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YASNA XXXIV.
and personified as a separate intelligence, is positively said to be something more than a gaudy pageant of material display, even Tava Khshathrem yâ eresigyôi dâhî drigavê vahyô (LIII, 9). (See also even Vendîdad II (part i], where moral duties are lauded.)
And the composer himself seems to be so conscious of the sharply defined difference between such a kingdom and that of the rival religion, that he immediately adds an interdict: Such is Your Kingdom, caring for the righteous poor, and therefore we declare You irreconcilably distinct from the Daêvas and their polluted followers. Ye are beyond them and before in the spirit of Your Reign!'
6. He then utters an impressive doubt, which only deepens our admiration at his expressions of faith: 'If it be really true,' he continues (see XLIV, 6), 'that Ye are thus with the Righteous Order and the Good Mind, the God who looks upon the goodness of the heart and the activity of the hands, then give me a sign of it, that I may persevere and increase in the depth of my homage while life shall last.' 7. For the struggle, though not without signs of a favourable issue, was far from over yet. (Hence his misgivings.)
He then asks with some wistfulness after the 'ar(e)drâ,' the men that could help, who from the experience of the grace of God, could turn sorrow into blessing by establishing the holy religious system firmly, but with enlarged and not narrowed understanding. And, still a little dispirited, he declares, as so often : None have I other than You ; therefore I can wait for the ar(e)dra. Do ye save us alone by Your already offered means of grace.'
8. For Ye have given me already, as it were, a sign. The enemy are checked, and for the moment cowed, if they are not repelled. They among whom there was death for so many when they had the upper hand, and when their ruler persecuted the holy vows, are not only struck with terror by the action which we take, but their chief retribution is, as we hold it, spiritual, and therefore, in the eye of truth the more severe. They will not encourage righteous Order and righteous intentions, and accordingly, the personified Good Intention, grieved, will depart from them.
9. Yea,' he reiterates, amplifying, 'the unfortunate sinners whɔ depart from Thy kindly and sacred Piety in this ignorance of all experience of Thy Good Mind, will suffer an equal desertion. The characteristics of righteousness will, in their turn, avoid them as the unclean creatures free from us. 10. And this is,' thus he continues, 'a sign or result which the All-wise declares to me to steady my soul as I waver.' And these are indeed the cheering proofs of Thy favour," he adds, addressing Ahura, 'which terrify our enemies
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