_MAGIANISM: THE PARSEES._
THE ZENDAVESTA.[16]
When the pure morality of Christianity is adduced as a proof of its high
origin, one of the favourite devices of Modern Unbelief is to claim an
equally high standard for the morality inculcated by the primitive creeds,
and to rain praises upon the ethical systems embodied in the Soûtras of
the Buddhists, the Rig-Veda of the Brahmans, or the Zendavesta of the
Parsees. In making this claim our philosophers probably calculate on the
little knowledge which the multitude possess of any creeds but their own.
They are well aware that, to the popular mind, the teaching of Buddha or
Zoroaster is necessarily a sealed book, and that the whole extent of its
purport is known only to a few scholars. Hence, when they come to support
their thesis by quotations, they are able to select those isolated
passages which shine with the lustre of genuine diamonds, and produce an
absolutely false impression of the general character of the writings in
which they occur; thin veins of precious metal shining here and there
through masses of worthless ore. No doubt the Veda contains numerous
utterances of the highest beauty, in which the soul’s devotion to a
Supreme Power is expressed with a lyrical fervour inferior only to that of
the Sweet Singer of Israel. No doubt the Zendavesta, or the books of
K’ung-fu-tze, like the works of later and maturer intellects--a Xenophon
and a Plato, a Seneca and a Marcus Aurelius--are enriched with thoughts of
the loftiest description, and frequently breathe the most exalted
aspirations. But what we have to remember is, that these are wholly
exceptional; that they are the most arduous efforts of each self-absorbed
thinker, and the indications of his boldest flights. At other times the
wing grows feeble; at other times the music is faint and even discordant;
the bird can do no more than creep along the ground. In the sayings of our
Lord, however, or in the writings of His Apostles, the tone is always
sustained, clear, definite. There is no uncertainty or hesitation. Nothing
mean or unworthy is woven in their texture. No concessions are made to
man’s coarser desires or grosser passions. The system set before us is
rounded in perfection, and shows not a flaw from beginning to end. We feel
that He who speaks, whether in His own Person or through His disciples,
speaks as never man spoke before; and that the Voice which fills our ears
and stirs our hearts is, in deed and in truth, a Voice from Heaven.
We propose to furnish in this chapter a general view of the construction
and teaching of the Parsee Scriptures, with the view of showing the signal
inferiority of the creed it embodies to Christianity in all that can
elevate the mind and satisfy the soul. At the same time we admit that the
Parsee creed, and all similar creeds, possess an intrinsic value, apart
from their ethical deficiencies, as illustrating the recognition of an
Almighty Will, an Eternal and Supreme Force, by all the higher races of
mankind. They show us the hopes, fears, and desires of great tribes and
peoples which existed in the days before men wrote history; and they show
us how their wisest teachers groped in the dark, and stumbled in the
thorny path,--favoured occasionally, it is true, with a wonderful glimpse
of light, and striking now and again into the pleasant places, but never
rejoicing in the glory which rose upon earth with the Sun of
Righteousness, never treading in that narrow but secure way which leads to
Eternal Life. We see in them the great minds of the early world, like
children on the seashore, perplexed by a music which they could not
comprehend, and astonished by a power which they were unable to define.
Yet happier and wiser they than the cold materialist of a later age, who
resolves all mysteries, all phenomena, into the working of a blind
inflexible Law, and takes out of creation its light, beauty, and joy by
denying the existence of an all-powerful and all-loving Creator.
The religion professed by the ancient Persians, and still accepted by the
Parsees of Western India, and by a scattered population in Yezd and
Kerman, is taught in the books known as the Zend-Avesta. This title comes
from the Sassanian term _Avesta_ or _Apusta_, that is, the text;[17] and
_Zend_, or _Zand_, that is, the commentary upon it. The meaning of the
latter word, however, seems to have varied at different periods.
Originally it signified the interpretation of the sacred texts handed down
from Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) and his disciples. In course of time the
interpretation came to be esteemed not less authoritative and sacred than
the original text, and both were called _Avesta_. But the language in
which they were written having died out, they became unintelligible to the
majority of the people, and a new _Zend_ or commentary was required before
they could be understood. The new “Zend” was the work of the most learned
priests of the Sassanian period, and consisted of a translation of the
double “Avesta” into the vernacular language then in vogue.[18] And as
this translation is the only key which the priests of modern Persia
possess to the old creed as taught by Zarathustra, it has usurped the
place of the original Zend, and is now the recognised official commentary.
But, anciently, the word “Zend” implied something more than a simple
interpretation of the “Avesta,” or sacred texts. That interpretation was
the source of certain new doctrines, the whole of which were considered
orthodox, and designated _Zandi-agahi_, or Zend doctrines; doctrines
which, it can hardly be doubted, supplied Plutarch and some other of the
Greeks with ethical suggestions. The name _Pazend_, which frequently
occurs in connection with _Avesta_ and _Zend_, denotes a further
exposition of Zarathustrian teaching, as contained in the Vendidad, to
which we shall shortly refer.
Thus far we have been indebted to Dr. Haug’s account of the origin of the
Zendavesta. His views are confirmed by Westergaard, who asserts that the
sacred books belong to two epochs; that is, that they are written in one
age, and collected and systematised in another, in much the same way as,
according to Wolf, the Homeric poems were produced and assumed their
present form. All the earlier traditions ascribe their origin to
Zarathustra; but modern philologists affirm that they could not have
sprung from any single mind, because they present no defined or
self-consistent system of religious belief or moral economy. Like the
hymns of the Vedas, and the strains of the Norse Edda, the several
portions of the Zendavesta, so they say, must have been composed by
different bards, each of whom coloured his particular theme according to
the hues of his lively imagination. This theory, however, though it may
have an element of truth in it, is hardly the whole truth. The Zendavesta
is unquestionably wanting in unity and completeness. But it seems to us
that traces of a dominant mind are everywhere visible; that the various
parts are held together as on a thread by the teaching of Zarathustra
himself; and that the additions made by later and inferior writers are not
such as wholly to obscure the original work.
