THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
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According to Yasht, xiii. 149, man is in constitution fivefold: spirit or intellectuality, the knowing power; conscience, a sort of personality which warns
of possible wrong, but deserts the in- 5. Anthro- corrigible; vital force, coexistent with pology. the body; soul, perhaps moral choice; and the fravashi, which seems to assume the post-mortem personality. The essential idea of man is that of a being having to choose between Ahura and Angra Mainyu, between good and evil, and this choice determines his future lot. His period of existence is divided into two parts by death, and his place after death is determined by inflexible justice upon the basis of his deeds in the body. Of soteriology, in the Christian sense, there is none in the system; there is no pardon for sin apart from the fact that a convert to the religion is by confessing the faith relieved from the consequence of prior sins of ignorance when he knew not the religion. Yet man is not left, in the developed form of the religion at least, to his own efforts, since guardian angels assist in overcoming temptation and evading the pitfalls set by the demons. An important part in the Zoroastrian anthropology is that embodied in the Yima story. Ahura proposed to make Yima the founder of the new religion, but he declined; so Ahura made him guardian of the world and the creatures of Ahura (Vendidad, u.). This duty he performed, so that the flocks and herds and mankind increased, and twice the area of the inhabited earth had to be enlarged. He was then warned of the approach of a series of cold winters which should wipe out life, and was commanded to create a sort of paradise, two miles square, and bring thither specimens of the different species, eliminating from the humans thus saved the deformed, impotent, lunatic, malicious, evil-minded, leprous, and wicked. This was done, and the 1,900 men and women there lived a life of perfect happiness and repeopled the earth after the magician who had wrought the cold had ceased his work. This story is not to be taken as a direct parallel of the “ flood legend,” but is a combination of the ‘“ golden-age ” legend and recollection of the migrations.
The soul after death remains near the body for three days, in pain or joy, according to its deeds. On the fourth day at dawn it takes up its journey to its final home. Its experiences correspond to the
individual’s actions during life. Have
6. Escha- they been righteous, the soul is cheered
tology. by delicious experiences on its way, and
is met by a beautiful maiden, the im-
personation of its good deeds, who guides it to the Chinvat bridge, where Mithra, Sraosha, and Rashnu pass Judgment (on the basis of the daily record kept by Vohu Manah and the trying in Rashnu’s scales of its good deeds and bad). Then it passes across the Chinvat bridge (Yasna, xix. 6, xlvi. 11) to the bridge of the angels; finally, received by Vohu Manah, the soul passes before Ahura and the Amesha Spentas to take up its abode permanently with the righteous (Vendidad, xix. 28-34; cf. Yasht, xxii. 5 xxiv. 53-64; Yasna, xxxi. 14). The hap of the wicked is the reverse of this, the soul being met by an evil-favored hag and dragged by it after the judgment to the depths of darkness. There is, however,
a place called Hamestagan, the abiding-place of souls whose good and evil deeds exactly balance. These and the evil dead abide in their places till the last day, when the human denizens of hell are purified and join, with those of Hamestagan, the blessed in the new heaven anu new earth. So that universalism is the final creed, and hell is not an eternal torture or retribution (Dadistan-i Dinik, xiv. 8, xxxil. 10-16; Bundahish, xxx. 1-33; cf. G. C. O. Haas, in Spiegel Memorial Volume, Bombay, 1908). On the day of judgment the Saoshyant completes the victory over evil in a final battle (Yasht, xix. 89-96), and is to reign for fifty-seven years. By that time man will have become spiritualized, needing neither food nor drink (Bundahish, xxx. 3; Dinkart, VII., xi. 4). A star is to fall and its heat will melt the terrestrial metals, this molten mass coursing over the earth and becoming the purification of men and making the earth a mountainless plain. The resurrection takes place, all souls gather, and the wicked suffer three days’ torture in hell. All souls pass through the molten flood, which to the good is pleasant and to the bad is extremest pain. Then all are united in heaven (Dadistan-i Dintk, Ixxv. 4), and the new earth is established, itself immortal, it and its inhabitants radiant with light, yet possessing sun, moon, and stars.
The universally present ideal inculeated by the Mazdean religion is summed up in activity as represented in the triple phrase, “ good thoughts, good
words, good deeds.’ By the first is
7. Ethics meant primarily acceptance of the re-
and Relig- ligion and then regard for the law, ious Duties. practical and ritual, abstention from
presumption, covetousness, anger, lust, envy, anxiety, and disobedience to superiors. ‘‘ Good words ”’ involves the eschewing of slander and of dispute even with the evil-minded and malicious. The ideal of good works is based upon the pastoral and agricultural foundations of Avestan society. Perjury, impurity of body or mind, violence, and untruthfulness are especially denounced, charity and generosity are forcefully enjoined. Vendidad ii. pronounces the best situations on earth those where a Zoroastrian is worshiping, and the homestead of a believer with wife, children, flocks, and herds all in good condition, where the fields are under irrigation and the flocks yield most urine (for purification). The fight against demons is in part carried on by agriculture—‘‘ Who sows corn sows holiness.”” Procrastination of labor is forbidden (Sad Dar, |xxxi. 10). Asceticism is frowned on, especially is celibacy opposed; the possession of wife and children is commended, the latter being among the chief blessings of mankind, and childlessness a curse (Yasna, xi. 8; SBH, xxxi. 244-245; Herodotus, ix. 111), while a sacred virginity was considered irreligious. To foster fertility, the sacred fire was maintained in the house (Shayast, xii. 3), and the period of gestation was marked at intervals by joyous celebrations. The child at six begins to learn prayers, and some little time after that is invested with the sacred thread. Since labor is a prime duty, fasting is prohibited, because it deprives of proper strength for the active duties of life (Vendidad, iii. 33, iv. 48-49). Self-mortification is sin-