Chapter 7The Father of Wisdom

Zarathustra returned home speaking of the Wise Lord. His sister Dena asked whether this Lord lived on a mountain, behind the stars, or inside the fire.

“If I point to a place,” he said, “you will mistake the place for the Presence. The Wise Lord is known wherever wisdom becomes goodness.”

Dena called Ahura Mazda Father. Zarathustra did not correct her. The word had no beard, throne, or tribal border in her mouth. It meant the source from whom care and understanding should flow.

Roshana asked why a perfect Father would need imperfect children. Zarathustra answered, “Need is not the mystery. Love makes room for another will.”

He taught that human beings were neither divine slaves nor abandoned dust. They were participants whose choices gave history its moral shape.

“You are a child of the Wise Father,” Dena told a frightened orphan, “not because you are above anyone, but because no one is beneath your responsibility.”

The saying traveled farther than its speaker: “The Father is not made greater when the child kneels. The Father is revealed when the child becomes good.”

And the people began to understand that worship without resemblance was praise offered as a substitute for transformation.