Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/872

Rh 822 ZOROASTER conception of asura goes down ; it becomes unmodern, obsolete, and acquires an undesirable flavour. The asuras thus come to form a distinct group of celestial beings men tioned along with the devas (A.- V., 10, 10, 26) : they become in rank inferior to the devas (A.- V., 6, 86, 3) and receive the designation of asurd adevds asuras that are no devas ; and from this it is but a short step to the &quot; asuras that are opposed to the gods.&quot; The old contrast between asura and deva was wrought out and accentuated quite differently on Iranian soil. While in India the entire revolution took place in a blood less manner wholly within the realm of ideas, the old antithesis led to an open quarrel among the Aryans of Iran. In the background of the picture of Zoroaster s times set before us in the Gathas we see the people divided between two opposing and hostile cults, the watchwords of which are a/iurci on the one hand and daeva on the other. How it is that matters had come to this pass remains obscure, for we have no source of information to take us further back. The opposing parties are not separated by distance in space or by differing nationality, but occur side by side. &quot;Hard by the believer in ahura dwells the worshipper of the daevas&quot; complains Zoroaster. The en tire people seems broken up by the religious difference. It is difficult to focus the scattered references in the Gathas so as to obtain a clear picture of the time. Only this much is clear, that in Zoroaster s day not two cults only but two stages of culture are struggling for the mastery. The ahura worshippers represent the higher phase ; they are breeders of cattle, and the care of the cow is to them a sacred duty. The worshippers of the daevas maltreat the animal and slaughter it in their sacrifices. We perceive that the higher ethical tendency of the old asura faith is producing its effects in the higher degree of culture of the believers in Ahura, while the worshippers of the daevas stand on a lower grade. It is to this period of religious ferment that Zoroaster s appearance on the scene belongs. It is not he who has evoked this religious conflict of parties, as the common assumption is, and just as little is it he who in Ahura with the epithet of Mazdao offers a new god to his people. He strikes decisively into the existing struggle, mounts to the position of spiritual leader of the ahura party and makes the battle a victory. As zaotd (Indian hotd), for so he calls himself, the first in rank of the old Aryan priests, he had all the greater opportunity to make his views known in matters of religion. Mankind had been brought face to face with a critical choice, that of electing between two radically opposed confessions of faith, without having any clearness as to the lasting consequences of the momentous step. He determines to save them, to lead them to a right choice, for he sees further than they, and believes himself to be initiated into the secrets of the god head and of the life to come. What the other party worship as gods under the name of daeva are in reality powers by whom unwitting mankind are led to their destruction, evil powers, false gods, devils. Such is the position from which all his teaching starts ; and thus the change in the conception of daeva was a natural develop ment. From the daevas proceeds all the evil in the world. But his speculation does not stop here. The daevas them selves anon become manifest to him as being but the instru ments of a higher principle, called by him for the most part Druj (falsehood, deception), and more rarely Angro Mainyush, that is the spirit enemy, Ahriman. This Ahri- man or evil principle is the most characteristic product of Zoroastrian speculation. From the schism or religious dualism of his time he derived the idea of that dualistic scheme of the universe which has impressed its character upon the whole of the religion called by his name. ZOROASTRIAN DOCTRINE. The fundamental idea of the Zoroastrian creed is dualistic. At the beginning of things there existed two spirits Ahuro Mazdao (Ormuzd) and Angro Mainyush (Ahriman) who represented good and evil ( Yasna, 30, 3). The existence of evil in the world is thus presupposed from all eternity. Both spirits possess creative power, which manifests itself in the one positively and in the other nega tively. Ormuzd is light and life and all that is pure and good, in the ethical world law, order, and truth ; his antithesis is dark ness, filth, death, all that is evil in the world, lawlessness, and lies. When the two are spoken of as yema (&quot;a pair&quot;), this is not to he interpreted as meaning that they are twins : l it simply denotes a