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419
LIFE AFTER DEATH

the ground with a torrent of tears. But all in vain. Unavailing are their cries and lamentations, for the denizens of heaven seem to be under the spell of the drowsy fiend, Bushasp, who has lulled them to sleep, and the righteous souls in heaven seem to have grown callous and indifferent to the pangs of their former earthly associates. In this frightful condition there is no one to pity them, and none to cast a look of mercy on them in their disconsolate condition on the way to the infernal realm. Writhing in suffering and sorrow, weeping and lamenting and gnashing their teeth, they now enter hell,[1] and with the fourth step of the downward descent to perdition they approach Ahriman, who addresses them with ribald mockery, saying in scornful banter that it is strange they preferred the gloom and misery of hell to the joy and happiness of heaven,[2] revolted from the will of Ormazd, whose bread they ever ate, and practised the evil of the Evil Spirit.[3] The demons and fiends incessantly rail at the wretched souls and finally hurl them headlong into the darkest abyss.

Punishments and retributive justice. The souls are generally punished by the particular demon or demons in conformity to whose will the individual has sinned in this world.[4] These fiends take a cruel delight in torturing the souls for the very sins that they themselves had instigated. The degree of suffering is exactly proportioned to the transgression, and the form of punishment meted out corresponds in the same manner to the various crimes committed in this world. We may select only a few instances from the elaborate list of Viraf. The one that has slain a pious man is himself killed over and over again in hell as a punishment.[5] He who has eaten unlawfully without saying grace starves eternally of hunger and thirst.[6] The merchant who used false scales and sold adulterated goods on earth must day and night in hell measure bushels full of filth and then devour them.[7] A tyrant king is tortured by being flogged by demons with darting serpents.[8] A liar and a slanderer have

  1. ↑ Mkh. 2. 165, 166; cf. Mathew, 8. 12; 22. 13; 25. 30.
  2. ↑ Mkh. 2. 184–186; 7. 23–25.
  3. ↑ AV. 100. 2–5.
  4. ↑ Dd. 14. 6; 32. 11; Mkh. 21. 11, 16, 17, 40, 43, 44.
  5. ↑ AV. 21. 1–5.
  6. ↑ AV. 23. 1–9.
  7. ↑ AV. 27. 1–7; 80. 1–7.
  8. ↑ AV. 28. 1–6.
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