Zend Avesta Part 02

SR No.: 007672
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1883
Total Pages: 2221
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 41 MB

Page 948

46
THE GÂTHAS.
the thieving? nomad share the good creed (For the Kine's choice would bestow it!)
11. (And this doctrine was the first of rules to regulate our actions. Yet the opposer speaks beside Thee.) For when first, О Ahura Mazda! Thou didst create the (holy) settlements, and didst reveal the religious laws*; and when Thou gavest (us) understanding from Thine own mind, and madest our (full) bodily life, and (didst thus determine) actions (by Thy power), and didst moreover deliver to us (nearer) injunctions whereby (as by a rule) the wisher may place his choices,
12. (There strife at once arose, and still is raging.) There (beside Thy prophet) the truthful or liar, the enlightened or unenlightened, lifts his voice (to utter
1 Pahlavi davásahak; Ner. pratârayitre.
? Khớpo-hôshmûrisnih. Judicial blindness' is everywhere indicated. (The wicked are kept from the sight of the truth.) Hübschm., Casuslehre, der frohen Botschaft.'
* This seems implied. 4 Or. madest the worlds and the souls (?).'
• Geldner admirably flesh. The Pahlavi : tang-hômandano gân yehabûnd. Notice that bodily life or flesh' is mentioned after
understanding. Compare Y. XXX, 7, where Aramaiti gives 'a body' after previous creations.
• The Pahlavi has the following interesting gloss: [That is, even the actions and teachings of the pious are given forth by thee'; and this was also given in this wisdom of thy mind). And when there is a person in whom there is a desire for the other world, that desire is granted to him by thee; (that is, what is necessary when he is arriving in the other world, this which is thus required (or desired) by him at that time, is given by thee-through that which is thy mind and wisdom). Although not able to follow the indications of the Pahlavi fully, I think that there is no question but that we have an important statement in the last line. It does not seem to me possible to render less profoundly than where the wisher may place his choices,' his religious preferences and beliefs, including all moral volition.
Digitized by
Digitized by Google