AHRIMAN: THE DIVINE DEVIL.
Mr. Irving's impersonation of Superstition--Revolution against
pious privilege--Doctrine of 'merits'--Saintly immorality in
India--A Pantheon turned Inferno--Zendavesta on Good and Evil--
Parsî Mythology--The Combat of Ahriman with Ormuzd--Optimism--
Parsî Eschatology--Final Restoration of Ahriman.
Any one who has witnessed Mr. Henry Irving's scholarly and masterly
impersonation of the character of Louis XI. has had an opportunity of
recognising a phase of superstition which happily it were now difficult
to find off the stage. Nothing could exceed the fine realism with
which that artist brought before the spectator the perfected type of a
pretended religion from which all moral features have been eliminated
by such slow processes that the final success is unconsciously reached,
and the horrible result appears unchecked by even any affectation
of actual virtue. We see the king at sound of a bell pausing in his
instructions for a treacherous assassination to mumble his prayers,
and then instantly reverting to the villany over whose prospective
success he gloats. In the secrecy of his chamber no mask falls, for
there is no mask; the face of superstition and vice on which we look
is the real face which the ages of fanaticism have transmitted to him.
Such a face has oftener been that of a nation than that of an
individual, for the healthy forces of life work amid the homes
and hearts of mankind long before their theories are reached and
influenced. Such a face it was against which the moral insurrection
which bears the name of Zoroaster arose, seeing it as physiognomy of
the Evil Mind, naming it Ahriman, and, in the name of the conscience,
aiming at it the blow which is still felt across the centuries.
Ingenious theorists have accounted for the Iranian philosophy of
a universal war between Ormuzd (Ahuramazda) the Good, and Ahriman
(Angromainyus) the Evil, by vast and terrible climatic changes,
involving extremes of heat and cold, of which geologists find traces
about Old Iran, from which a colony of Aryans migrated to New Iran,
or Persia. But although physical conditions of this character may have
supplied many of the metaphors in which the conflict between Good and
Evil is described in the Avesta, there are other characteristics of
that ancient scripture which render it more probable that the early
colonisation of Persia was, like that of New England, the result of a
religious struggle. Some of the gods most adored in India reappear as
execrated demons in the religion of Zoroaster; the Hindu word for god
is the Parsî word for devil. These antagonisms are not merely verbal;
they are accompanied in the Avesta with the most furious denunciations
of theological opponents, whom it is not difficult to identify with
the priests and adherents of the Brahman religion.
The spirit of the early scriptures of India leaves no room for
doubt as to the point at which this revolution began. It was against
pious Privilege. The saintly hierarchy of India were a caste quite
irresponsible to moral laws. The ancient gods, vague names for the
powers of nature, were strictly limited in their dispensations to
those of their priests; [13] and as to these priests the chief
necessities were ample offerings, sacrifices, and fulfilment of
the ceremonial ordinances in which their authority was organised,
these were the performances rewarded by a reciprocal recognition of
authority. To the image of this political régime, theology, always
facile, accommodated the regulations of the gods. The moral law can
only live by being supreme; and as it was not supreme in the Hindu
pantheon, it died out of it. The doctrine of 'merits,' invented by
priests purely for their own power, included nothing meritorious,
humanly considered; the merits consisted of costly sacrifices,
rich offerings to temples, tremendous penances for fictitious sins,
ingeniously devised to aggrandise the penances which disguised power,
and prolonged austerities that might be comfortably commuted by the
wealthy. When this doctrine had obtained general adherence, and was
represented by a terrestrial government corresponding to it, the
gods were necessarily subject to it. That were only to say that the
powers of nature were obedient to the 'merits' of privileged saints;
and from this it is an obvious inference that they are relieved from
moral laws binding on the vulgar.
