Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/443

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410
LIFE AFTER DEATH

ence as much pleasure or pain during these nights as they have had during their whole life on earth.[1] The soul of the wicked person, over whose head hangs the coming retribution, now wishes that it could re-enter the body for some time in order to make up for the faults and shortcomings of the life that it has just finished.[2] Mohammedanism, in the same manner, refers to the desire of the soul of the dead person to be sent back to the bodily life that it can practise good deeds that have been left undone. As a rider requires a horse, so the soul needs a body, without which it is unable to act in this world.[3] It now discovers, when it is too late, that it has lost the opportunity and worked all the while for naught. It feels as if it had thrown away all good deeds either into the fire to be burnt or into the water to be drowned instead of practising them and storing them up for its own merit.[4] It wishes it had enjoyed less in the world below and practised virtue more,[5] and it realizes too late that the most precious period of its earthly life is now lost beyond recovery.

The souls escorted by the genii of their own deeds to the other world. At the end of the third night when the dawn breaks, the souls undertake their memorable journey with the co-operation of the good angels Srosh, Vae the good, and Varhran; in the midst of the opposition of Astovidat, of Vae the bad, Frazisht, Nizisht, and Eshm. When the souls pass from the midst of the sweet-scented trees, if they are righteous, or from among foul-scented trees, if they are wicked, they meet their conscience, the righteous soul beholding her in the form of a beautiful damsel, personifying the store of its own good works, but the wicked soul seeing a hideous woman, typifying the store of its own evil deeds.[6] In addition to the escort of the angelic figure or the fiendish apparition, the Dinkart and some copies of the Bundahishn mention that a beautiful fat cow and a fair garden, as well as this damsel, are met with by a righteous soul, while an ugly, lean cow and a barren desert, besides the hideous hag, are encountered by a wicked soul.[7] The description of the celestial

  1. ↑ Hn. 2. 6, 11, 16; 3. 5, 10, 16.
  2. ↑ Dd. 16. 4.
  3. ↑ Dk., vol. 6, p. 380, 381.
  4. ↑ Dk., vol. 11, bk, 6. 219, p. 82.
  5. ↑ Dk., vol. 11, bk. 6. 211, p. 78.
  6. ↑ Bd. Modi, op. cit., 5–7; Dd. 24. 5; 25. 5; Mkh. 2. 115, 127–181; AV. 4. 15–36; 17. 10–26; Dk., vol. 2, p. 82, 83; Hn. 2. 19–32; 3. 17–20.
  7. ↑ Bd. Modi, op. cit., 5, 7; Dk., vol. 2, p. 83.
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