It is to the celebrated Frenchman, Anquetil Duperron, that the scholars of
the West owe their knowledge of these remarkable books. Happening to see a
facsimile of a few pages written in Zend characters, he resolved on
setting out for India in order to purchase manuscripts of all the sacred
books of the Zarathustrian religion, to acquire a thorough insight into
their signification, and to obtain a knowledge of the rites and religious
observances of the Parsees. His means being limited, he entered himself as
a sailor on board a ship of the Dutch Indian Company, and worked his way
out to Bombay in 1754. With money supplied by the French Government to
assist him in his ingenious researches, he bribed one of the most learned
_dustoors_ or priests, Dustoor Darat, or Surat, to procure the treasures
he desired, and to instruct him in the Zend and Pehlvi languages. As soon
as he had acquired the requisite proficiency, he addressed himself to the
task of translating the whole of the Zendavesta into French. This was in
1759. Returning to Europe, he convinced himself of the genuineness of his
purchases by comparing them with MSS. in the Bodleian Library; and, after
several years of arduous labour, produced the first European version in
1771. At the outset, the authenticity of his work was challenged both in
England and Germany; but all doubts have been set at rest by the inquiries
of Rask and others; and thus, through the fanciful enterprise of a young
Frenchman, the veil has been lifted which for so long a period shrouded
the mysterious religion of the Magi.
We do not, however, possess the whole of the Avesta. It is asserted by an
Arabian writer that Zarathustra himself covered with his verses no fewer
than twelve thousand parchments, and who shall compute the extent of the
literature accumulated by his disciples? Whether this literature perished
at the epoch of the Macedonian conquest of Persia, or whether it was
destroyed by Alexander the Great, or whether it gradually perished as the
influence of the Greek philosophy prevailed over the Zarathustrian
theology, it is impossible to determine. The remains of the sacred books,
however, with short summaries of their contents, have been handed down to
us. Originally they were twenty-one in number, called _Nosks_, and each
_Nosk_ consisting of “Avesta” and “Zend”--text and commentary. The number
twenty-one corresponded to the number of words composing the “Honovar,” or
most sacred prayer, of the Zarathustrians. It is, we may add, a magical
number, being the result of the multiplication of the sacred numbers,
_three_ and _seven_.
Of these divisions the _précis_ now extant, and collected for the first
time by the Danish scholar Westergaard, comprise the following books:
First, the _Yasna_, which sets before us the devotions proper to be
offered in connection with the sacrificial ceremonies. This Yasna is
divided into seventy-two chapters, representing the six Yahânhârs, or
“seasons” during which Ahura-Mazda, the Good Principle, created the world.
The reader will here note the coincidence between the six creative seasons
of the Magian seer, and the six creative days of the Hebrew lawgiver. The
Yasna consists of two parts, the older of which is written in what is
called the Gâtha dialect, and had acquired a peculiar sanctity prior to
the date of composition of the other books. It may be described as a
treasury of songs, hymns, and metrical prayers, which embody a variety of
abstruse reflections upon subjects of metaphysical inquiry, and are much
better adapted to stimulate the intellect of the student than to foster
the devotion of the worshipper. They are rhymeless, like the poetical
effusions of Cædmon, and in their metrical structure bear a curious
resemblance to the Vedic hymns. Of these collections, or Gâthas, there are
five, and their leading title seems to be: “The Revealed Thought, the
Revealed Word, and the Revealed Deed of Zarathustra the Holy.” It is added
that the Archangels first sang the Gâthas. Their general purport is an
exposition of the work and teaching of the great founder of Magianism, who
is represented as inveighing against a belief in the _devas_, or gods, and
exhorting his disciples to lift up their hearts only to Ahura-Mazda, the
Supreme Goodness.
Now it seems necessary to correct a popular error, that the Zendavesta is
largely liturgical: an error confirmed by the assertion of Gibbon, who
says: “Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting impression on
the human mind, must exercise our obedience, by enjoining practices of
devotion for which we can assign no reason; and must acquire our esteem by
inculcating moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts. The
religion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former, and
possessed a sufficient portion of the latter.” But Zarathustra himself, in
one of his best-known precepts, warns his followers that “he who sows the
ground with care and diligence, acquires a greater stock of religious
merit than he would gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers.” It is
the tendency of all ethico-religious systems, at least in their earliest
stage of development, to discourage purely liturgical observances, and to
enjoin on the disciple a state of self-concentration and self-absorption
varied only by physical activity. Unaided by a divine Revelation, their
founders never rise higher than the passive virtues of endurance and
patience. As time passes away, and the new creed falls into the hands of a
special school of expounders, minute rites and rigid practices are
accumulated in order to impose upon the neophyte, and deepen the influence
of those who alone possess a clue to their meaning. The formalities which
encumber the Zarathustrian worship were invented long after the death of
the master, and no indication of them appears in the oldest section of
the Zendavesta. They are to be found chiefly in the much later pages of
the _Sadder_, where fifteen different genuflexions and prayers are
required of the devout Persian every time he cuts his finger-nails!
To return to the Yasna. The Gâthas, of which we have been speaking, were
not improbably composed by Zarathustra himself, and may be held to express
his belief and his thoughts in his own words. The second part, or “Younger
Yasna,” is of a much later date and less lofty tone. The invention of some
of the Master’s disciples or priests, it re-establishes the Polytheism
which Zarathustra so strenuously condemned; and furnishes the believer
with a manual of prayers and incantations (in prose) to the genii of the
woods and streams and hills, the powers of fire and earth and water, and
all the invisible spirits which haunt the luminous air.
