1.
And now I will proclaim, O ye who are drawing near and seeking 1 to be taught!
those animadversions 2 which appertain to Him who knows (all things) whatsoever; the praises which are for Ahura, and the sacrifices (which spring) from the Good Mind, and likewise the benignant meditations inspired by Righteousness.
And I pray 3 that propitious results may be seen in the lights.
p.
29 2.
Hear ye then with your ears; see ye the bright flames 1 with the (eyes of the) Better Mind.
It is for a decision as to religions, man and man, each individually for himself.
Before the great effort of the cause, awake ye 2 (all) to our 3 teaching!
3.
Thus are the primeval spirits who as a pair 4 (combining their opposite strivings), and (yet each) independent in his action, have been famed (of old).
(They are) a better thing, they two, and a worse 5 , as to thought, as to word, and as to deed.
And between these two let the wisely acting choose aright.
(Choose ye 6 ) not (as) the evil-doers 7 !
p.
30 4.
(Yea) when the two spirits came together at the first to make 1 life, and life's absence 2 , and to determine how the world at the last shall be (ordered), for the wicked (Hell) the worst life, for the holy (Heaven) the Best Mental State 3 , 5.
(Then when they had finished each his part in the deeds of creation, they chose distinctly each his separate realm.) He who was the evil of them both (chose the evil), thereby working 4 the worst of possible results, but the more bounteous spirit 5 chose the p.
31 [paragraph continues] (Divine) Righteousness; (yea, He so chose) who clothes upon Himself the firm 1 stones of heaven (as His robe).
And He chose likewise them who content Ahura with actions, which (are performed) really in accordance with the faith 2 .
6.
And between these two spirits the Demon-gods (and they who give them worship) can make no righteous choice 3 , since we have beguiled 4 them.
As they were questioning and debating in their council 5 the (personified 6 ) Worst Mind approached them that he might be chosen.
(They made their p.
32 fatal decision.) And thereupon they rushed together unto the Demon of Fury, that they might pollute 1 the lives of mortals 2 .
7.
Upon this 3 Âramaiti (the personified Piety of the saints) approached, and with her came the Sovereign Power, the Good Mind, and the Righteous Order.
And (to the spiritual creations of good and of evil) Âramaiti gave a body, she the abiding and ever strenuous 4 .
And for these (Thy people) so let 5 (that p.
33 body) be (at the last), O Mazda!
as it was when Thou camest first with creations 1 !
8.
And (when the great struggle shall have been fought out which began when the Daêvas first seized the Demon of Wrath as their ally 2 ), and when the (just) vengeance shall have come upon these wretches, then, O Mazda!
the Kingdom shall have been gained for Thee by (Thy) Good Mind (within Thy folk).
For to those, O living Lord!
does (that Good Mind 3 ) utter his command, who will deliver the Demon of the Lie into the two hands 4 of the Righteous Order (as a captive to a destroyer).
9.
Themes
◆Ahura Mazda Principlecosmology
The divine ordering principle of truth and light.
The passage centrally invokes Ahura Mazda as the supreme deity and source of righteousness and good mind.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the coming together of the two spirits at the first to make life and determine the world's order.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The passage describes final vengeance, the gaining of the Kingdom, and the separation of the wicked and holy.