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YASNA XXX.
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YASNA XXX.
THE DOCTRINE OF DUALISM. 1. Accustomed to instruct the masses who throng him on public occasions seeking light, the composer constructs this hymn for similar opportunities. He may be regarded as continuing the thoughts in the close of Y. XXVIII, where he besought Ahura to inform him concerning the origin of the world. He says that he will declare the counsels of God, by which, as we see, he means the great doctrines concerning the origin of good and evil. With these he will declare also the praises, the laudatory portions of the Mathra, and the sacrifices. And he prays that propitious results may be discerned in the heavenly bodies.
er introduces what he has to say by telling the throngs before him that a decisive moment is upon them. They are to choose their religion, and not by acclamation with the foolish decision of a mob, but man by man, each individually for himself. They should therefore arouse themselves and hear with all attention, and gaze at the holy Fire with a good and receptive disposition of mind.
3. He then delivers the earliest statement of dualism which has come down to us. There were two original spirits, and they are called, be it well noted, not two persons, or at least not only two persons, but a better thing, or principle, and a worse one. (The qualifying words are all in the neuter .)
At the next sentence they are personified as a pair, each independent in his thoughts, declarations, and actions. Such is the short Theodicy, followed at once by an admonition to those before him to choose the better.
4. These two spirits came together as by natural combination, to make the opposing phenomena of life and its absence, of Heaven and of Hell.
And Hell is described not as a scene of cruelty inflicted on the innocent and the ignorant, but as the worst life,' and Heaven as equally remote from a superstitious paradise; that is, as the 'best mental state.'
* It is also noticeable that the name Angra Mainyu does not occur in this section.
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| SR No. | 007673 |
| Book Title | Zend Avesta Part 03 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | L H Mills |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1887 |
| Total Pages | 2618 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 49 MB |