We come next to the _Visparad_, a collection of prayers in
three-and-twenty chapters, written in Zend, and of a similar tenour to
those in the younger Yasna. These prayers refer to the preparation of the
sacred water, and the consecration of certain offerings--such as the
sacred bread--which are carried round about the sacred fire, and after
having been exhibited to it, are eaten by the priest and by the votary on
whose behalf the ceremony is performed.
The _Yashts_ (Yêsti)--that is, worship by prayers and sacrifices--fall to
be considered in the third place. Of these devotions, which are
consecrated to the praise and worship of one Divine Being, and of a
certain limited group of inferior deities, twenty-four are extant. In
using them the votary endeavours, by a wearisome enumeration of the
glorious achievements of the deity he is addressing, and of the miracles
he has wrought, to induce him to come and enjoy the meal prepared for him,
and then to bestow on his fervid worshipper a blessing not inferior to the
boons bestowed on his children in bygone times. So far as concerns the
legendary history of the ancient Iranians, and in connection with their
belief in the pantheon of Magianism, the Yashts are of great value, and
indeed, from this point of view, are the most precious portion of the
Zendavesta.
While the three parts already described exhibit more or less of a
liturgical character, the fourth division, known as the _Vendidad_, forms
a collection of customs, observances, laws, pains, and penalties, the
growth of a period much later than that of Zarathustra, when Ritual began
its encroachments on Religion. It is the essence of all _genuine_ Ritual
that it should illustrate and explain Doctrine, but this is never found to
be the case in the primitive creeds. In all such it becomes merely the
ingenious invention of a subtle priesthood, by which its members
established their influence over an ignorant community. In the eyes of the
unlearned its complex character invested it with an air of mystery; they
were led to look upon the “form” as of greater importance than the
“spirit,” and to attribute a strange, a wonderful potency to rites and
ceremonies which they could not understand. While it is the special
feature of the faith of CHRIST that it appeals in its sweet simplicity to
every heart, and that it requires of the believer to present himself
before the altar with the innocence and trustfulness of a little child;
that it seeks not to confuse by a multiplicity of minute observances, and
even sums up its leading tenets in two brief and easily intelligible
commandments; Magianism, conscious of its inherent defects, unable to fall
back on the redeeming sacrifice of a SAVIOUR, deficient in any enduring
principle of vitality, sought to build up its structure on a foundation of
ceremonies and formalities. And when it could not feed the soul with the
bread of truth, it dazzled the senses by imposing spectacles, and confused
the imagination with a cumbrous code of the most complicated ritualistic
frivolities; so that the Persian worship, with its incantations and
devices, laid the foundation of the later Magic.
* * * * *
Turning our attention now to that portion of the Zendavesta which is
called the Vendidad, we find that it is divided into twenty-two Fargards,
or chapters.
In the first of these we find an account of the creation by Ahura-Mazda,
of sixteen holy regions, sinless spotless Edens, localities of perfect
bliss; each of which is destroyed in succession by Ahriman, the Spirit of
Evil,--a fable evidently suggested by the Mosaic history of Paradise. The
second treats of a certain king, Yimo Vivaugham, who introduced
agriculture into the land of Iran. The third sets forth the various means
by which Zoma, or the Earth, may be rendered happy. You must beware of
excavating deep holes in it, for through these the _devs_, or demons, pass
to and fro between hell and earth; nor must you bury within it the dead
bodies of men or dogs, or other animals. The fourth chapter enumerates six
categories of crime, and the several punishments connected with them. The
fifth and sixth are occupied with a description of various kinds of
impurity. The seventh and eighth contain liturgical directions in
reference to the disposal of the carcases of men and dogs;[19] and it is
stated that whoever eats of flesh so unclean can never be purified, but
that hell will undoubtedly be his portion. Even the house in which a man
or a dog dies must immediately be purified by the use of incense or
sweet-smelling odours; a sanitary precaution of some importance in hot
climates. In the ninth occurs an elaborate detail of the rite of
purification denominated the _Barathium_, to be performed by, and on
behalf of a person who shall have been unwittingly defiled by touching the
dead. The tenth and eleventh are not less minute in their directions what
word must be repeated twice, and thrice, and four times at the different
Gâthas, in order that Ahriman and his lieutenants may be expelled from men
and women who have been in contact with the dead, and from houses, cities,
and provinces into which they have obtained an entrance.
The twelfth Fargard treats of various funeral ceremonies, and repeats a
number of injunctions relative to the cleansing of places, of clothes and
other articles, polluted by lifeless bodies. It concludes with elaborate
warnings against a two-footed _dev_, called Ashmog. The thirteenth and
fourteenth run riot in praise of the noble qualities of dogs, and severe
in their rebuke of the “superior animals” who ill-use them. The fifteenth
reads like a Commination Service, in its denunciation of certain crimes
which can never be undone even by the profoundest penitential offices, and
are punished by Ahura-Mazda with eternal condemnation. The seventeenth,
like the sixteenth, is tediously liturgical, and discusses such minutiæ as
the arrangement of the hair of the head, the extraction of bad or gray
hairs, and the cutting of nails. If these operations are performed
without certain prescribed ceremonies, the devs come upon earth, and
parasitical organisms are produced to the great discomfort and injury of
man. The eighteenth lays down the distinctions which should characterise
an _Athrava_, or priest. He must wear the _padan_, a mouth-cover, of two
fingers’ breadth; must carry an instrument for disposing of parasitical
insects; devote his nights to study, keep alive the sacred fire, and
succour the distressed. The nineteenth chapter recounts the perils to
which Zarathustra was exposed, when he had left the south on his mission,
from the murderous assaults of Ahriman and his host, who hastened up from
the north; the north, to an inhabitant of the warm sunny south, naturally
appearing the fit home and haunt of the Spirit of Evil. The twentieth is
devoted to the praise of Taneslied, who is represented as having swept
away disease, death, bloodshed, war, evil-doers, falsehood, and all kinds
of wickedness. The twenty-first enjoins the salutations to be paid to the
sacred Bull, and extols some of its illustrious qualities. Finally, the
twenty-second narrates the mission of Zarathustra, and describes the evil
he will dispel through the influence of the Word; Ahura-Mazda having
ordered him to establish his worship in the region called Airya-Mava, or
Irman, so that it may become bright, pure, and happy as the abode of
Ahura-Mazda himself, free from sin, and, consequently, free from sorrow
and suffering.