The legends which represent this phase of priestly dominion are
curiously mixed. It would appear that under the doctrine of 'merits'
the old gods declined. Such appears to be the intimation of the
stories which report the distress of the gods through the power
of human saints. The Rajah Ravana acquired such power that he was
said to have arrested the sun and moon, and so oppressed the gods
that they temporarily transformed themselves to monkeys in order
to destroy him. Though Viswámitra murders a saint, his merits are
such that the gods are in great alarm lest they become his menials;
and the completeness, with which moral considerations are left out
of the struggle on both sides is disclosed in the item that the gods
commissioned a nymph to seduce the saintly murderer, and so reduce a
little the force of his austerities. It will be remembered that the
ancient struggle of the Devas and Asuras was not owing to any moral
differences, but to an alleged unfair distribution of the ambrosia
produced by their joint labours in churning the ocean. The fact that
the gods cheated the demons on that occasion was never supposed to
affect the supremacy they acquired by the treachery; and it could,
therefore, cause no scandal when later legends reported that the demons
were occasionally able to take gods captive by the practice of these
wonderful 'merits' which were so independent of morals. One Asura
is said to have gained such power in this way that he subjugated the
gods, and so punished them that Siva, who had originally endowed that
demon, called into being Scanda, a war-god, to defend the tortured
deities. The most ludicrous part of all is that the gods themselves
were gradually reduced to the necessity of competing like others for
these tremendous powers; thus the Bhagavat Purana states that Brahma
was enabled to create the universe by previously undergoing penance
for sixteen thousand years.
The legends just referred to are puranic, and consequently of much
later date than the revolution traceable in the Iranian religion;
but these later legends are normal growths from vedic roots. These
were the principles of ancient theology, and the foundation of
priestly government. In view of them we need not wonder that Hindu
theology devised no special devil; almost any of its gods might
answer the purposes of one. Nor need we be surprised that it had no
particular hell; any society organised by the sanctions of religion,
but irresponsible to its moral laws, would render it unnecessary to
look far for a hell.
From this cosmological chaos the more intelligent Hindus were of
course liberated; but the degree to which the fearful training had
corrupted the moral tissues of those who had been subjected to it
was revealed in the bald principle of their philosophers, that the
superstition must continue to be imposed on the vulgar, whilst the
learned might turn all the gods into a scientific terminology.
The first clear and truthful eye that touched that system would
transform it from a Heaven to an Inferno. So was it changed under
the eye of Zoroaster. That ancient pantheon which had become a refuge
for all the lies of the known world; whose gods were liars and their
supporters liars; was now turned into a realm of organised disorder, of
systematised wrong; a vast creation of wickedness, at whose centre sat
its creator and inspirer, the immoral god, the divine devil--Ahriman.
It is indeed impossible to ascertain how far the revolt against the old
Brahmanic system was political. It is, of course, highly improbable
that any merely speculative system would excite a revolution; but at
the same time it must be remembered that, in early days, an importance
was generally attached to even abstract opinions such as we still
find among the superstitious who regard an atheistic sentiment as
worse than a theft. However this may have been, the Avesta does
not leave us in any doubt as to the main fact,--namely, that at a
certain time and place man came to a point where he had to confront
antagonism to fundamental moral principles, and that he found the
so-called gods against him. In the establishment of those principles
priests recognised their own disestablishment. What those moral laws
that had become necessary to society were is also made clear. 'We
worship the Pure, the Lord of Purity!' 'We honour the good spirit,
the good kingdom, the good law,--all that is good.' 'Evil doctrine
shall not again destroy the world.' 'Good is the thought, good the
word, good the deed, of the pure Zarathustra.' 'In the beginning
the two heavenly Ones spoke--the Good to the Evil--thus: Our souls,
doctrines, words, works, do not unite together.' These sentences are
from the oldest Gâthâs of the Avesta.
