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THE SIDDHANTA,
711
or no idea of its basic principles. Hence, they only see the personifications of constellations and stars everywhere in all gods. Prof. Cumont takes these 24 Gods to be the 24 stars, outside the Zodiac, 'twelve in the northern and twelve in the southern hemisphere, which, being sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, become the judges of the living and the dead.' According to Zimmern, they are the twenty-four constellations which are set in circles round the polar stars, as the 24 Spiritual Kings of the book of Revelation are set round the Throne. To this Moulton objects as follows (Early Zoroastrianism, p. 402):
“ This may or may not convince us. But what does he mean when he goes on to remark that these 24 signs are of course' 24 divisions of the Zodiac?...Diodorus expressly says these were outside the Zodiac, and Zimmern's remark implies that they are not far from the poles."
To our thinking, the word Ahura Mazdah, when used in the singular number, denotes either the Supreme Status or the Siddha Atmans, the ‘Blessed Ones', taken collectively, and in the plural form the 24 most glorious Siddhas. This is evident from Yasna XXVIII. 9, which records :
“With these bounties, 0 Ahura, may we never provoke your wrath, O Mazdah and Right and Best thought,... Ye are they that are mightiest to advance desires and Dominion of Blessings" (Early Zoroastrianism,' p. 346).
The same idea underlies the teaching in Yasna LI, 20, which reads:
“Your blessings shall ye give us, all ye that are one in will, with whom Right, Good Thought, Piety, and Mazdah (are one), according to promise, giving your aid when worshipped with reverence."
The idea of God, thus, is that of perfection, which
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