Sacred Books of the East. Томас Карлейль

who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death.

      He who, seeking his own happiness, does not punish or kill beings who also long for happiness, will find happiness after death.

      Do not speak harshly to anyone; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful: blows for blows will touch thee.

      If, like a shattered metal plate (gong), thou utter nothing, then thou hast reached Nirvâna; anger is not known to thee.

      As a cow-herd with his staff drives his cows into the stable, so do Age and Death drive the life of men.

      A fool does not know when he commits his evil deeds: but the wicked man burns by his own deeds, as if burnt by fire.

      He who inflicts pain on innocent and harmless persons, will soon come to one of these ten states:—

      He will have cruel suffering, loss, injury of the body, heavy affliction, or loss of mind.

      A misfortune coming from the king, or a fearful accusation, or loss of relations, or destruction of treasures.

      Lightning-fire will burn his houses; and when his body is destroyed, the fool will go to hell.

      Not nakedness, not platted hair, not dirt, not fasting, or lying on the earth, not rubbing with dust, not sitting motionless, can purify a mortal who has not overcome desires.

      He who, though dressed in fine apparel, exercises tranquillity, is quiet, subdued, restrained, chaste, and has ceased to find fault with all other beings, he indeed is a Brâhmana, an ascetic (Sramana), a friar (Bhikshu).

      Is there in this world any man so restrained by shame that he does not provoke reproof, as a noble horse the whip?

      Like a noble horse when touched by the whip, be ye strenuous and eager, and by faith, by virtue, by energy, by meditation, by discernment of the law, you will overcome this great pain, perfect in knowledge and in behavior, and never forgetful.

      Well-makers lead the water wherever they like; fletchers bend the arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; good people fashion themselves.

      CHAPTER XI

OLD AGE

      How is there laughter, how is there joy, as this world is always burning? Do you not seek a light, ye who are surrounded by darkness?

      Look at this dressed-up lump, covered with wounds, joined together, sickly, full of many schemes, but which has no strength, no hold!

      This body is wasted, full of sickness, and frail; this heap of corruption breaks to pieces, life indeed ends in death.

      After one has looked at those gray bones, thrown away like gourds in the autumn, what pleasure is there left in life!

      After a stronghold has been made of the bones, it is covered with flesh and blood, and there dwell in it old age and death, pride and deceit.

      The brilliant chariots of kings are destroyed, the body also approaches destruction, but the virtue of good people never approaches destruction—thus do the good say to the good.

      A man who has learnt little, grows old like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow.

      Looking for the maker of this tabernacle, I have run through a course of many births, not finding him; and painful is birth again and again. But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the Eternal (Visankhâra, Nirvâna), has attained to the extinction of all desires.

      1

      Footnote 1:

      The Maruts are the "Storm-Gods".

      2

      Footnote 2:

      The lightning.

      3

      The voice of thunder.

      4

      The dawn.

      5

      Agni is the "God of Fire."

      6

      Rudra is the "Father of the Maruts."

      7

      Agastya is a worshipper of Indra.

      8

      The sun.

      9

      Footnote 9:

      A century ago, it is said, they still numbered nearly 100,000 souls; but there now remain no more than 8,000 or 9,000, scattered in Yazd and the surrounding villages. Houtum-Schindler gave 8,499 in 1879; of that number there were 6,483 in Yazd, 1,7

1

Footnote 1:

The Maruts are the "Storm-Gods".

2

Footnote 2:

The lightning.

3

The voice of thunder.

4

The dawn.

5

Agni is the "God of Fire."

6

Rudra is the "Father of the Maruts."

7

Agastya is a worshipper of Indra.

8

The sun.

9

Footnote 9:

A century ago, it is said, they still numbered nearly 100,000 souls; but there now remain no more than 8,000 or 9,000, scattered in Yazd and the surrounding villages. Houtum-Schindler gave 8,499 in 1879; of that number there were 6,483 in Yazd, 1,756 in Kirmân, 150 in Teherân.

10

This chapter is an enumeration of sixteen perfect lands created by Ahura Mazda, and of as many plagues created in opposition by Angra Mainyu. Many attempts have been made, not only to identify these sixteen lands, but also to draw historical conclusions from their order of succession, as representing the actual order of the migrations and settlements of the old Iranian tribes. But there is nothing in the text to support such wide inferences. We have here nothing more than a geographical description of Iran, seen from the religious point of view.

11

This chapter is the only one in the Vendîdâd that deals with legal subjects.

12

This chapter deals chiefly with uncleanness arising from the dead, and with the means of removing it from men and things.

13

A dog with two spots above the eyes.