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THE GÂTHAS.
fatal decision.) And thereupon they rushed together unto the Demon of Fury, that they might pollute 1 the lives of mortals 2.
7. Upon this: Åramaiti (the personified Piety of the saints) approached, and with her came the Sovereign Power, the Good Mind, and the Righteous Order. And (to the spiritual creations of good and of evil) Aramaiti gave a body, she the abiding and ever strenuous*. And for these (Thy people) so let' (that
word is the subject of 'gasat, and has the proper place of a nominative in the sentence; cp. Vedic usage.
1 That they might disease (so literally) the lives of those who had not yet been tempted or fallen.
The Pahlavi: Vîmârînido ahvân i mardumân (aigh, levatman aêshm anstaan ahûkînênd).
Ner. : Ye nigaghnur bhuvanam manushyânâm.
Hübschmann:'um durch ihn Plagen über das Leben des Menschen zu bringen.'
2 Verbatim. Of these two spirits not aright may choose the Daêvas, since these we have beguiled (or have injured). To thequestioning ones upon came-he in-order-that he might-be-chosen (subjunctive middle) he-the worst mind. Thereupon to-furiousrapine they rushed-together in-order-that (yena) they might disease (or ruin) the life of-man.
Or, to him;' some unnamed benefactor; hardly 'to us.' The Pahlavi has, avo valman, but Ner. has only tatraka. Observe ahmâi in chap. XLIII, 1, and in chap. XLVII.
+ Root ăn=in. The Pahlavi freely, pavan astûbîh. He seems to have thought of nam +a priv.
Kehrpem is feminine. Anmã may be a neuter in apposition.
Otherwise we must accept -mâ as a suffix. Or can kehrpem (corpus) be a neuter here? The clothing of the spirits with corporeal natures enabled them to advance in the development of moral qualities by self-restraint and pursuit. As has been observed in the summary, no Fravashis appear in the Gathas. Have we here possibly an indication of the pre-existence of souls? If Aramaiti gave a body, it may be inferred that a period elapsed between the acts of the two spirits and this.
. That bodies are to be given to the saints as at the first is to
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