History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 28

by Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla

 

CHAPTER XXVIII

 

DEATH AND BEYOND

 

The theory of rebirth and the binding nature of Karma become axiomatic truths in India. According to the Indo-Iranians and their Aryan descendants of the early Vedic period man came but once to this world. This one life of man received its completion after death in the next world. The earthly life was one of probation. The harvest of the seeds of the good or evil deeds that man sowed in this world was to be reaped in the other world. This view of the future life of man was already undergoing a change in India during the later part of the Vedic period. The belief grew that the ideal of life cannot be realized within the limits of a single life upon earth. A long series of lives were required before the soul can purify itself of its impurities and win emancipation. By the sixth century b.c. the theory of the cycle of rebirths had become the universally acknowledged theory in India. Man may reap reward and retribution according to his desert for a temporary period in the next world, but he had to return to this world to enjoy or expiate the consequences of his good or evil deeds that he committed in his past life. Life is living out actions or Karma in a round of rebirth. To the philosophers of this period, this world is no longer what it used to be for the early Vedic seers, the abode of joy and hope. Not only is this world, in their view, transitory, its happiness illusive, its hopes hollow, but it is positively woeful. In such a world of sorrow and suffering man is condemned to sojourn. Periodical life in heaven for a pious man between his death and rebirth is no recompense owing to his impending life upon earth. Higher than heaven and greater than virtue's reward is beyond heaven. The goal of life is the final deliverance from the round of rebirth, the liberation of the soul from the bondage of the ever recurring life so that it may rest in the transcendent peace in Brahma. The one task of religion and philosophy, therefore, is to teach the way of emancipation to the weary wayfarer from the inexorable necessity of treading the rough and rugged path of the world of woe tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of times.

Life is bondage. The bonds that bind the soul to the world and prolong and postpone the period of its liberation are actions. The actions are fetters that bind the soul to the wheel of rebirths. The individual who goes to heaven or hell after death experiences reward or retribution according to his desert. But after a life of many a summer in the world beyond the grave, when the merit or demerit of his good or bad actions is exhausted, he will have to descend upon the earth to work out his destiny according to the residue of the actions of his past earthly life. Thus will he be compelled to descend upon the earth time and time again until, freed from all attachments of actions, he wins emancipation.

As the source of man's actions is desire, it is desire that keeps the soul rooted to this world. Deliverance of the soul depends then upon the cessation of desire. But desire is inseparable from life. It is the very seed of all existence. It is said that when there was no existence and no death and Brahma alone breathed calmly, desire arose in him and the creation came into being as its consequence.

Yajnavalkya says that man is altogether desire. Karma results from desire and determines the time of the deliverance of the soul. Desire, moreover, generates desire. Like fire, says Manu, that grows stronger when fed with clarified butter, does the enjoyment of what man desires, creates in him cravings for still more. Man desires health and offspring, riches and glory, and a hundred good things of this life and in addition prays for heavenly bliss when he goes to his final reckoning. Between the dawn and dusk man performs many actions, good or bad. But even when they are all good, they are prompted by desire for profit and power, name and fame, health and happiness, or for the acquisition of some earthly good. This attachment, craving, hope, and love for the prize of actions forge fetters round the human ego and indefinitely postpone the period of its liberation.

According to the Upanishads, the individual ego takes up one body and drops it at death and thus the ego that goes the round of births is identical. With Buddha it is not the same ego for the ego as such does not exist. There is no eternal soul or spirit of the individual. Karma alone survives the death of man. Rebirth is the corollary of Karma. Man is the child of Karma, for Karma transmigrates and makes man in its own image. From life to life Karma returns to the earth in the midst of the environment it has merited, now reaping the harvest and now sowing new crops, now treading its steps upward the spiral ascent and now sliding backward, now unburdening itself of its accummulated consequences and now encumbering itself with fresh attachments. Karma, thus, makes and moulds itself ever anew in every life from day to day and year to year, until the time that it has no harvest to reap and becomes devoid of desire and deeds, so that it wins liberation in Nirvana of peaceful repose. Life is a little link in the long chain of limitless lives. Salvation lies not in the escape from hell but from the whirlings of the wheel of life. What is feared is the new birth, for it brings its accompanying sorrows and sufferings. Life is a wayside inn where the wayfarer halts for some time while upon his protracted pilgrimage to Nirvana or the end of his earthly existence.

