Ahura Mazda—whose name itself means the giver of light—conceived a perfect world, Spenta Mainyu, and then, in the process of bringing it into being and protecting it from Ahriman, created the material world and then the human being, endowed with free will as the greatest weapon in the struggle against Ahriman.

In Mazdayasnian thought, the fravahar is a light shared between Ahura Mazda and the human being. The human being is reborn each time and returns to that light in order to struggle against Ahriman; after death, the person returns to their fravahar, carrying with them the experiences gained through the struggle against Ahriman. Each time they are born, they are wiser and more complete, and closer to their own fravahar.

The earliest thought that regards the human being as embodied light is, in this account, Mazdayasnian thought. At its depth lies the belief that there is a light within the human being toward which one moves; and when that light is reached, it is the Simurgh reborn—the evolved individuation that exists within every human being, and when it is realised there is no longer any distance between the human being and that greater light. This is why, in Mazdayasnian thought, the human task is to save the world and to stand on the side of light.

The belief that there is a world beyond the material world, in which everything exists in its perfection, and that for this reason the human being is a bridge between what is and what can be, can also be seen across the entire historical tradition of Platonism.

Link on the YouTube channel “Steps in Light”:
https://youtu.be/sJYDGubzycE

Link to the original full video on Dr Areta’s YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/xaf-0HCaXJk