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386
SHAYAST LÂ-SHAYAST.
or to accomplish and urge it on, for the advance of religion in a state of uncertainty (var-hômandih)? 10. The answer is this, that when they act well for their better preservation there is no fear, on account of acting well, but one is not to forsake that, too, though it be not goodness; a forsaken duty is very bad, for a contempt of it enters into one.
11. This, too, is declared, that Zaratast enquired of Adharmazd thus: From what place do these people rise again ? from that place where they first went into their mothers, or from that place where the mothers have given them birth, or from that place where their bodies happen to be (auftêd)?' 12. Adharmazd gave a reply thus : 'Not from that place where they have gone into their mothers, nor from that place where they have been born from their mothers, nor from that place where their bodies and flesh happen to be, for they rise from that place where the life went out from their bodies. 13. And this, too, he asked, that is : 'Whence do they raise him again who is suspended from anything, and shall die in the air ?' 14. The reply was: 'From that place where his bones and flesh first fall to the ground; hence, except when he shall die on a divan (gas) or a bed (vistarg), before they carry him away, whatever it
* The religion in a position of difficulty appears to be the meaning, but the reply to this question of casuistry is by no means clear.
Literally, they rise,' both here and in the next section, but the change to the plural number is perplexing, unless it refers to those who prepare the resurrection of the dead (Bund. XXX, 4, 7, 17), as here assumed by reading 'they raise.'
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