Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/447

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414
LIFE AFTER DEATH

the righteous soul may have a few misdeeds for which it has not atoned, and will therefore undergo a corresponding punishment after death before it is admitted to the company of the righteous,[1] and the same is logically true of the soul of the sinner. The sins usually accounted for at the bridge are those that have not been expiated during the lifetime of the individual.[2] Those that are already atoned for in this world are not laid to his charge hereafter, but stand cancelled in the book of life, and no account is taken of them at the bridge.[3] We find, however, in another place that such a soul does receive a temporary punishment at the bridge, but is spared the future torture of hell.[4]

We have already seen that the Pahlavi-Persian works speak of the Treasury of the Eternal Weal where the supererogatory deeds of the faithful are stored and from which the souls found to be in need of merit at the Bridge of Judgment are compensated.[5] It is said that every Zoroastrian gets the benefit of the accumulated good deeds performed by the faithful in all the seven zones of the earth. If a soul is found deficient in merit at the reckoning the deficit is made up from this treasury.[6] This doctrine appears in the later Judaism and Christianity.[7] If a man brings forward false accusation against another or steals his property, the heavenly judges take away corresponding merit of good deeds, which the sinner may have done in this world and credit it to the account of the wronged person. But when it is found that the wrong-doer has not any accumulated merit of his own, the judges draw upon the Treasury of Eternal Weal and compensate the soul of the person who has suffered.[8]

Heaven

The graduated heavens. The division of heaven, or the celestial realms, into several mansions of Paradise, as recognized in the Avesta, remains unaltered in the Pahlavi period. Heaven in general is designated Vahisht, Paradise, but the divisions of heaven into the domains of Good Thoughts, Good Words, and

  1. ↑ Phl. Vd. 7. 52.
  2. ↑ Dd. 24. 5.
  3. ↑ Dd. 13. 2, 3.
  4. ↑ Dd. 41. 8, Sd. 45. 10.
  5. ↑ Dd. 38. 3; see Boklen, Persische Eschatology, p. 58, 59; Pavri, The Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 51, 52, 74–77, 100, 102.
  6. ↑ Sd. 1. 3–5.
  7. ↑ See Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 313.
  8. ↑ Sd. 64. 9; SdBd. 65. 1–5; 71. 4, 5.
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