From this brief summary it will be seen that the religion of the Parsees
in its present form is a definite Dualism, recognizing the existence of
two distinct principles, Good and Evil, impersonated by spirits of equal
power, named Ahura-Mazda, (or Spento-Manyus,) and Ahriman, (or
Angro-Manyus.) But no such doctrine was taught by Zarathustra himself. His
creed, like all the earliest creeds, was purely Monotheistic. He set
before men, as the sole object of their love and adoration, one Supreme
Being, Ahura-Mazda, the great “Life-Giver” or the “Living Wisdom,” as the
name is variously explained. Nor was his conception of this one God
altogether unworthy of the Founder of a Religion. He does not represent
Him, indeed, as the “Father,” loving, sympathetic, compassionate, and so
full of condescension, that He is willing to give His Son to die for the
salvation of erring Humanity; for he did not enjoy that fuller revelation
of the Divine Nature which was vouchsafed to the Hebrew race. But he shows
Him as the “Lord over all lords, the Forgiving, the Omniscient.” He is
ineffably pure, the source of all Truth, the Holy God. In the Khordah
Avesta, Zarathustra is introduced as inquiring: “Tell me the name, O pure
Ahura-Mazda, which is Thy greatest, best, and fairest name?” Ahura-Mazda
replies: “My name is He who may be questioned: the Gatherer of the people:
the Most Pure: He who takes account of the actions of men. My name is God
(Ahura); My name is the Great Wise One (Mazdas.) I am the All-Seeing, the
Desirer of Good for My creatures, He who cannot be deceived: the
Protector: the Tormentor of tormentors: He who smiteth once and only once:
the Creator of All.”
His happiness, like His holiness, is without spot or blemish; every
blessing is His that man can imagine--health and wealth, virtue, wisdom,
prosperity, immortality; and these blessings He is willing to bestow on
His creatures if in thought and word and deed they eschew impurity. But we
nowhere read that He will assist them in the struggle against sin by
creating in them a new heart, or by vouchsafing the grace of His Holy
Spirit. The mystery of the Atonement was beyond the reach of the soul and
intellect even of Zarathustra; and the highest conception of God to which
he could attain was that of a Being of perfect Goodness, sitting enthroned
in a strange awful loneliness, with no other feeling than that of approval
of Good and disapproval of Evil. He is, of course, the supreme type of
Power: all that _is_ flows from Him, as light from the Sun: He creates
both the shadow and the brightness of the human existence, good and ill,
fortune and misfortune. So far above all human intelligence is He placed,
that images of Him are forbidden, though He is understood to be symbolised
by the sun and by fire. He can be served only by prayers and offerings, by
a life of purity and truth, by abstinence from sinful passions, by the
banishment of sinful thoughts. Thus Herodotus says of the Zarathustrians,
that they reject the use of temples, of altars, and of statues. “They
smile,” he says, “at the folly of those nations who imagine that the Gods
are descended from, or have any affinity with, human nature. The loftiest
mountain-tops are the places chosen for their sacrifices. Hymns and
prayers are their principal forms of worship. And the Supreme God, who
fills the vast sphere of Heaven, is the object to whom they are
addressed.”
The service of Ahura-Mazda consisted, then, as we see, in the performance
of good works, in the cultivation of virtue, and in the due offering up of
prayer and praise. It was an intellectual worship that Zarathustra
prescribed; a worship that might assist in the development of a high
morality, but could not inculcate a deep and true religious feeling. Of
contrition for sin, of humbling oneself before God, of self-sacrifice and
self-abnegation, of love, and faith, and hope, the creed of Zarathustra
took no account. And here, as well as elsewhere, we observe its vast
inferiority to the religion of CHRIST. It made no provision for the
awakening and fostering of those tender emotions of profound humility,
thankful adoration, and unutterable gratitude which are awakened in the
Christian’s heart by the name of JESUS. It could never have called forth
such an utterance of the son’s glad submission to the will of the FATHER
as we find, for example, in the ejaculatory verse of Ben Jonson:
“Hear me, O GOD!
A broken heart
Is my best part:
Use still Thy rod,
That I may prove
Therein Thy love.
“If Thou hadst not
Been stern to me,
But left me free,
I had forgot
Myself and Thee.
“For sin’s so sweet,
As minds ill-bent
Rarely repent,
Until they meet
Their punishment.”
Such lines as these indicate a relation between man and his GOD which
could never obtain between the Zarathustrian and his Ahura-Mazda. His was
a cold, unimpassioned, logical creed, warmed by no single heart-throb of
Divine love and mercy; a creed which demanded human worship for a sinless
God, but did not invite human faith in a loving Redeemer; and,
consequently, a creed which left untouched the deepest springs and most
responsive chords of our humanity.
