OBJECTS OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 185 



humano and Akemmano, or Spenta-Mainyii and Angra-Mainyu), 

 the Parsees claim, were, though opposed to each other, united in 

 every existing being, even in Ahura-Mazda himself, and by their 

 union produced the world of material things and of spiritual exist- 

 ences, while the Dastoor (high priest) Rastamji declares: "By 

 Atigra-Maiayu nothing is meant but man's evil spirit or thought. 

 Man receives from Ahura-Mazda the gifts of superior powers, abuses 

 them, and by abusing causes all moral and physical disturbances in 

 himself and in the condition of the world he lives in."''^ There ia 

 no question that the modern Parsees are mionotheists. 



ZOEOASTRIAN ETHICS 



Zoroastrianism is a religion of struggle and exertion. The cardi- 

 nal doctrine that the world is a great battle field, on which beneficent 

 powers ceaselessly contend with baleful forces is one of the hinges 

 on which the entire system of Zoroastrian etliics turns. Man is not 

 a passive spectator of this war on whose issue his fortune in time 

 and eternity depends, but a combatant in the thick of the fight. 

 Every man, being treated as a free agent, is by his own choice ar- 

 rayed under one banner or the other, contending for the good world 

 or the bad. 



The moral teachings of Zoroaster are summed up in the triad: 

 Good thoughts, good words, good deeds Qiumata, Tiul'Jita, Tivarshta; 

 contrast: Dushmata, duzhvMita, duzhvarshta) . Character lies not in 

 overt act alone, but in the inner springs of conduct. The virtues 

 inculcated may be comprised in general terms as purity alike of body 

 and soul, uprightness, humility, obedience, peaceableness, charity, and 

 benevolence. In addition to these good qualities particular stress is 

 laid upon truthfulness and the faithful keeping of one's word and 

 pledge. "Never break an agreement, O Spitama, neither one that 

 you make with a wicked man nor with an upright man of your own 

 religion; for an agreement holds with both wicked and upright." 

 Next to falsehood and deceit making debts is to be shunned, for that 

 leads to lying and fraud. ^^ 



The tilling of the soil, the reclamation of waste land by rooting 

 out weeds and thorns, and extending irrigation to make grain and 

 fruits grow is part of practical religion. "Who makes glad the earth? 

 He who plants the most grain, grass, and fruit trees, who brings 

 water to a field where there is none and draws it off where there is 



<6 Rastamji Edulji Dastoor Peshotan, Zerathushtra and Zarathushtrianism in the Avesta. Leipzig, 1906, 

 p. 159; compare also Dosabhai Framji Karaka, History of the Farsis, London, vol. 2, p. 187; Martin I'r.ug, 

 Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees, Bombay, 1862, p. 258. 



" Compare Herodotus, book 1, pp. 130 and 138: "Beginning with the age of 5 years to 20, they [the 

 Persians] instruct their sons in three things— to ride, to use the bow, and to speak truth. * • • To 

 tell a lie is considered by them the greatest disgrace; next to that, to be in debt, and this for many reasons, 

 but especially because they think that one who is in debt must ol necessity tell lies." 



1)1551—29 13 



