Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/448

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415
LIFE AFTER DEATH

Good Deeds, with the highest heaven Garotman, make up the four chief heavens.[1] Endless Light and Best Existence are variants frequently used for Garotman.[2] The several heavens of the celestial world are also known after the names of their locations in space, and are then called the heavens of the Star Region, the Moon Region, the Sun Region, and that of Endless Light.[3] A distinction is generally made between the lower heavens and the highest heaven.[4] If one's good deeds are three Sroshocharans more than his evil deeds he goes to Vahisht, or heaven, but if they are only one Tanapuhar in weight more than his misdeeds the soul goes to the Best Existence.[5] With the same idea it is said that when ceremonies are not performed for the good of the soul, it goes to heaven, but when performed it ascends to the highest Garotman.[6]

If the good deeds are in excess the righteous soul goes to heaven on the dawn of the fourth day, but if, in addition to the stock of this virtue, he has chanted the Gathas and thus has extra merit to his credit as a true believer, he then is transported aloft to Garotman.[7] Vohuman welcomes such a righteous soul, and announces at the command of Ormazd, its place and reward.[8] The same archangel thereupon offers the sanctified spirit a cup of ambrosia to drink,[9] and the righteous souls that are in heaven greet it with joy and pleasure.[10]

Location of heavens. The concept of the next world, which was abstract and spiritual in the Gathic and Later Avestan periods, gradually becomes concrete and material. The separate heavens as well as hells retain their names which designate abstract virtues as Good or Evil Thoughts, Words, and Deeds, but they are now in reality completely materialized. Different heavens are located in different parts of the cosmos, and a sharply defined boundary line divides them from one another. The separate heavens, begin with the Star Region.[11] The first heaven, of Good Thoughts, is represented as extending from the

  1. ↑ Hn. 2. 33, 34; Mkh. 2. 145, 146; 7. 12; 57. 13; AV. 7. 1; 8. 1; 9. 1; 10. 1; cf. 2 Corinthians, 12. 2.
  2. ↑ Dd. 1. 3; 14. 7; 34. 3; SLS. 10. 26.
  3. ↑ Bd. 12. 1; Dd. 34. 3; Mkh. 7. 9-11; Dk., vol. 7, p. 461.
  4. ↑ Bd. 12. 1; 30-27; Dd. 14. 7; 24. 6; 31. 4, 15, 17, 22, 25; 34. 3; Sd. 80. 11.
  5. ↑ SLS. 6. 3.
  6. ↑ Ib.
  7. ↑ Dd. 20. 3.
  8. ↑ Dd. 31. 5.
  9. ↑ Phl. Vd. 19. 31.
  10. ↑ Dd. 31. 9.
  11. ↑ Dk., vol. 9, p. 626.
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