* * * * *
Both the excellencies and the short-comings of Magianism are shown in the
confessions and prayers included in the Zendavesta. For example, there is
much that is elevated and noble in the following, yet its tone is
curiously Pharisaical, and may be contrasted with that of Ben Jonson’s
verses. Instead of being the aspiration of a sinful soul after
forgiveness, and a reaching forth towards love and light, it is the
self-eulogium of a mind confident in its own sustaining power, and to
appreciate its weakness we need only to contrast it with the fervour of a
David or a S. Paul. We remember that the Hebrew king exclaimed: “My heart
panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is
gone from me,” and how the Apostle confessed himself “the chief of
sinners.” With no such aching consciousness of weakness does the
Zarathustrian bow himself before God. There is all the pride of
self-righteousness in his prayer. Thus:
“I remain standing fast in the statutes of the law which Ahura-Mazda gave
to Zarathustra. As long as life endures I will stand fast in good thoughts
in my soul, in good words in my speech, in good deeds in my actions. With
all good am I in harmony, with all evil am I at variance. With the
punishments of the future life I am content. I have taken hold of good
thoughts, words, and works. I have forsaken evil thoughts, words, and
works. May the power of Ahriman be broken! may the reign of Ahura-Mazda
increase!”
And again:
“I am steadfast in this faith, and turn myself not away from it, for the
sake of a happy life, or for the sake of a longer life, nor for power, nor
for a kingdom. If I must give up my body for the sake of my soul, I give
it willingly. I believe firmly in the good Mazda-yusaian faith; in the
Resurrection; in the bridge of souls,[20] in the invariable reward of good
deeds and punishment of bad deeds, in the everlasting continuance of
paradise and the annihilation of hell; and I believe that, at the last,
Ahura-Mazda will be victorious, and Ahrimanes will perish with the Devs,
and all the children of darkness.... I am full of hope that I shall attain
to Paradise and the shining Garathânan, where all majesty dwelleth. I make
this confession in the hope that I may hereafter become more zealous to
accomplish good works and keep myself more from sin; and that my good
deeds may serve for the diminution of evil and the increase of good till
the rising again.”
We know the form of prayer taught us by JESUS CHRIST; how simple it is,
how complete, how absolute in its renunciation of self, how comprehensive
in its charity. “Thy will be done”.... “Forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive them who trespass against us”.... “Lead us not into temptation.”
Such are its leading thoughts: submission before GOD, charity before Man;
both implying and demanding the conquest and humiliation of self. Let us
contrast it with a Zarathustrian prayer:
“In the name of God the Giver and Forgiver, Rich in Love, praise be to
Ahura-Mazda, the God with the name ... ‘Who always was, always is, and
always will be.’... Ahura-Mazda the Wise, the Creator, the Over-seeing
God, pure, good, and just! With all strength bring I thank-offerings and
praise to the Lord, the completer of good works, who made men greater than
all earthly beings, and through the gift of speech created them to rule
over the creatures and to war against the evil spirits. Praise to the
omniscience of God who has sent through the holy Zarathustra power and
knowledge of the law. All good do I accept at Thy command, O God, and
think, speak, and do it. I believe in the pure law, and by every good work
I seek forgiveness for sins. I keep pure the six powers--thought, speech,
act, memory, reason, understanding. According to Thy will am I able to
fulfil (these resolutions.) O Accomplisher of Good, to Thy honour are good
thoughts, good words, and good works. I enter on the shining way to
Paradise. May the terror of hell not overcome me! May I pass the bridge
Chinavat and attain to Paradise, the bright and odoriferous, where are all
joys. Praise to the Lord who awards those who accomplish good deeds
according to His will, who purifies the obedient, and at last purifies the
wicked in hell. All praise be to the Creator, Ahura-Mazda, the All-Wise,
the Mighty, the Rich in Love.”
* * * * *
Prayer, according to Zarathustra, is not the humbling of the soul before
its Creator, not the aspirations of the spirit towards the Source of all
Love and Mercy, not the desire of the creature to be at peace with GOD,
but the renunciation of will,--a noble and worthy aim in itself, but not
fulfilling the Christian idea of prayer. To do good and to shun evil is,
no doubt, the motive of the Christian life; but prayer is something more
and something higher, the sacrifice of an humble and a contrite heart.
“Heaven is the magazine wherein GOD puts
Both good and evil; prayer’s the key that shuts
And opens this great treasure; ’tis a key
Whose wards are Faith, and Hope, and Charity.
Wouldst thou prevent a judgment due to sin?
Turn but the key and thou mayst lock it in.
Or wouldst thou have a blessing fall upon thee!
Open the door and it will shower on thee.”[21]
But no such conception as this is discernible throughout the length and
breadth of the Parsee Scriptures, which here, as elsewhere, and in
relation to other matters, attain a lofty, but not the loftiest, level;
rise above earth, but do not soar to Heaven. They seem instinct with
echoes of the original revelation vouchsafed to man, but those echoes are
faint and imperfect; whereas, in the Hebrew creed, the voices of GOD are
repeated with a fulness and a power which leaves the heart nothing to
desire. In this vast superiority we cannot fail to see a strong and
striking proof of its authenticity. If it be found difficult to account
for the moral excellence and æsthetic beauty of Zarathustrianism without
tracing it back in some indirect way to a Divine origin; how shall we
explain the sublimity and grandeur of the Hebrew Theism, unless we admit
that it is all it professes to be,--is, in very truth, the expression of
the will of the everliving GOD?
