Chapter 12
The next resurrection was six billion souls, and God and his Lords and his sub-Gods had maintained the Diva, and maintained all the orders of heaven, and the divisions and kingdoms, except those that had confederated with Ahura and his kingdoms. And God and his Lords had preserved their own colleges, schools, factories, hospitals and nurseries, as well as their standard in the temples with mortals. And as to mortals who remained Faithist, that is, the I’huan race preserved in purity, God and his Lords and ashars held command over them for the glory of Jehovih.
But over the mongrels, who were multiplying fast on the earth, Ahura and his Lords and ashars held command. But alas for the grade of Ahura’s host in heaven! In less than one thousand years he had abolished his colleges and schools, except what pertained to acquiring knowledge of the earth and atmospherea. He did not teach his people to look higher for other worlds, and in this he began the work that was later to be his own downfall.
Jehovih had said: Whoever fails to provide a philosophy for the endless acquisition of knowledge, dams up the running waters I have made. Let Ahura teach what he will; the time will come when he will be obliged to find an outlet for My created beings. And rather than acknowledge Me in My Person, he will profess to send souls back into earth to be reincarnated.
Ahura’s heavenly kingdoms numbered more than six billion souls, and half of them were little better than drujas, being slaves to certain masters, doing whatever they were told without knowing, or desiring to know, the reason for it.
As yet there were six hundred years to pass before another dawn of dan, in which God, his Lords and their people had faith that Jehovih’s hosts would come from on high to help deliver heaven and earth out of darkness.
On the other hand, Ahura, although having been taught the cycles in his early education, spread the word abroad in heaven and earth that there were no cycles; that, as things are, they had always been, and would continue to be.
So, as much as God’s hosts prophesied a coming light, Ahura and his hosts prophesied that nothing of the kind would come. Ahura, moreover, sent the following order to his Lords, to be taught in heaven and earth, as follows: Am I not He Who inspired Zarathustra, the All Pure? Did I not speak to him, face to face? Are all created things not My own? Who, then, knows except Me if I will light up the world again? Behold, I am the Personation of Ormazd, Who was VOIDANCE, but now is Me, Ahura’Mazda. In Me only is life and death and resurrection. Whoever calls: Ahura’Mazda, Ahura’Mazda! is Mine, and within My keeping. Do not allow your judgment to be warped by prophets who hope for impossible things. ||
Now, in the eightieth year of the final dan, Ahura’s many heavenly kingdoms began to be disturbed by his sub-Gods’ lack of advancement, and so, sixty of them congregated together, and, by messenger, appealed to Ahura, saying:
In reverence to you, O you All Highest God! Many hundreds of years we have served you. And we have paid you tribute whenever you required it of us. We have helped to adorn your capital, Ctusk; we have laid your streets with diamonds and pearls, we have built your mansions with precious gems. And as to your throne, what one of us is here who has not contributed to glorify it before you? Yes, in all ways we have been most loyal and tributary to you.
Nor are we unmindful of our own wisdom. We remember your arguments of old. Before seceding from your God you said to him: Behold, you have long promised we would be raised to more exalted kingdoms, but, behold, two hundred years have elapsed, and there is no advancement. || This is the argument you used for seceding from your God’s kingdoms. Behold, we have now served you and your kingdoms more than a thousand years. We come to you to know how we can now serve you so that you may exalt us into kingdoms commensurate with our wisdom and power?
To this Ahura replied, saying: Most humble and well-meaning Lords and sub-Gods, why did you not come to me, face to face? Why have you consorted in private? Was not my capital, and before my throne, the proper place for your argument? Had you suggested any way by which advancement for you was possible, I would have answered your demands.
But his Lords and sub-Gods did not come before him, but sent this answer: As you promised us advancement provided we served you, so we likewise promised our ashars, and our marshals and captains. Now they come to us, saying: We have served for hundreds of years; give us preferment. But we have nothing to give. Do not think, O God, that we are unwise, or that we hunger and come begging; or that diadems, gems or costly thrones would satisfy us. We know what you have to give—promises! We know every corner of your vast kingdom, and that all places are full, and that you cannot exalt us. Why, then, should we have spoken before the throne in Ctusk? Would not our voices merely breed mischief among your other Gods and Lords? Rather let us err in our proceeding, bringing just punishment upon ourselves, than injure you and your kingdoms. Hear us then, O Ahura’Mazda:
Where does the desire for endless advancement come from, if this heaven is all? If a little knowledge gives power, why then is great knowledge not desirable? We have destroyed our great colleges, saying: You must not go higher than us. Remember, O Ahura, we were students under the Faithists’ God and Lords when you seceded; and you said to us: Behold the long training of your course; a curriculum of a thousand years! Come with me; I will give you kingdoms at once!
So we came to you, and we were suddenly puffed up with great pride. Behold now, we look abroad and the same stars shine upon us. We have not visited them. We do not know how to go so far. The countless etherean worlds lay beyond ours. We are told that they are habitable. We do not know. We have no knowledge enabling us to get away from these heavens; except, indeed, back to the filthy earth.
To this Ahura replied, saying: It is plain to me you are beside yourselves. This heaven is good enough. If there are higher heavens, let them come or stay. I do not go to them. But, in truth, with your present convictions, I would be an unwise God not to grant you dismissal from my kingdoms.
This ended the matter, and the sixty sub-Gods then deliberated on their course, and finally sent the following address to God, in Mouru:
In reverence to you, God of the Faithists in Jehovih: We have had sub-kingdoms, and know our rank is beneath yours. But we are reaching outward and onward; we submit our cause to you. First, then, there are sixty of us, of the rank of sub-Gods, and we hold seven hundred million subjects. Disaffection has risen between ourselves and Ahura’Mazda, from whom we are alienated. But whether we shall unite our hosts into a new kingdom of our own, or affiliate with some mighty God—that is our question.