Jainism likewise teaches that Karma or actions elongate the chain of rebirths. The ideal of life, therefore, is to divest oneself of Karma. Actions should be performed without passion or attachment. Karma, thus born, lives but a momentary life and dies. The sooner is the Karma extinguished, the quicker follows the liberation from the trammels of existence. It is the life of renunciation accompanied by bodily mortification that enables man to free himself speedily from Karma. The soul that wins liberation lives its individual life of peace and rest in heaven for ever.

In common with the various schools of philosophy current at the time, the Gita propounds the theories of rebirth and Karma. Krishna undertakes to teach how one has to perform actions and yet to save oneself from falling into their imprisoning fetters.

Thus India creates altogether a new eschatological philosophy. Zoroastrianism, as we shall see, continues to believe in only one life upon earth and Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism hold the same view.

According to Judaism, Yahweh searches the hearts of men and women and reads their thoughts. He weighs their actions, rewards the good and punishes the evil. Reward and retribution are, however, meted out in this world. It is at the later period that the exiles in Babylonia brought with them under the Persian influence the belief in the compensatory justice in the life after death.

The mightiest of men cower before death. Every creature that is born in this earth dies when the demon of death comes to it.^[1] The soul is immortal, and survives the death of the body which is perishable.^[2] The ignorant man, intoxicated with the pride of youth, encircled in the heat of passion, and enchained by the bonds of fleeting desires, forgets the transitoriness and death of the body.^[3] One who lives for the body alone comes to sorrow at the end of life, and finds his soul thrown into the terrible den of Angra Mainyu.^[4] Man should act in such a way that his soul may attain to heaven after death.^[5] The individual who blindly seeks the passing good of the body, thus sacrificing the lasting good of the soul, is merciless to himself and if he has no mercy on himself, he cannot expect it from others.^[6] This ignorance brings his spiritual ruin.^[7] He should not live in forgetfulness of the everlasting life, and lose it by yielding to his passions. Man sees his fellow-being snatched away from this earth, but he grows so indifferent that he forgets that his own turn may soon come to sever his connection with this world.^[8] The man may be faring sumptuously in the forenoon, but his fall may come in the afternoon.^[9] The demon of death overpowers everyone. Ever since the world began, and man graced this earth with his presence, no mortal has ever escaped his clutches, nor shall one ever escape until the resurrection.^[10] The priests and the princes, the righteous and the wicked, have all to tread the dreary path of death.^[11] Neither the first man, Gaya Maretan, who kept the world free from disease and death, nor Haoshyangha, who killed two-thirds of the demons, nor Takhma Urupi, who bridled and rode on the Evil Spirit, nor Yima, who dispelled old age and death from his kingdom, nor Dahaka, who was a scourge to humanity, nor Thraetaona, who bound Dahaka, nor Kavi Usa, who flew in the sky, nor Franrasyan, who hid himself under the earth, could struggle successfully against death. All these great and mighty men delivered up their bodies, when Astovidhotu grasped them by their hands.^[12]

The recital of the sacred formulas on the deathbed of man helps his soul when it leaves the tenement of the body. Life ends in death and dust. It sleeps on earth to wake in heaven. Bodily death liberates the soul for a higher life. This period of the separation of the body and soul is momentous; it is full of fear and distress.^[13] In its utter bewilderment the soul seeks help. The recital of a single Ashem Vohu, pronounced by a man at the last moments of his life, we are told, is worth the entire zone inhabited by man,^[14] and does him incalculable good.