We have spoken of Zarathustra’s religion as originally monotheistic; its
purity, however, was not long preserved, and the cause of its corruption
lay in itself. Zarathustra could not deny the existence of Evil, and to
explain it was driven to concoct an extraordinary hypothesis. As in every
electrified object there are two poles, a positive and a negative, so,
according to the Prophet, in Ahura-Mazda, and in all rational beings, man
included, are present a good and holy Will, and its shadow or negative,--a
higher and a lower nature,--the Positive and the Negative Mind. How
Zarathustra reconciled this idea with his conception of Ahura-Mazda, as
Perfect Goodness, we are unable to comprehend. At all events, it contained
the germs of the future Dualism of the Persian religion. The Negative Mind
soon came to be separated from the good and holy Will, and was quickly
personified as an independent evil being, a Power of Night and Darkness,
Ahriman (Angro-Manyus,) equal in might to Ahura-Mazda, and disputing with
him the possession of the world. Thus arose the myth of the constant
struggle between the two powers, as between Day and Night; the servants of
Ahura-Mazda being sent forth to encounter, resist, and overcome the slaves
and works of Ahriman, thereby bringing about the end of all things, when
Ahriman himself should be vanquished and reconciled.
In course of time the difficulties of this dual theory were detected by
acute intellects, and at the Sassanian Revival an attempt was made to
dispose of them by introducing the doctrine of Monotheism under a new
form, that of a Great Primal Cause (Zervana Akarana), the Boundless Time
or Uncreated Whole, such as we trace in the later Greek poetry, and
apparently rather a “metaphysical abstraction,” like the Greek Ἀνάγκη, or
the Roman Nemesis, than “an active and presiding deity.” Thence proceeded
both the Good and the Evil Principles; the two antagonist creators who
balanced against each other in perpetual conflict a race of spiritual and
material beings, light and darkness, good and evil. The wise benevolence
of Ahura-Mazda formed men capable of virtuous impulses, and endowed each
with everything that could contribute to his happiness. He preserved by
his watchful providence the harmonious movements of the planets, and the
temperate combination of the elements. But the malice of Ahriman has long
since pierced Ahura-Mazda’s “egg;” in other words, violated the sweet
accord and bounteous beauty of His works. Since that fatal irruption, the
most minute articles of good and evil are alternately commingled and
agitated together; the most poisonous herbs spring up among the most
wholesome plants; the warfare of deluges, earthquakes, and conflagrations
disturbs the serenity of nature; and humanity is subjected to all the
blighting influences of sin, suffering, and sorrow. While the rest of
mankind were led away captive in the chains of their terrible enemy, the
faithful Persian alone remained constant in his faith in Ahura-Mazda, and
fought under his banner of light, looking forward to a triumphant day when
Good should prevail over all the world.
It seems to us impossible to doubt that, in this later development of the
Zoroastrian faith, its priests and teachers were largely indebted to the
Sacred Writings, though into what they borrowed they introduced much
original and fanciful speculation.
A Parsee, with a firm faith in Ahura-Mazda, and conscious of having obeyed
the law, offered up prayer and praise, and renounced, in intention at
least, evil thoughts and deeds and words, lay down on his death bed in a
certain hope and expectation of the Eternal life. We have seen that the
Zendavesta appointed a variety of penances, by the performance of which
the believer obtained immediate pardon for ordinary transgressions; and
therefore, full of the self-righteousness which his creed was so well
adapted to inculcate, he faced the passage of the Dark River without fear.
He knew not of any need to implore the mercy of a Redeemer, to humble
himself in sackcloth and ashes, to base his hope on the infinite love of
GOD made man, on the glorious sacrifice of the Cross; his soul passed
straight to Paradise, as an arrow flies towards its mark. In the Khordah
Avesta we can follow the stages of its journey:--On the first night after
death the soul dwelt near the head of the inanimate body it had just
deserted, and sat there praying, rejoicing in as much joy as is vouchsafed
to the whole living world. And so did it dwell on the second night,
praying. And so did it dwell on the third night, praying. But when the
third night verged upon dawn, the soul of the pure man went forward. A
wind, sweeter than all other winds, blew to meet it from the south. And in
that wind came to embrace the pilgrim _his own law_, under the figure of a
maiden beautiful and shining, fair as the fairest of created beings. The
pilgrim then took the first step in his celestial progress, and arrived in
the paradise _Hamata_; he took the second, and reached the paradise
_Hûkhta_; he took the third, and arrived at the paradise _Hvarsta_. The
beatified wanderer made yet another step, and gained the presence of the
Eternal Light. There was he addressed by an already beatified soul: “How
art thou, O pure deceased, who hast come from the perishable world hither
to the imperishable?” Ahura-Mazda here interrupted: “Ask him not, for he
has come on the fearful trembling way, the separation of soul and body.
Bring him hither of the food of the full fatness, that is, of the filling
food for those who think, speak, and do good, for the pure after death.”
A recent writer says of this notion of a progressive advance to the
“Eternal Light,” of the welcome received from the blessed, and from the
gentle words of Ahura-Mazda himself; and of the conducting angel who
represents the man’s own earthly faith and life, (like Bunyan’s Mr.
Good-Conscience meeting old Honest beside the River of Death,) “all
these,” he says, “are beautiful thoughts.” Surely fanciful, rather than
beautiful; and better adapted to amuse religious sentimentalists than to
satisfy healthy and earnest believers. The obvious reference to the three
days and nights spent by our LORD “in prison” appears to indicate that
this is a comparatively modern portion of the Zendavesta, founded upon
some vague knowledge of the mystery of the Resurrection.
