Sraosha (or seraosha)

Dear Ron

Very good question!!!
First of all, Zarathushtra certainly did not mean to personify sraosha, as we would both agree on, that is a much later habit from within folk Zoroastrianism. Rather sraosha seems to be the state of "rightness" when thoughts, words and actions are in harmony with each other and therefore a presence of the divine can be experienced. As such, sraosha is that which unfies us with Ahura Mazda, or if we prefer, that state when we experience our connection with Ahura Mazda, as a "presence" of the divine. I just don't think we can find one word for sraosha in any western language, since the concept itself is alien to western thought.
According to Zarathushtra, good thoughts, good words, good actions, constitute a feedback loop. I believe that is what sraosha is all about. It is when the loop prolongs itself so that the loop itself begins to guide us right. And our emotions etc then go along with the flow of the loop så that staying within the loop becomes the natural, the easy thing to do.
What do you think?

Ushta
Alexander

2009/2/11 ztheist


Ushta ALEX

What is seraosha to you then? I mean it certainly is not obedience ,
with all due respect to Insler, Dina, et al. It seems to be related to
the Gathic message, the Manthra, and Jafarey translates it as the
Divine Voice, which might be going too far. It seems to be something
like inspiration or contemplation of the Gathic message that leads to
inspiration, but what is you opinion? It does have an inference of
communication hinting some sort of feeling of the presence of AM in
the Gathic message but this seems to be secondary, IMO.

Ushta te
Ron