Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 249

238
N. M. Kansara
Makaranda
spiritual accounting of man's life record, the weighing of merits and demerits, forms an integral part of Zarathushtra's message31. All the daily actions of man are entered, so to speak, as items (dāOra) of debit and credit in the record for the hereafter; and only by increasing the credit side of the account can the debits be counterbalanced32. When the account is brought to a final reckoning (henkeratā), if there be any excess of good deeds, as in the case of the righteous, these souls find their final destiny in the Abode of Good Thought or House of Song33. But if, owing to bad deeds, the claims (išudo) cannot be satisfied, the result is reversed, as in the case of the wicked, who are destined to become veritable inmates of the House of the Lie 34. All meritorious deeds are regarded as stored up in the treasure-house of Heaven, where they are entrusted to the divine protection of Mazdāhs. There is no doubt that this takes place at the Individual Judgment, and before the twofold award is meted out to the souls, with a possible intermediate state. We are not in a position, however, to determine with precision the time when the Individual Judgment takes place. It is a matter of little concern to the Prophet whether the Judgment takes place immediately after death or on the dawn of the fourth day after death. That the fate of each man is determined in strict accordance with the kind of life he has led on earth, or the first life, is the thing that is of moment36.
Another important observation to be made in this connection is that Zarathushtra's teachings of a strict reckoning of man's actions leaves no room for a real remission of sins, whereas later Zoroastrianism admits repentance, expiation, and remission. The laws of the first life"37, cannot be turned aside or altered by any sacrifices or offering; and it is in accordance with these laws that man shall be judged, both here and hereafter. Yet, in spite of this, we may infer that Zarathushtra's sense of justice allowed that strenuous effort in performing good deeds would ultimately create a surplus of merit to outweigh the accumulation of past evil38.
As to the place where the Individual Judgment is held, there are several passages in the Gāthās which either expressly, or by mere suggestion, point to the well-known Chinvat Bridge as the scene of reckoning and balancing where the souls of both pious and the wicked will stand in judgment. It is at the bridge, moreover, that the first separation of the pious from the wicked