While the pure soul proceeded, as we have seen, by three stages or
gradations to the Paradise of Light and Sweetness, the evil and unclean
soul, on the other hand, descended, also by three stages, to the terrors
of Douzakh, the dark abode of Ahriman and the Devs. There it suffered
according to its sinfulness until the general day of Resurrection. At that
great epoch these nights of indescribable woe will be undergone by all who
have not expiated their earthly offences; woe so terrible, that the
Blessed, looking down upon it from their celestial battlements, will be
moved to tears of pity. And then the massive mountains and the solid rocks
shall be melted by the heat, and streams of liquid gold shall flow, in
which both the pure and evil shall receive a regenerating bath. Ahriman
and his devs shall share in the universal happiness, and all created life
shall swell the song of praise sent up in honour of Ahura-Mazda.
While we are unable to doubt that in the Zendavesta, as it has come down
to us, may be traced the direct influence of the Hebrew creed, and that
ideas and principles of a still later date were borrowed more or less
closely from Christianity, we can as little doubt that Zarathustrianism
had no inconsiderable effect on the Jewish popular belief. The Jewish
prophets, after the Captivity, would seem to have adopted much of what may
be called their poetic language and machinery from the writings of the
Magian teachers. The Talmud contains unmistakable evidence of its
indebtedness to the same source. The Angelology of the Jewish doctors
originated, probably during the captivity of the Tribes in Babylonia, in
the Magian superstitions; and it was then that the complete angelic
hierarchy was evolved, with its seven great archangels corresponding to
the seven Amchaspands of the Zendavesta. It was then that for the first
time the Jewish popular creed recognised the existence of two antagonistic
hosts of spiritual beings, arrayed against each other in everlasting
battle. Then was developed the fancy of a guardian angel attending every
individual to shelter him from the malignant hostility of his Dev or
demon. So that much of the mythology which Milton employs so effectively
in “Paradise Lost,” having borrowed it from the traditions and legends of
the Hebrew race, came originally from the far East, and was invented by
the followers of Zarathustra. The Miltonic and popular conception of
Satan, so unlike the Biblical representation of the great Destroyer, was
largely coloured from the Magian sketch of Ahriman, the Power of Darkness.
It is certain that the grand and lofty Hebrew revelation of the One GOD
was modified and debased by its contact with the Magian teaching. It has
been well remarked that wherever any approximation had been made to this
sublime truth of the existence of the one great First Cause, either “awful
religious reverence” or “philosophic abstraction” had removed the Creative
Power absolutely out of the range of human sense, and supposed that the
intercourse of the Divinity with man, the moral government, and even the
actual creative work, had been carried on by the intermediate agency of,
in Oriental phrase, an Emanation, or, in Platonic language, of the
“Wisdom,” “Reason,” or “Intelligence” of the Supreme. The Jews, under the
influence of their intercourse with the Persians, adopted that conception,
and, departing from the path laid down for them by Revelation, interposed
one or more intermediate beings as the channels of communication between
GOD and man. The Apostle seizes on the popular fancy, and endeavours to
restore from it the original truth, when he tells his readers that the
“Word” of which they spoke so vaguely and presumptuously was none other
than GOD Himself,--the SON of GOD, but equal with the FATHER,--the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. He showed
them that the mediation between the lofty spiritual nature of GOD and the
intellectual and moral being of Man was not to be accomplished through any
independent agency, but by the revelation of GOD Himself in the person and
presence of His beloved SON. That this, the essential and central truth of
Christianity, was one which the unassisted human intellect could never
have developed we know, from the fact that it is found in no creed of
admittedly human origin, and that it is never clearly set forth even in
any religious system which has borrowed from Christianity.
We can imagine the ability of man to shape out for himself an idea of some
awful Power, some mighty First Cause, which created and ordered the
universe, and controlled and shaped its destinies. Looking around upon
creation, he might, perhaps, without any severe intellectual effort,
attain to the thought of a Creator. This conception once realised, he
might in due time come to believe that the Creator could be pleased or
angered by the doings of His creatures; and that the anger of One so
powerful would be something to dread and avoid. But the idea of this grand
and terrible Creator sending from Heaven His own Son to take upon Himself
humanity, and thereby save the creature from the just wrath it had
provoked, and the dread retribution it had deserved,--an idea, so glorious
and consoling, could never, we believe, have been grasped by the loftiest
human intellect, unless aided by a revelation from above.
The exact relation of Zarathustrianism to Christianity it is somewhat
difficult to define, because a cloud of doubt and uncertainty hangs over
the compilation of the later portions of the Zendavesta. While the great
antiquity of the Gâthas cannot be disputed, while there is clear evidence
that they contain much of the original teaching of Zarathustra,--teaching
nobler and more exalted than that of his followers,--it seems not less
certain that the doctrines of the Resurrection and the Future Life were
borrowed from the Hebrews. What then is left to justify a comparison with
Christianity? The keynote of its scheme is intellectual pride; that of the
Christian religion, spiritual abasement. The former urges on its disciples
the necessity of good thoughts, words, and deeds in order to please
Ahura-Mazda; the latter, as a proof of faith in the mission of its
Founder. The former teaches an excellent code of morals, so far as relates
to the individual; the latter lays down one golden rule, “Do unto others
as thou wouldest they should do unto thee.” The former enforces the law of
self-control; the latter of self-renunciation. It is impossible to pretend
that Magianism shows the same insight into man’s wants, failings,
passions, temptations, as Christianity shows; or provides a system so
capable of adaptation to every age, and rank, and character.
