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152
THE GÂTHAS.
by the heretic, to the man who understands the true relations, what Ahura declares by means of His inspired prophets, the secretannouncers, this is, of all things, best; (he need not ask as elsewhere, Y. XXXI, 17). 4. And whoever would hope for spiritual growth and purity must turn his mind to that word of the Deity, and pursue its teachings faithfully, and so at last his fears will vanish, for his doubts will disappear. He will understand as the Lord has taught.
5. This verse seems a prayer to Aramaiti; when the long struggles shall have found their issues, and the one party or the other wins the day, let not that party be the evil alliance with its monarch. For, if the government is set up, and carried on with all the prescribed ceremonial and moral exactness of the wise Kisti; if men who toil for the sacred Kine, and with the virtue of those who cultivate her, hold the reins of power, and can so suppress the predatory raids on defenceless, as well as unoffending victims, then no gift of Ahura, since the tribes became a nation, could be looked upon as a greater, or as so great a blessing, as the correct Authority, and the Order of the Faith.
6. For that sacred Kine, as so often already implied or stated, was all in all to the pious worshipper. It was she, representing, as she did, all wealth in herds, who alone could sustain the homelife of happy industry. And this is the reason why Ahura had originally caused the herbage to grow for her support.
7. Urging the overthrow of the spirit of Rapine in accordance with the Kine's complaint, he exhorts the armed masses to energetic and offensive valour.
8. He then vehemently, although only rhetorically, asks how he may use the proper prayers to rally the needed coadjutors among the chiefs (Y. XLVI, 9) to carry on the struggle. 9. Again he utters a cry for relief in his suspense, and of entreaty for light as to the rewards, which did not concern this life for its own sake (verse 1) merely or chiefly; but which were spiritual blessings received here in preparation for the spiritual world, 10. When,' he repeats as one among similar questions four times repeated, 'when shall the ideal men appear whose thoughtful plans (Y. XLVI, 3) shall drive hence the polluted schemes of the false priests and of the tyrants (Y. XLVI, 1)? 11. And when shall Aramaiti, the kindly piety of home, appear, she who, like the earth, spreads pastures for the peaceful kine, when shall she appear with holy Khshathra (later well called an angel, or archangel) the personified Authority of God over home and state, without which
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