From this world to that which is beyond. The twofold Gathic division of the universe into the astvant, 'corporeal,' and manahya, 'spiritual,' is maintained throughout all the Younger Avestan texts. One frequently meets with the expressions, 'both the worlds,' 'this and the next world,' 'this world which is corporeal, and the next which is spiritual,' 'the perishable and the imperishable,' and the like. Man stands on the borderland between the material and spiritual worlds. In the world of the living he lives a short span of life. Here he either works for the realization of the great ideals that Ahura Mazda has set up for him, and triumphs; or he falls away from them, and fails. In the world of the dead, Ahura Mazda rewards men for having kept his commands, but visits with retribution all those that have disregarded his bidding.

Heaven and hell are in the Younger Avesta no longer conditions of man's being, as they were in the Gathas, but are actual places located in space. The process reaches its consummation in the Pahlavi works, but the beginning is already made.

All souls dwell three nights on earth after death. At the dissolution of the body, the soul is freed from its bodily prison. The journey towards the next world does not, however, begin immediately after death, for the separation of the soul from the body takes place by slow degrees. It requires full three days and nights before the last vestige of the earthly bondage perishes. The Jews likewise believed that the soul fluttered in the neighbourhood of the body for three days.^[15] The past flashes upon the soul and it recounts the acts done during its life. It takes its seat near the spot where the head of the deceased rested before the corpse was removed to the Tower of Silence. If the soul has walked in the Path of Righteousness during life, it spends its time in chanting the sacred hymns, and experiences as much joy as the whole of the living world can experience collectively.^[16] It is anxiously longing for the rewards which are to take place at the end of the third night after death.^[17]

Precisely the reverse is the case if the dead happens to be wicked. The soul of such a one sits near the skull and clamours in bewilderment and confusion about the terrible lot that awaits it, and experiences as much suffering as the whole of the living world can experience collectively.^[18]

Daena accompanies the soul to the next world. Of the various spiritual faculties of man, the daena is the only one besides the soul of which we hear at great length after the dissolution of the body. It is in the power of every one to keep his daena pure by good thoughts, good words, and good deeds and every one is enjoined to do so.^[19] If one does not live according to this salutary advice and indulges in evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds, his own daena delivers him to the world of darkness.^[20] On the dawn of the fourth day after death, the romantic journey of the soul begins and its voyage into the hereafter is described in allegorical and picturesque words. The soul of the righteous one makes its triumphal ascent to heaven, wending its way among fragrant perfumes, and amid a wind that blows from the regions of the south, a sweet-scented wind, sweeterscented by far than any which the soul ever inhaled on earth.^[21] There appears then to the soul its own daena, or religious conscience, in the shape of a damsel of unsurpassed beauty, the fairest of the fair in the world.^[22] Dazzled by her matchless beauty and grandeur, the soul halts and inquires who this image may be, the like of which it had neither seen nor heard tell of in the material world. The apparition replies that she is the impersonation of the soul's own good thoughts, good words, and good deeds in life. She is nothing more than the true reflex of its own character. For, when his friends and neighbours in the corporeal world indulged in wickedness, the spirit abiding in the true believer always embraced good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. It was this righteousness of the soul that had made the daena so lovely and so fair.^[23]

This is a piece of an allegorical soliloquy on the part of the soul, in which the consciousness of its having led a virtuous life on earth brings it inner joy in the future, and that sweet voice of conscience comforts. In its flight to heaven which proves to be an eternal comfort, such a soul, redeemed by its piety on earth, is helped by Sraosha, Rashnu, the good Vayu, Arshtat, Mithra, and the Fravashis of the righteous in its advance to the realms of final beatitude.^[24]

On the other hand, the soul of the wicked person is harassed by the thought of its wicked life, and marches at the end of the third night on the dreary and dreadful path that lies amid the most foul-scented wind blowing from the northern regions.^[25] The full Avestan text is missing here, but we gather from the similar account of the wicked soul's journey preserved in the Pahlavi scriptures that the soul of the sinner is confronted by the personification of its own conscience in the shape of an ugly old woman who mercilessly taunts it for the wicked life it has led.

