The Sacred Books of the East: Volume 4. The Zend-Avesta. Part 1

Before I had read the Zend-Avesta, I had always associated Zoroastrianism with fire. While that connection is legitimate, one would hardly have made the connection as this first volume deals primarily with various laws and less with actual worship.As a religion of Persia, it geographically makes sense that Zoroastrianism should share things in common with both Judaism and Hinduism.From Judaism, we see laws against uncleanness (Fargard V), which is a very important topic in the Pentateuch. The concept of heaven and hell, described as "the happy realm" and "world of the fiends", also makes an appearance here.We also see that the Zoroastrians were against a variety of sex-related topics: wet-dreams (Fargard VIII), abortion (Fargard XV) as well as homosexuality (Fargard VIII).The sixth Fargard is where we see one of the many passages about death. In the fifth "chapter" this Fargard reveals to us what is to be done with the dead.Dogs feature prominently in Fargard V and XIII. The latter of these sections even goes so far as to explain to us the many different characters that a dog has. Where cows were highly revered by Hindus, there is a lot to argue that Zoroastrians had a similar respect for dogs.In terms of structure, this first part of the Zend-Avesta reads more like a polished Rig-Veda than any of the books of the Pentateuch. From Hinduism we also see how, although there is ultimately one god, Ahura Mazda, there are other important deities below him, such as Zarathrustra and Fire.Finally, we see Zoroastrianism make several attacks on Hinduism itself--or more specifically Indra (Fargard X and XIX).Having read the Rig-Veda, this first part of the Zend-Avesta is much easier to follow. With that being said, if you stop for every single footnote you will likely find yourself in for a tedious reading experience. I highly recommend just reading the Zend-Avesta text all the way through and then go back and only read the footnotes if they apply to passages you found significant.

Excellent introduction to the basic rules of belief. However, it should be kept in mind there are two more volumes one needs to read in order to truly begin to understand the belief system introduced herein. One will only receive a partial understanding from this single volume (1 of 3), and will therefore receive only an incomplete and possibly skewed vision of this sacred text and living religion. It is the same as reading only 1/3 of the Bible and then believing you can possibly understand the complete and true meaning of the Jewish/Christian religion. Part 3 of the Avesta expounds upon the actual rituals and practices. This having been said, this particular book serves as the necessary introduction and, therefore, fluidly begins the readers journey.This book should be read as one looking for a basis for spiritual belief and not simply as a scholastic exercise in mental acuity.