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413
LIFE AFTER DEATH

are further told in another passage of the Pahlavi texts that the children accompany their parents either to heaven or hell as the latter have deserved.[1] The children that have thus entered hell with their wicked parents are separated from them if due ceremonies are performed in honour of Srosh by their relatives, and may then proceed to heaven.[2]

The method of administering justice in the heavenly tribunal. Among the ancient Egyptians when the soul appeared before the heavenly tribunal, its heart was weighed in a balance. Similarly, the ordinary way of judging the souls according to the Pahlavi writers, is said to be that of weighing the good and evil deeds in a scale and deciding to which of the two sides the scale turned. Roughly speaking, if the good deeds exceed the evil, the soul is entitled to go to heaven.[3] But if the evil deeds preponderate, the soul is assigned to go to hell.[4] The side of the balance that outweighs the other even by a hair of the eyelash determines the fate of the soul accordingly.[5] If the good deeds are in weight three Sroshocharans more than the evil deeds, the soul attains to heaven;[6] if the evil deeds exceed the good ones by three Sroshocharans, the soul is doomed to hell until the time of Resurrection.[7] An infidel is saved from hell if good deeds are one Tanapuhar weight more than his evil deeds.[8]

The author of the Dadistan texts takes a more rational view and asserts that it is not simply the preponderating good or evil deeds that score off their opposite, so that the soul receives recompense or retribution on the residue, but that every single good or evil deed is taken into account separately and receives its recompense or retribution in accordance. Thus a righteous soul whose preponderating good deeds have entitled it to heaven does not escape a temporary punishment for the few misdeeds that stand on its account. Similarly the wicked soul that is doomed to hell for its evil deeds has at least a few good deeds to its credit, and consequently receives temporary enjoyment severally for these before it is sent to perdition for its wrongs.[9] In other words,

  1. ↑ Sd. 47. 2.
  2. ↑ Sd. 47. 3.
  3. ↑ Mkh. 12. 13, SLS. 6. 2–4; Sg. 4. 93, 94.
  4. ↑ Mkh. 12. 15, Sg. 4. 95, 96, AV. 6. 10.
  5. ↑ Sd. 2. 3, 4.
  6. ↑ Phl. Vd. 7. 52; SLS. 6. 3; AV. 6. 9.
  7. ↑ Phl. Vd. 7. 52.
  8. ↑ SLS. 6. 6.
  9. ↑ Dd. 13. 4; 24. 6.
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