We see no reason to doubt the authenticity and antiquity of the
Zendavesta; but it is somewhat surprising that scholars who make haste to
accept _it_ as genuine, should show so much scepticism in reference to the
Christian Scriptures. Surely, as regards the latter, the evidence of
genuineness is infinitely stronger than as regards the former. We know
that they were implicitly accepted by men who lived almost in the very
time of those who recorded them; on the other hand, of Zarathustra and his
contemporaries or successors we know absolutely nothing. Some authorities
represent him to have flourished as early as 2200 B.C.; others as late as
500 B.C. Some consider him to have been the founder of a dynasty; others
invest him with a supernatural personality. But at the best he remains
_nominis umbra_; as indistinct and shadowy, as in his teaching he is cold
and clear. Of the authenticity of his writings the principal proofs are
those derivable from the writings themselves. But if we allow that such
proofs are admissible, what shall we say of those to be found in the
Gospels and Epistles? As their morality is so much more elevated than that
of the Zendavesta, so is the certainty of their Divine origin infinitely
more assured. The class of testimony which asserts the authenticity of the
one not less convincingly affirms the genuineness of the other. And if the
Gospels are all that they purport to be, how can we avoid the conclusion
that they are truthful also in the witness they bear to the life and
character of CHRIST?
We may point to a remarkable contrast between Magianism and
Christianity,--that the former has undergone an almost complete revolution
of meaning and doctrine, while, in spite of sectarian glosses, the latter
remains virtually unaltered. The faith once for all delivered to the
saints is held by believers to-day in all its original purity. We repeat
the Creed just as it fell from the rapt lips of martyrs, saints and
confessors. But the monotheism of Zarathustra has been broken up into a
curious Dualism; and upon the religious system of the Gâthas has been
accumulated such a burden of ritual, of novel teaching, of borrowed
dogmas, and alien mysteries, that the acutest students are almost baffled
in their endeavours to distinguish the false from the true, and the new
from the old. It is almost impossible to determine what belongs to the
Zarathustrian original, and what to perversions or adaptations from the
Jewish Scriptures.
It is an indisputable testimony to the living force and divine genius of
Christianity, that it occupies a void which no one of the primitive
religions has ever been able to fill. We find it difficult to conceive
that any man who has once been a Christian could voluntarily embrace
Zarathustrianism or Buddhism, and attempt to satisfy his soul with it, any
more than with the philosophy of the Stoics. We are tempted to ask,
indeed, whether either could at any time have satisfied the cravings of
humanity. We know that all their ethical schemes could not lift the sages
of Greece and Rome out of the deep, the intense sadness which possessed
them, nor respond to their yearnings after a something they could neither
describe nor define. Their state of thought and feeling has been expressed
by a modern poet, Matthew Arnold, with what seems to us a wonderful
fidelity:--
“Nor only in the intent
To attach blame elsewhere,
Do we at will invent
Stern powers who make their care
To embitter human life, malignant deities.
“But next, we would reverse
The scheme ourselves have spun,
And what we made to curse
We now would lean upon,
And feign kind gods who perfect what man vainly tries....
“We pause, we hush our heart,
And then address the gods:
‘The world hath failed to impart
The joy our youth forebodes,
Failed to fill up the void which in our breasts we bear!’”
Their principles of thought were pure, but they felt that there existed a
purity which was beyond their reach; their standard of conduct was high,
but they were inwardly conscious that it ought to be higher. On that
golden “ladder of sunbeams” which rises from earth to the angel-guarded
battlements of heaven, they had ascended a few timid steps, but above and
beyond they could see a glory to which it was not given them to rise.
Hence it has often been said, and justly, that the men were greater than
their system; and such, so far as Magianism was concerned, may well have
been the case with the loftier minds of Bactria and Persia. But it can
never be pretended that the Christian is greater than Christianity. Let
him be ever so holy in his living, ever so exalted in his aspirations, he
will not seek for something _beyond_ and _out of_ Christianity, because he
feels and knows that he cannot exhaust all its capabilities; that it soars
far higher than he can ever soar. It has truths which the profoundest
psychologist cannot fathom; it opens up visions which the boldest
imagination cannot comprehend; it contains a wealth of emotion and
sympathy which the most passionate soul can never exhaust. After we have
said and done all we can, after we have mastered all that has been said
and done by other men, we still find in the life and character of CHRIST
that which may well engage, and yet never weary our attention. And here we
touch upon a feature which no human system of religion or morality has
ever matched. Strip the Zendavesta, if you will, of all its later and less
worthy adjuncts, and yet it cannot, any more than the Rig-Veda, present us
with the divine beauty of the Man of Sorrows. But this it is which fills,
soothes, blesses, inspires the aching, restless, craving human heart. When
it can no longer satisfy itself with the cold moralities of philosophy,
when it pines for a deeper and a warmer life, when it is weary with
problems which it cannot solve, and disappointed in hopes which it has
seen fade away like dreams of the night, it turns to the Cross and is
comforted. The mysteries which perplexed it vanish in the light that
emanates from the Divine history of the SON of GOD. The awe with which it
regards the passionless abstraction of a great First Cause, a supreme
entity of Power and Wisdom without Love, passes into reverent admiration
and joyous thanksgiving when it looks up into the face of the Good
Shepherd, and reposes in the shadow of the Vine, and learns how that He
Who was with the FATHER before the beginning, has suffered even as we
suffer, has borne the heavy burden of the flesh even as we have borne it,
and now sits on the right hand of GOD,--not an idea, not a principle, not
a Spirit, but a PERSON, bidding all who believe to come unto Him and be at
rest.
This, indeed, is the cardinal merit of Christianity,--it has given us
CHRIST.
GOD forbid that we should deny a certain value even to the “unconscious
prophecies of heathendom,” or refuse to see something of the spirit of
CHRIST in the teaching of the ancient sages and philosophers; but when an
attempt is made to raise Magianism to an equal rank with Christianity, and
the cold intellectual utterances of the Zendavesta to rank with the
living voices of Holy Writ, it is essential to point out how vast, how
impassable is the gulf between them; how little Magianism did or could do
to elevate man’s spiritual nature; and how largely Christianity surpasses
it, in and through the manifestation of the Divine love in the mystery of
GOD made Man.