Volume 1

In search of the soul and the mechanism of thought, emotion, and conduct ... / by Bernard Hollander.

  • Bernard Hollander
Date:
[1920]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: In search of the soul and the mechanism of thought, emotion, and conduct ... / by Bernard Hollander. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/536 (page 17)
    The beliefs recorded in the Zend-Avesta, the sacred books, approximate to the Indian theories. The Zoroastrian system recognises one God, omnipotent, invisible, without form, the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of the Universe, and the last Judge. The worship of idols is held in abomination ; but a reverence for fire and the sun is inculcated, as they are emblems of the glory of the Supreme Deity. This life- giving Sun-god was regarded as the source of all earthly existence. It is he that each morning brings back new life and activity to a world that lay buried in the silence of the night. It is he that every spring calls up the dead vegetation out of its cold grave in the joyful Easter of nature. It is he that bestows on the sons of men the genial warmth and health and food which saves them from perishing. The assertion of one Supreme Being is, however, qualified by the recognition of an opposing principle, this dualism resulting probably from the consciousness of inner conflict in the individual soul. Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd, the “ Lord All-knowing, the spirit of all knowledge, the creator of righteousness, spreads light and is the principle of good ; and Ahriman, the demon of darkness, is the principle of evil. The former made a resplendent and happy world ; the latter made deformity, discord, impurity and gloom. The Supreme Being was worshipped by one symbol—fire—which is pure and purifies all things. The priest chanted the litany thus : “I invoke and celebrate Ahura Mazda, brilliant, greatest, best. All-perfect, all-powerful, all-wise, all-beautiful, only source of knowledge and happiness ; he has granted us, he has formed us, he sustains us. The fate of the soul depends upon its character. “ Heaven was destined for man upon condition that he was humble of heart, obedient to the law, and pure in thought, word and deed. But “ by believing the lies of Ahriman they became sinners, and their souls must remain in the nether kingdom until the resurrection of their bodies. The good soul remains three nights seated by the head of the dead man ; on the morning of the fourth day it seems to be in a place of fairest plants and scents, inhaling sweet-scented wind ; there comes to it a maiden of exceeding great beauty, which is the man’s conscience. Then the soul takes its way, first to the Good- Thought Paradise, then to the Good-Word Paradise, and so finally to endless Light. The fate of the evil soul is the reverse, ending in eternal darkness. No other faith seems so close to that of the Old and New Testaments as that of Zoroaster in the simplicity of its worship (without temples, without altars) and abhorrence of idolatry, as well as in the purity of its ethical system, with its earnest insistence on “ pure thoughts, pure words, pure deeds as the essentials of religion. Prayer, obedience, industry, honesty, hospitality, alms-deeds, chastity, and truth¬ fulness are enjoined ; and envy, hatred, quarrelling, anger, revenge, and polygamy are strictly forbidden. Herodotus tells us that the Persians regarded lying as the worst possible offence, and next to it falling into debt, since the debtor is tempted to tell lies. The Persian religion was essentially moral, not by a struggle for right against wrong, but by simple obedience to the natural law. There are some resemblances to the Christian beliefs. Thus : To Zarathustra shall one day be born at the end of time a son supernaturally begotten. A virgin-mother shall give him birth. This Saviour shall come from the distant East, the fountain and abode of light. He shall act as mediator between his Father, the supreme God, and his creatures, whom he compassionates in their miseries and heals of their diseases. One of the sects of the Magi, the priests of Persia, believed in a revelation made by God to the first man, called Gayomart by the Parsees. The treatment of the sick consisted, from the Zoroastrian standpoint, in the casting out of the demons of disease by prayers and spells, in purification, and Vol. i] c