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The alleged twofold meaning of the Avesta. These esoteric interpreters of the sacred works asserted that Zoroaster had couched his teachings in figurative and enigmatic language.^[1] The Zoroastrian scriptures were accordingly divided into 'Great Zend' and 'Little Zend,'^[2] the first being followed by the adepts and initiates, and the second by the masses. The figurative language of the former hid the deeper truths from the ignorant.

The author, then, cites some instances and explains the difference between the exoteric and the esoteric interpretations of the Avestan texts. For instance, when it is said that the archangel Bahman held a conference with Zoroaster and asked him to close his eyes, the vulgar, according to the Dabistan, understand that Bahman assumed human form and addressed the prophet like a mortal; but the adept is to understand by this that the true essence of man was uncompounded, and that under such a state Bahman manifested himself before Zoroaster, and his asking the prophet to close his eyes means only that the spirit asked him to eradicate all bodily attachments and suppress carnal desires of the flesh in order to enable him to get a vision of the archangel.^[3] When the Zoroastrian texts seem to sanction animal slaughter, it is to be understood as an injunction to kill the animal propensities inherent in man.^[4] The author states further that the passages which speak of the hermits as partaking of animal food in reasonable bounds are not to be taken literally. These simply refer to the gradual control and ultimate killing of the animal nature in man.^[5] The legend that Ahriman appeared at a season festival in the guise of a glutton and devoured everything to the utter confusion of the assembly, until he was routed by preparing a dish from the flesh of a certain red cow, mixed with vinegar, garlic, and rue, at the instance of some miraculous advice, may be taken by the masses as literally true. But any one versed in esoteric wisdom, and acquainted with the doctrines inculcated by the Dabistan, knows that the killing of the red cow stands for the suppression of the sensual appetite, vinegar for the virtue of abstinence, garlic for reflection, and rue for silent reflection. All these would kill Ahrimanian propensities in man.^[6] The ignorant invest Ahriman with a personality; but, really