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YASNA XLVI.
131
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question, together with many other passa ges in the Gathas, the afflictions and discouragements of Zarathustra himself. He knows not whither to turn, although he speaks as a public person and in command of forces which are scanty indeed (verse 2), but yet still able to take the field (Y. XLIV, 15, 16); and his movements also concern large districts ( lands'). He is not driven from his house, but from his country. It is superfluous to say that religion, although blended with a natural ambition, is his leading motive. How he shall satisfy Ahura is the one problem which he aims to solve; but his case at this particular juncture shows every discouragement.
2. Not supposing that his yâ=yéna is merely lost in the meaning that,' we see that in relieving his burdened mind he exclaims, not that he knows that he is poor in means and troops, but that he knows why it is thus. It is the dregvant's work, whom we may also well understand as the drugvant, the accursed enemy, who holds back (verse 4) the bearers of the Holy Order from all success in their efforts to gain a righteous livelihood from the favoured cattle culture (Y. XXIX, 2), and who, as he with grief long since foresaw, should he attain to power, would deliver up home, village, district, and province to ruin and death (Y. XXXI, 18). He therefore cries to Ahura in common with the Kine herself (Y. XXIX, 9), and his 'behold' is only a changed expression for her exclamations (Y. XXIX, I).
As a friend, he would have the good Mazda to regard him as seeking an especial form of grace; and he would beseech Him to fill up his need (Y. XXVIII, 11) in his extremity, teaching him, not the value of flocks and followers alone, but of that isti which lay deeper than the material wealth which he yet lamented, even the blessings of the Holy Order in every home. 3. And therefore he continues: Teach me and tell me of those great thoughts, the khratavô, the salvation schemes of the Saviours, elsewhere also spoken of as the khratu of life (Y. XXXII, 9); for these saving helpers would, through a severe conflict and after many a reverse, at last bring on 'Completed Progress.'
4. But he must arouse himself from the relief and indulgence of his grief, he therefore springs to action, and with a cry which we hear elsewhere (Y. LIII, 9), and which was in all probability often uttered in hymns now lost to us, he urges the reward for the chief, who at the head of his retainers, shall expel the worlddestroyer, the dussasti (Y. XLV, 1), from power and from life. And what is that reward? It seems to be merely the recognition and confirmation of merit among the faithful. The man who shall
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