The following is a very ancient Gâthâ:--'All your Devas (Hindu 'gods')
are only manifold children of the Evil Mind, and the great One who
worships the Saoma of lies and deceits; besides the treacherous acts
for which you are notorious in the Seven Regions of the earth. You have
invented all the evil that men speak and do, which is indeed pleasant
to the Devas, and is devoid of all goodness, and therefore perishes
before the insight of the truth of the wise. Thus you defraud men of
their good minds and of their immortality by your evil minds--as well
by those of the Devas as through that of the Evil Spirit--through
evil deeds and evil words, whereby the power of liars grows.
'1. Come near, and listen to the wise sayings of the omniscient,
the songs in praise of the Living One, and the prayers of the Good
Spirit, the glorious truths whose origin is seen in the flames.
'2. Listen, therefore, to the Earth spirit--Look at the flames with
reverent mind. Every one, man and woman, is to be distinguished
according to his belief. Ye ancient Powers, watch and be with us!
'3. From the beginning there were two Spirits, each active in
itself. They are the good and the bad in thought, word, and
deed. Choose ye between them: do good, not evil!
'4. And these two Spirits meet and create the first existence,
the earthy, that which is and that which is not, and the last,
the spiritual. The worst existence is for the liars, the best for
the truthful.
'5. Of these two spirits choose ye one, either the lying, the worker
of Evil, or the true holiest spirit. Whoso chooses the first chooses
the hardest fate; whoso the last, honours Ahuramazda in faith and in
truth by his deeds.
'6. Ye cannot serve both of these two. An evil spirit whom we will
destroy surprises those who deliberate, saying, Choose the Evil
Mind! Then do those spirits gather in troops to attack the two lives
of which the prophets prophesy.
'7. And to this earthly life came Armaiti with earthly power to help
the truth, and the good disposition: she, the Eternal, created the
material world, but the Spirit is with thee, O Wise One! the first
of creations in time.
'8. When any evil falls upon the spirit, thou, O Wise One, givest
temporal possessions and a good disposition; but him whose promises
are lies, and not truth, thou punishest.'
Around the hymns of the Avesta gradually grew a theology and a
mythology which were destined to exert a powerful influence on
the world. These are contained in the Bundehesch. [14] Anterior to
all things and all beings was Zeruane-Akrene ('Boundless Time'), so
exalted that he can only be worshipped in silence. From him emanated
two Ferouers, spiritual types, which took form in two beings, Ormuzd
and Ahriman. These were equally pure; but Ahriman became jealous of his
first-born brother, Ormuzd. To punish Ahriman for his evil feeling, the
Supreme Being condemned him to 12,000 years' imprisonment in an empire
of rayless Darkness. During that period must rage the conflict between
Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. As Ormuzd had his pre-existing type
or Ferouer, so by a similar power--much the same as the Platonic Logos
or Word--he created the pure or spiritual world, by means of which the
empire of Ahriman should be overthrown. On the earth (still spiritual)
he raised the exceeding high mountain Albordj, Elburz (snow mountain),
[15] on whose summit he fixed his throne; whence he stretched the
bridge Chinevat, which, passing directly over Duzhak, the abyss of
Ahriman (or hell), reaches to the portal of Gorodman, or heaven. All
this was but a Ferouer world--a prototype of the material world. In
anticipation of its incorporation in a material creation, Ormuzd
(by emanations) created in his own image six Amshaspands, or agents,
of both sexes, to be models of perfection to lower spirits--and to
mankind, when they should be created--and offer up their prayers to
himself. The second series of emanations were the Izeds, benevolent
genii and guardians of the world, twenty-eight in number, of whom the
chief is Mithras, the Mediator. The third series of emanations were the
innumerable Ferouers of things and men--for each must have its soul,
which shall purify them in the day of resurrection. In antagonism to
all these, Ahriman produced an exactly similar host of dark and evil
powers. These Devas rise, rank on rank, to their Arch-Devs--each
of whom is chained to his planet--and their head is Ash-Mogh, the
'two-footed serpent of lies,' who seems to correspond to Mithras,
the divine Mediator.
