In the sacred songs of Zarathustra, the Gathas, Yasna 29, we encounter a short story in which “Gushurvan,” the guardian angel of animals, goes helplessly before Ahura Mazda and says: “Why did you create me when the oppression of animals by evildoers has no end?”

Ahura Mazda asks Ardibehesht, the embodiment of his eternal truth and order: “Which creature should I appoint as the guardian of animals?” Ardibehesht replies: “With deceitful human beings and demons in the world, animals will have no guardian.”

Ahura Mazda then asks Bahman, the expression of Hormazd’s wisdom and good thought, the same question. Bahman chooses “Zarathustra,” and Zarathustra replies: “O Ahura! I now stand ready to protect what you have willed.”

In this myth, which occupies four pages of the Avesta, the purpose of the awakened human being—Zarathustra—is defined not as dominion over animals but as their protection.

Zarathustra accepts this mission in circumstances in which even the divine guardian of living creatures has complained to Ahura Mazda about the wickedness of human beings, saying that it cannot protect animals against so much human cruelty and evil. Strikingly, Ardibehesht—the divinity of the world’s order and truth—despairingly confirms this and does not consider humanity worthy of such guardianship. Only Bahman, the embodiment of Ahura Mazda’s good thought, places trust in Zarathustra and asks Hormazd to choose him as the guardian of animals so that he may restrain human wickedness.

At a point where the truth and eternal order of the world looks upon humanity with doubt, only the Good Thought of Hormazd decides to entrust human beings with a mission that even the divine guardian of animals does not see itself as capable of fulfilling. Thousands of years have passed, and animals still have no refuge from the cruelty of the being who carries responsibility for protecting them.

This story is not about merely refraining from harming animals or being kind to them. It places a far heavier responsibility upon human beings: to guard and protect life and living creatures, and to take the place of the divine protector of animals.

Aydin Areta