duality, an opposed couple, a dvandva. The two spirits had until then counterbalanced one another. The ultimate triumph of the good spirit is an ethical demand of the religious consciousness and the quintessence of Zoroaster s revelation. The evil spirit with his wicked hosts appears in the Gathas much less endowed with the attributes of personality than does Ahura Mazda. Within the world of the good Ormuzd is Lord and God alone. In this sense Zoroastrianism is often referred to as the faith of Ormuzd or as Mazdaism. Ormuzd in his exalted majesty is the ideal figure of an Oriental king. Of other gods beside him the doctrine of the Gathas knows nothing. The natural and symbolical gods of the popular belief have no place in it. Yet Ormuzd is not alone in his doings and conflicts, but has in con junction with himself a number of genii for the most part per sonifications of ethical ideas. These are his creatures, his instru ments, servants, and assistants, like the ministers of an autocratic sovereign. They are comprehended under the general name of ameshd spcnta (&quot; immortal holy ones &quot;) and are the prototypes of the seven amshaspands of a later date! These are (1) Ashem, afterwards Ashem Vahishtem (Plutarch s dX^eia), corresponding to all that is true, good, and right, ideas practically identical for Zoroaster, and the embodiment of all that is true, good, and right, upright law and rule ; (2) Vohu Man 6 (ei&amp;gt;Voia), good sense, i.e., the good principle, the idea of the good, the principle that works in man inclining him to what is good ; (3) Khshathrem, afterwards Khshathrem Yairim (eui&amp;gt;ofj.ia), the power and kingdom of Ormuzd, which have subsisted from the first but not in integral completeness, the evil having crept in like the tares among the wheat : the time is yet to come when it shall be fully manifested in all its unclouded majesty ; (4) Armaiti (ao&amp;lt;pia), or the spirit of docility and obedience, spoken of as daughter of Ormuzd and regarded as having her abode upon the earth ; (5) Haurvatat (TrXoOros), perfection; (6) Ameretatat, immortality. Other ministering angels are Geush Tashan (&quot;the creator of the cow&quot;), Geush Urvan ( the genius and defender of animals&quot;), and the holy spirit of Ormuzd, often thought of as having personal existence. Of the elements fire alone ( &quot; the son of Ahura Mazda &quot;) receives personification and figures as his ally. As soon as the two at first absolutely separate spirits (comp. Bundahish, 1, 4) encounter one another, their creative activity and at the same time their permanent conflict begin. The history of this conflict is the history of the world. A great cleft runs right through the world : all creation divides itself into that which is Ahura s and that which is Ahriman s. Not that the two spirits carry on the struggle in person ; they leave it to be fought out by their respective creations and creatures which they send into the field. The field of battle is the present world. In the centre of battle is man ; his soul is the object of the war. Man is a creation of Ormuzd, who therefore has the right to call him to account. But Ormuzd created him free in his determina tions and in his actions, wherefore he is accessible to the influences of the evil powers. This freedom of the will is clearly expressed in Yasnn, 31, 11 :&quot; Since thou, Mazda, didst at the first create our being and our souls in accordance with thy mind, and didst create our understanding and our life together with the body, and works and words i:i which man according to his own will can frame his confession, the liar and the truth-speaker alike lay hold of the word, the knowing and the ignorant each after his own heart and under standing. Armaiti searches, following thy spirit, where errors are found.&quot; Man takes part in this conflict by all his life and activity in the world. By a true confession of faith, by every good deed, by continually keeping pure his body and his soul, he impairs the power of Satan and strengthens the might of goodness, and estab lishes a claim for reward upon Ormuzd ; by a false confession, by every evil deed and defilement, he increases the evil and renders service to Satan. The life of man falls into two parts, its earthly portion and that which is lived beyond the grave. The lot assigned to him after death is the result and consequence of his life upon earth. Xo religion has so clearly grasped the ideas of guilt and of merit. On the works of men here below a strict reckoning will be held in 1 Later sects sought to rise from the dualism to a higher unity. Thus the Zarvanites represented Ormuzd and Ahriman as twin sons proceeding from the fundamental principle of all, Zrvana Akarana, or limitless time.