After a reign of 3000 years Ormuzd entered on the work of realising
his spiritual emanations in a material universe. He formed the sun
as commander-in-chief, the moon as his lieutenant, the planets as
captains of a great host--the stars--who were soldiers in his war
against Ahriman. The dog Sirius he set to watch at the bridge Chinevat
(the Milky Way), lest thereby Ahriman should scale the heavens. Ormuzd
then created earth and water, which Ahriman did not try to prevent,
knowing that darkness was inherent in these. But he struck a blow
when life was produced. This was in form of a Bull, and Ahriman
entered it and it perished; but on its destruction there came out
of its left shoulder the seed of all clean and gentle animals, and,
out of its right shoulder--Man.
Ahriman had matched every creation thus far; but to make man was
beyond his power, and he had no recourse but to destroy him. However,
when the original man was destroyed, there sprang from his body a tree
which bore the first human pair, whom Ahriman, however, corrupted in
the manner elsewhere described.
It is a very notable characteristic of this Iranian theology, that
although the forces of good and evil are co-extensive and formally
balanced, in potency they are not quite equal. The balance of force
is just a little on the side of the Good Spirit. And this advantage
appears in man. Zoroaster said, 'No earthly man with a hundredfold
strength does so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength does good;'
and this thought reappears in the Parsî belief that the one part
of paradisiac purity, which man retained after his fall, balances
the ninety-nine parts won by Ahriman, and in the end will redeem
him. For this one divine ray preserved enables him to receive and
obey the Avesta, and to climb to heaven by the stairway of three
vast steps--pure thought, pure word, pure deed. The optimistic
essence of the mythology is further shown in the belief that every
destructive effort of Ahriman resulted in a larger benefit than Ormuzd
had created. The Bull (Life) destroyed, man and animal sprang into
being; the man destroyed, man and woman appeared. And so on to the
end. In the last quarter of the 12,000 years for which Ahriman was
condemned, he rises to greater power even than Ormuzd, and finally
he will, by a fiery comet, set the visible universe in conflagration;
but while this scheme is waxing to consummation Ormuzd will send his
holy Prophet Sosioch, who will convert mankind to the true law, [16]
so that when Ahriman's comet consumes the earth he will really be
purifying it. Through the vast stream of melted metals and minerals
the righteous shall pass, and to them it will be as a bath of warm
milk: the wicked in attempting to pass shall be swept into the abyss
of Duzhak; having then suffered three days and nights, they shall be
raised by Ormuzd refined and purified. Duzhak itself shall be purified
by this fire, and last of all Ahriman himself shall ascend to his
original purity and happiness. Then from the ashes of the former
world shall bloom a paradise that shall remain for ever.
In this system it is notable that we find the monster serpent
of vedic mythology, Ahi, transformed into an infernal region,
Duzhak. The dragon, being a type of physical suffering, passes away
in Iranian as in the later Semitic mythology before the new form,
which represents the stings of conscience though it may be beneath
external pleasure. In this respect, therefore, Ahriman fulfils the
definition of a devil already given. In the Avesta he fulfils also
another condition essential to a devil, the love of evil in and for
itself. But in the later theology it will be observed that evil
in Ahriman is not organic. The war being over and its fury past,
the hostile chief is seen not so black as he had been painted;
the belief obtains that he does not actually love darkness and
evil. He was thrust into them as a punishment for his jealousy,
pride, and destructive ambition. And because that dark kingdom was a
punishment--therefore not congenial--it was at length (the danger past)
held to be disciplinary. Growing faith in the real supremacy of Good
discovers the immoral god to be an exaggerated anthropomorphic egoist;
this divine devil is a self-centred potentate who had attempted to
subordinate moral law and human welfare to his personal ascendancy. His
fate having sealed the sentence on all ambitions of that character,
humanity is able to pardon the individual offender, and find a hope
that Ahriman, having learned that no real satisfaction for a divine
nature can be found in mere power detached from rectitude, will join
in the harmony of love and loyalty at last.