All souls have to make their way across the Chinvat Bridge into heaven or hell. The righteous as well as the wicked souls must needs go to this Bridge of Judgment, made by Mazda, before they can be admitted to the realm of the hereafter.^[26] Dogs are stationed at the bridge to guard its transit.^[27] These hounds of the spiritual realm help the pious souls to cross the bridge, but the wicked ones long in vain for their aid The dogs accompany the daena of a good soul.^[28] Whoso in the fulness of faith recites the sacred Ahuna Vairya is enabled by Ahura Mazda to cross the Chinvat Bridge and to reach paradise in a threefold manner, namely, unto the best existence, the best righteousness, and the best lights.^[29] Ahura Mazda proclaims to Zarathushtra certain rules of righteousness by the practice of which he could pass over the bridge to paradise.^[30] Speaking about the qualifications of a priest, the Heavenly Father informs the prophet that he shall be called a priest who by his wise precepts teaches a man to be of easy conscience at the bridge.^[31] In this same connection it may be added that the man who has ill-treated the Vanghapara class of dogs in this world finds not his way across this crucial bridge.^[32] Besides the bare announcement that the righteous souls can cross the bridge successfully and that the wicked ones fail so to do,^[33] we are not furnished with a detailed description of the judgment at the bridge, although we have this information explicitly recorded in the Pahlavi accounts of the fate of the soul after death.

 

Heaven

Four heavens. In contrast to the single heaven referred to in the Gathas, we meet with a fourfold division of heaven in the Avestan period. Garonmana, or the Abode of Praise, remains the highest heaven, the realm of bliss that is reached by traversing the three lower heavens, called Humata, or Good Thought, Hukhta, or Good Word, and Hvarshta, or Good Deed, as beatific abodes for the soul. Garonmana, the fourth and the highest heaven, is frequently designated in the Younger Avesta as the place of anaghra raochah, or endless light.^[34] The generic name, however, for all the four heavens is Vahishta ahu, or Best Existence. This heavenly region is the shining and all-happy abode of the righteous,^[35] and in Garonmana dwell Ahura Mazda and his heavenly retinue, together with those human souls that have reached perfection through righteousness.^[36] Ahura Mazda offered sacrifice unto Mithra from Garonmana.^[37] The faithful beseech Mithra to lay their sacrifices in Garonmana.^[38] It is beautiful and all-adorned.^[39]

A cordial welcome awaits the pious souls in paradise. Vohu Manah, the premier archangel of Mazda, hails the pious souls on their arrival in paradise in congratulatory terms,^[40] and he, as a leader of the heavenly host, introduces them to Ahura Mazda and the other heavenly beings.^[41] In a different passage Ahura Mazda himself is depicted as welcoming the righteous souls with the same words that Vohu Manah uses.^[42] The souls of the righteous persons that have departed from this world in earlier times join furthermore in welcoming the newcomers in their midst.^[43]

The pious enjoy eternally what but few mortals enjoy, and then only for a short period in this world. The bountiful host of paradise commands his heavenly caterer to bring to the souls of the righteous the ambrosia;^[44] a later work adds that this celestial food is served to the righteous souls by the Fravashis, while robes embroidered with gold and golden thrones are supplied to them by Vohu Manah.^[45] The blessed souls enjoy eternal felicity and incomparable happiness in this abode of endless light.^[46] Theirs is the lot to receive the everlasting rest which Mazda has prepared for them, and it is theirs to experience as much joy as one at the zenith of his greatness enjoys in this world.^[47]

 

Misvana Gatu

The intermediary place between heaven and hell. We have already referred to the probability of the idea of the intermediary place between heaven and hell as embodied in the Gathas The Younger Avestan texts four times mention a place called misvāna gātu, 'the place of mixing'.^[48] It is invoked by name along with Garonmana, the highest paradise, and the Chinvat Bridge. The text in question, however, do not give us any account of this place. The Later Pahlavi texts render misvāna gātu by hameshak sut gās, or 'the place of eternal weal,' which is generally taken to be identical with the well-known hamistakān of the Pahlavi period.

