Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 23 — The Zend-Avesta, Part II / Yasts & Nyayis (Darmesteter, page scans)
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greatness, goodness, and fairness ? '
11. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is that one, O holy Zarathui-tra ! that a man delivers when starting
- * A hundred times the formula: 'Be propitiation (khshnaothra) unto N, . . . , the holy and master of holiness' (cf p. i, note 2).
- - Eating or drinking (see Vendidad, Introd. IV, 33).
YAST FRAGMENT. 3 I
.•> up from his bed or going to sleep again, at the same time professing good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and rejecting evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds.'
12. 'What is the one recital of the praise of Holiness that is worth ten thousand others in greatness, goodness, and fairness ? '
13. Ahura Mazda answered: ' It is that one, O holy Zarathu^tra ! that a man delivers when waking up and rising from sleep, at the same time professing good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and rejecting evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds.'
14. 'What is the one recital of the praise of Holiness that is worth this Karshvare of ours, /z^iyaniratha \ with its cattle and its chariots, without its men, in greatness, goodness, and fairness ? '
15. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is that one, O holy Zarathu^tra ! that a man delivers in the last moments of his life, at the same time professing good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and rejecting evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds.'
16. 'What is the one recital of the praise of Holiness that is worth all that is between the earth and the heavens, and this earth, and that luminous space, and all the good things made by Mazda, that are the offspring of the good principle in greatness, goodness, and fairness ?'
17. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is that one, O holy Zarathu5tra ! that a man delivers to renounce evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds ^.'
' See p. 123, note 5.
^ In a conversion, or in the recital of the penitential prayers.
314 YA5TS AND siRdZAHS.
YA^-T XXII.
This Ya^t is a description of the fate that attends the soul of the righteous (§§ 1-18) and the soul of the wicked (§§ 19-37) after death. They spend the first three nights (the sadis or sidos; of. Commentaire du Vendidad, XIII, 55) amongst the highest enjoyments or pains ; they are then met by their own conscience in the shape of a beautiful heavenly maiden (or a fiendish old woman ^), and are brought in four steps up to heaven or down to hell, through the three paradises of Good -Thought, Good -Word, and Good- Deed, or the three hells of Evil -Thought, Evil -Word, and Evil- Deed : there they are praised and glorified by Ahura, or rebuked and insulted by t in four steps up to heaven or down to hell, through the three paradises of Good -Thought, Good -Word, and Good- Deed, or the three hells of Evil -Thought, Evil -Word, and Evil- Deed : there they are praised and glorified by Ahura, or rebuked and insulted by Angra Mainyu, and fed with ambrosia or poison.
Similar developments are to be found in Ya^t XXIV, 53-65;
Arda Viraf XVII ; Minokhired II, 123-194.
I.
1. Zarathiutra asked Ahura Mazda: 'O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!
' When one of the faithful departs this life, where
does his soul abide on that nio^ht ? '
Ahura Mazda answered :
2, * It takes its seat near the head, singing the Uj-tavaiti Gatha ^ and proclaiming happiness: " Happy is he, happy the man, whoever he be, to whom Ahura Mazda gives the full accomplishment of his wishes!" On that nio-ht his soul tastes^ as
O
much of pleasure as the whole of the living world can taste.'
^ See p. 319, note i.
^ The name of the second Gatha, which begins with the word ujta : the words in the text, 'Happy the man ....,' are its opening line (Yaj-na XLII, i).
^ Literally, sees, perceives.
p. 315
3. — ' On the second night where does his soul abide ?'
4. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It takes its seat near the head, singing the U^tavaiti Gatha and proclaiming happiness : " Happy is he, happy the man, whoever he be, to whom Ahura Mazda gives the full accomplishment of his wishes!" On that night his soul tastes as much of pleasure as the whole of the living world can taste.'
5. — 'On the third night where does his soul abide?'
6. Ahura Mazda answered : 'It takes its seat near the head, singing the U^tavaiti Gatha and proclaiming happiness : " Happy is he, happy the man, whoever he be, to whom Ahura Mazda gives the full accomplishment of his wishes!" On that night his soul tastes as much of pleasure as the whole of the livins: world can taste.'
7. At the end^ of the third night, when the dawn appears, it seems to the soul of the faithful one as if it were brought amidst plants and scents : it seems as if a wind were blowing from the region of the south, from the regions of the south, a sweetscented wind, sweeter-scented than any other wind in the world.
8. And it seems to the soul of the faithful one as if he were inhaling that wind with the nostrils, and he thinks: 'Whence does that wind blow, the sweetestscented wind I ever inhaled with my nostrils ?'
9.
eeter-scented than any other wind in the world.
8. And it seems to the soul of the faithful one as if he were inhaling that wind with the nostrils, and he thinks: 'Whence does that wind blow, the sweetestscented wind I ever inhaled with my nostrils ?'
9. And it seems to him as if his own conscience were advancing to him in that wind, in the shape of a maiden fair, bright, white-armed, strong, tall-
^Thraojta: in Pahlavi roijman.
'^l6 YA5TS AND SIROZAHS.
formed, high -standing, thick-breasted, beautiful of body, noble, of a glorious seed ^ of the size of a maid in her fifteenth year, as fair as the fairest things in the world.
10. And the soul of the faithful one addressed her, asking : ' What maid art thou, who art the fairest maid I have ever seen ? '
11. And she, being his own conscience, answers him : ' O thou youth of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, of good religion, I am thy own conscience !
* Everybody did love thee for that greatness, goodness, fairness, sweet-scentedness, victorious strength and freedom from sorrow, in which thou dost appear to me ;
12. 'And so thou, O youth of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, of good religion ! didst love me for that greatness, goodness, fairness, sweetscentedness, victorious strength, and freedom from sorrow, in which I appear to thee.
13. 'When thou wouldst see a man making derision^ and deeds of idolatry, or rejecting^ (the poor) and shutting his door ^, then thou wouldst sit singing the Gathas and worshipping the good waters and Atar, the son of Ahura Mazda, and rejoicing^ the faithful that would come from near or from afar.
' ' That is to say, from the gods' (Pahl. Comm.).
^ Of holy things.
^ Doubtful. The Pahlavi commentary has the following gloss : ' He would not give his friends what they begged for.'
* To the poor: — Urvaro-straya: urvar babai/^ kart (Pahl. Comm.): aighshan bab^ bara asrunast (star, to tie, as in frastaretem baresma). Cf. Yt. XXIV, 37, 59.
^ With alms to the poor Mazdayasnians (asho-dad).
p. 317
14. ' I was lovely and thou madest me still lovelier ; I was fair and thou madest me still fairer ; I was desirable and thou madest me still more desirable; I was sitting in a forward place and thou madest me sit in the foremost place, through this good thought, through this good speech, through this good deed of thine ; and so henceforth men worship me for my having long sacrificed unto and conversed with Ahura Mazda.
15.
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