Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/91

Rh Khshathra he apportions the destinies unto the good and the evil according to their deserts. The pious yearn for the presence of Ahura Mazda with Vohu Manah, Asha, and Khshathra when they enter the paradisaical Abode of Song. Ahura Mazda will come at the final goal accompanied by his Holy Spirit, Vohu Manah, Asha, Khshathra, and Armaiti. With evil eradicated and imperfection at an end, the world that will emerge on the occasion of the establishment of the Divine Kingdom will be altogether a new world, a perfect world.

Khshathra's sphere over metals. Ahura Mazda has created the earth rich in soil and has filled its bowels with untold mineral wealth and has desired that mankind should thrive and prosper through the riches obtained by their diligence and labour. Wealth is the natural concomitant of all earthly kingdoms. All earthly and spiritual riches therefore are embodied in Khshathra. The later Avestan texts assign the guardianship of metals, the visible token of wealth, to Khshathra. The Gathas are silent over the connection of Khshathra with metals. The ordeal of molten metal does however play a prominent part in cleansing the world of all moral impurities to make way for the coming of Khshathra's Kingdom. Ahura Mazda knows best the retributions that will take place through the molten metal. The righteous will reap their final reward and the wicked will meet with their retribution when Ahura Mazda will judge them through the molten metal.

The feminine abstraction of Ahura Mazda's devotion. Armaiti is cognate with Vedic Aramati, who is a shadowy personification of piety or devotion. She retains the same meaning in the Gathas and is emblematic of Ahura Mazda's love or devotion. Ahura Mazda created her, and she is lovingly called his daughter, or again, his own. Holy or spenta, which is her standing epithet in the later period, is applied to her sometimes in the Gathas.

Zarathushtra's soul is wedded to Ahura Mazda through Armaiti's devotion. Through fervent meditation on his own