Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
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

Page 88

YASNA XXXI.
37
for that satisfying decision which would be the natural result of the regulation just promised, and which could be given by the instrumentality of the Sacred Fire and holy ritual, affording mental keenness to the two contending parties. And he declares that this is the doctrine which should be proclaimed for the conversion of mankind. Here we observe that the Zarathustrian Mazda-worship was aggressive and missionary in its spirit, and in a proselyting sense by no means indifferent to the final destiny of the Gentile world. (The later and traditional system announced indeed the restoration and so the conversion of all men, and that not as an object proposed to the efforts of charity, but as a necessary result (so by inference ; see Bundahis (West), pp. 126, 129). I can find no trace of this in the Gathas.
Here we have only the effort to convert.)
4. Addressing all the Bountiful Immortals, and with the striking title of the Ahuras of Mazda, he prays for the establishment of the "mighty kingdom' by means of which he might overcome the personified and aggressive falsehood of the opposing and persecuting Daêva-worshippers.
5. In order to enable himself to fulfil his mission, he asks for prophetic and judicial knowledge as to what ought to be done, or as to what is about to happen in the immediate future.
6. He lauds the Măthra which we may suppose him to recognise as delivered to him afresh in answer to his prayer for prophetic light, and he praises co-ordinately with the Word of God that Sovereign Authority of Ahura, which was to be established in a kingdom where goodness would increase, and be prosperous, if not predominant.
7. He takes the heavenly bodies as evidence of the wisdom of Him who created the Sacred Order personified as the Immortal' Asha, and also the Good Mind, his equal. And he ascribes the support and extension of their hallowing influence to Ahura, because He never changes.
8. He reiterates, in expressions which form the basis for another hymn, his conception of Mazda as the supreme object of devotion, as the father of the Good Mind personified as His child, as the creator of the Righteous Order, and as both the controller and the judge of human actions. Therefore the Good Mind and Righteousness are to be worshipped as standing in the closest possible relation to him.
9. He ascribes the Immortal' Piety to Him as well. She is His own, and elsewhere His own daughter. He is declared, as in
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