 

Hell

Four hells. Simultaneously with the increase in the number of heavens, there is a corresponding increase in the list of hells. The Gathas knew but one hell. The later Avestan texts speak of four abodes of the damned. They are those of Dushmata, or Evil Thought, Dushukhta, or Evil Word, and Dushvarshta, or Evil Deed, together with the fourth and lowest hell, which has no specific name of its own in the Avesta, but stands in opposition to the highest Garonmana, and receives the epithet anaghra temah, or Endless Darkness.^[49] The wicked soul reaches this darkest abode with the fourth stride. The realm known as duzh ahu, or Evil Existence,^[50] or again as achishta anghu, or Worst Existence, are designations of hell in general.^[51] The regions of hell, if we look to incidental allusions in the Avesta, are stinking,^[52] dreadful and dark.^[53]

The wicked souls reap in incessant tears the crop they have sown in the finite world. The gulf of gloom now yawns for them. The demon Vizaresha carries off in bonds the wicked souls to their doom.^[54] Angra Mainyu orders them to be fed with the foulest and the most poisonous food in hell.^[55] It is their own evil doings that bring them to woe.^[56] They enter hell terror-stricken, like unto the sheep that trembles before a wolf.^[57] A life of sorrow and suffering now awaits them.^[58] The Evil Spirit exposes the wretched souls to the mockery of the infernal rabble.

 

1. Aog. 40.
2. Aog. 5-7, 25-28.
3. Ib., 31-37.
4. Ib., 28, 38.
5. Ib., 20.
6. Ib., 49.
7. Ib., 56.
8. Ib., 39.
9. Ib., 53-55.
10. Ib., 57, 58, 59.
11. Ib., 59.
12. Ib., 60-68, 85-102.
13. Yt. 22. 17.
14. Yt. 21. 14, 15.
15. See Farrar, The Life of Christ, p. 457, n. 2, London, 1893.
16. Yt. 22. 1-6; 24. 54.
17. Vd. 19. 27-29.
18. Yt. 22. 19-24.
19. Vd. 10. 19.
20. Vd. 5. 62.
21. Yt. 22. 7, 8; 24. 55.
22. Yt. 22. 9; 24. 56.
23. Yt. 22. 10-14; 24. 57-60.
24. Aog. 8.
25. Yt. 22. 25.
26. Vd. 19. 29, 36; Sr. 1. 30; 2. 30.
27. Vd. 13. 9; cf. Kuka, The Dog in the Vendidad in Zartoshti, vol. 1, p. 271-280, Bombay, 1903; Bloomfield, Cerberus, the Dog of Hades, p. 27-30, Chicago, 1905.
28. Vd. 19. 30.
29. Ys. 19. 6.
30. Ys. 71. 16.
31. Vd. 18. 6.
32. Vd. 13. 3.
33. Vd. 13. 3; 19. 30.
34. Yt. 22. 15; 24. 61.
35. Ys. 9. 19; 11. 10; 62. 6; 68. 5, 11, 13; Vsp. 7. 1; 23. 1; Yt. 12. 36; 24. 5; Sr. 1. 27; 2. 27; Vd. 19. 36.
36. Vd. 19. 32, 36.
37. Yt. 24. 28, 33.
38. Vd. 19. 31.
39. Yt. 24. 28, 33.
40. Vd. 19. 31.
41. Aog. 10-13.
42. Vd. 7. 52.
43. Yt. 22. 16.
44. Yt. 22. 18.
45. Aog. 15-17.
46. TdFr. 82, 83.
47. Aog. 14.
48. Yt. 1. 1; Sr. 1. 30; 2. 30; Vd. 19. 36.
49. Yt. 22. 33.
50. Yt. 19. 44; Vd. 19. 47.
51. Ys. 71. 15; Vd. 3. 35; 5. 62; 7. 22; WFr. 3. 2.
52. Vd. 19. 47, TdFr. 93.
53. Aog. 28.
54. Vd. 19. 29.
55. Yt. 22. 35, 36.
56. Vd. 5. 62, 7. 22.
57. Vd. 13. 8.
58. TdFr. 84.