Agriculture is man's noblest profession

Ahura Mazda sent Zarathushtra for the support and care and guidance of the tillers of the land. Agriculture is the staple industry of mankind. Culture and civilization begin when man, attached to the soil, enters into the settled pursuits of agriculture. He furthers human progress and happiness. Life on the fields gives health and vigor to the body. It refreshes the mind and exhilarates the spirit.

The industrious agriculturist who tills the earth by his diligence, reaps the rich fruits of life. He is a watchful, diligent person, sleeping little, the first to leave his cottage at the break of day and last to enter it in the evening, toiling hard from dawn till dark.

Whoso cultivates the land with the left arm and the right, and the right arm and the left, unto him does the earth give corn and fruit and food. The indolent who cultivates not the earth, has to stand begging at the door of persons possessed of profusion of the products of the earth and, into his outstretched hands, do they cast the refuse and the crumbs of the stale bread.

He sows righteousness, who sows corn. He strengthens the religion of Mazda to progress with the feet of a hundred men. The farmer who grows crops and feeds hungry mouths, enables them to lead an active and useful and righteous life. When corn does grow and is pounded and when the flour is kneaded for bread, the demons of sloth and destitution and misery do start and sweat, cough and faint, scorch their jaws, and flee and fly, says Zarathushtra.

The agriculturist lives in brotherhood with nature, He befriends earth and heavens, grass and trees, wind and waters. He lives in company of cows and oxen, goats and sheep, horses and camels, dogs and fowls and birds. He ploughs the land and breaks the clods with his hoe in the furrows. Nature smiles on his field and the seeds sprout and the stalks bear grain. He harvests the corn in sheaves. He beats the grain with flails and winnows it. Mother earth fills his barns and he thrives on her bounty. He thatches his hut with straw and grass and beneath its shelter lives a frugal and contented and happy life with his dear ones.

Nature around him is instinct with pulsating life. Concourse with heaven is not distant and dim. The spirits of the earth and plants and waters and the sun and moon and stars live near him and around him and with him. With the piety of his heart, he prepares a feast in their honor and invokes them to come down to the sacred repast. And willingly they come, accompanied by the Fravashis that are the guardian spirits of the righteous dead. Devoutly does he offer them the first fruits of the harvest. Propitiated and satisfied, invisibly they stand by the young and old of their supplicants and guard them, protect them, comfort them, cheer them, and bless them, they the heavenly beings of Ahura Mazda.

This page was last updated on Friday, February 11, 2005.