the universe did not bother the philosophers of Ancient India either, because they understood the creation of the universe as a biological consequence of the marriage of the gods. For the same reason, neither the Greeks nor the ancient Indians worked on the issue of free will, and Zarathustra devoted himself to solving this problem" [10.29].
Avesta is a multi-layered, encyclopedic, spiritual relic, which reflects the philosophical ideas of Zoroastrianism, the world religion of its time, which was formed in the Khorezm region, then spread in Iran, developed from a polytheistic and dualistic worldview to a monotheistic understanding of the universe. Therefore, Zoroastrian philosophy was introduced by S.Yu. Oldenburg "the most just religion", Y. A. Rapoport "Zoroastrianism is the strongest religion of our ancestors", and M. Boyce expressed the opinion that "Zoroastrianism is the most common teaching among religions".
REFERENCES
1. Makhmudova G.T. Philosophical essence of the Avesta. - T .: publishing house of the magazine "San'at", 2010; Wolf M.N. ontological aspects of Iranian influences on early Greek philosophy. - Dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Philosophical Sciences. -Novosibirsk, 2003. -http://www.nsu.ru./classics/Wolf/Kand-diss.htm#ch3
2. Mahmudova G.T. Philosophical essence of Avesta. The second completed edition.- T.: "NOSHIR", 2015;
3. Avesta. Historical and literary monument. Translation by Askar Mahkam.- T.: Sharq, 2001.-Comments;
4. G.T. Mahmudova, M.M. Ishakov and others. Zoroastrian Chrestomatry. Tashkent, "MUMTOZ SOZ". 2017;
5. Mirsodiq Ishakov. Avesta: Zoroastrian "Goh" interpretations and hermeneutic interpretations. Tashkent.: "Bokmani print" publishing house, 2022;
6. G. Mahmudova, M. Ishakov and others. Avesta: an encyclopedic dictionary. T.: "PUBLISHER" T.: 2020;
7. History of the Tajik people. T. I. - M., 1963;
8. Wolf M.N. Ontological aspects of Iranian influences on early Greek philosophy. - Dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Philosophical Sciences. - Novosibirsk, 2003; http://www.nsu.ru./classics/Wolf/Kand-diss.htm#ch3
9. Eliade M. History of faith and religious ideas. T.I: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian mysteries. - M.: Criterion, 2002;
10. Lelekov L.A. Avesta in modern science. - M., 1992.