What preferment can you give to us if we turn our subjects over to you?
God answered them, saying: Brothers, hear me patiently, and consider my words. First, then, I am not God of the Faithists, or of any other people, but God of the locality that was assigned to me by the Father, through His Son. Nor can you give your subjects to me; for by my service to Jehovih I can have nothing, and, least of all, my brothers and sisters.
Moreover, I can give you no preferment; I have nothing, neither to give nor to sell. When the Father gives me wisdom and power, I impart them to others. Besides, until you have also learned to know that you have nothing, neither subjects nor jewels, also desiring nothing, except wisdom and strength to impart to others, how can you hope to gain admittance into my places of learning?
And lastly, since you have kingdoms of your own already, raise them up, and thus prove to me your just merit.
To this the confederated Gods replied: What do you mean? That Gods and angels must labor for others, rather than themselves, forever, and receive nothing for it?
God answered them: Even so; except you shall receive an abundance of happiness, and it will endure forever! || Here the matter ended for two whole years; and the sub-Gods did not understand the plan of Jehovih’s kingdoms. But their kingdoms were out of sorts, having no head; and hundreds of thousands of their subjects were deserting them and returning down to the corporeal earth, becoming wanderers and drujas.
Finally the sub-Gods again appealed to God in Mouru, inquiring as follows: Is a God not a God, whether he is for another or for himself? Behold, we have helped to build up Ahura; he is a mighty God! If we affiliate with you, we will labor to build you up also. Yes, we will adorn your throne and your great heavenly city. But since we have been sub-Gods we do not desire to enter your service as menials and servants. What, then, shall we do, so that both you and ourselves may have honor and glory?
God answered them, saying: You cannot serve me; I have no servants. Serve Jehovih only. Behold, we are all brothers, being sons of the same Great Spirit. As for building me up, it is sufficient for me that He Who created me will build me up according to my just deserts. As for adorning my throne, you can only bring substance to it from the lower kingdoms, which I do not desire. Why would you adorn the heavenly city of Mouru? Behold, it is merely a resting place on the great journey to the kingdoms of endless light. In a few hundred years, at most, not only I but my hosts will rise from this place, never to return.
And lastly, to be a self-God, like Ahura, is to own all things possible, and hold on to them; to be a God as I am, is to own nothing, and to retain nothing; but to be forever giving away all one receives. Did I not say to you before: Begin with your own hosts and exalt them. Because you asked for subjects, behold, the Father gave to you. Do not think that He will permit you now to cast them aside or barter them off. Neither shall you allow them to become wanderers, nor return back to the earth as drujas. To the extent that you raise up the kingdoms that have been entrusted to you, so will you also be raised up.
Nevertheless, if you desire to affiliate with Jehovih’s kingdoms, the way is open to you; and your first labor would be to gather together all your own hosts, and to labor among them, teaching them wisdom, strength and individuality, equal with yourselves; and when the lowest of them all is risen so, then you can enter the kingdoms of the Father. As you have had the profit of your subjects for hundreds of years, return now to them service for service. Jehovih is Justice!
The sub-Gods made no answer to this for awhile, but Jehovih moved upon their hearts, and they perceived wisdom and justice, and they repented, bitterly bewailing the loss of the thousand years in which they had espoused kingdoms. But they did not have sufficient power or learning to extricate themselves; so they petitioned God for more light. And so, God affiliated them, and appointed Vishnu as Lord to them and their hosts.
And Vishnu took three hundred thousand teachers, captains, physicians, nurses and laborers, and went to them in Maitraias, a heavenly place to the west of Vind’yu, and there established a Lordly division, with messengers connecting them to Mouru, in Haraiti. And Vishnu sent his captains with sufficient forces, under command of the sub-Gods, to arrest those who had become wandering spirits, or had returned to the earth as drujas. And while they were on this duty, Vishnu organized his Lord-dom, and this was the first Lord-dom established in heaven, which is to say, as mortals on earth have military stations, so was the Lord-dom of Vishnu.
Jehovih’s Voice had spoken to God in Diva, saying: Behold, the time is coming when the sub-kingdoms of Ahura, the false, will begin to revolt. And they have billions of slaves who will strive to go back to the earth to dwell with mortals. They dwell in darkness, and you shall not allow them to regain the earth, lest the races of men go down in darkness, even as before the submersion of Pan. For which reason, you shall establish a Lord-dom, and raise a sufficient army to shield the inhabitants of the earth. And you shall make Vishnu your Lord in My behalf.
When it was known in Ctusk, the heavenly place of Ahura, that sixty sub-Gods, with their hosts, had affiliated with Jehovih’s kingdoms, general disobedience to Ahura was manifested by the remaining sub-Gods, of whom there were yet more than eight hundred. And these had within their dominions more than two billion angels, all slaves, who had light from no other heavenly place than the small precinct where they had been kept in drudgery for hundreds of years.
The Voice of Jehovih came to God, saying: My Son, take advantage of the seed of disaffection in Ahura’s kingdom. Send an otevan of great power throughout the heavenly kingdoms. And you shall put trumpeters in the otevan, and they shall prophesy the dawn of dan within two hundred years.
God perceived, and he had his workmen build an otevan of great power; and he provided trumpeters, and sent them forth, saying to them: You shall travel ten years in the heavenly places around the whole earth, prophesying: In less than two hundred years Jehovih’s etherean hosts are coming. Prepare for the resurrection; His kingdoms are open for the weary; His Lords and Gods will give you rest!
Ahura summoned his Council of false Gods, hoping they might invent a remedy to counteract so great a prophecy. And he and his Council sat forty days and forty nights in their heavenly capital; but there was no high light among them, merely each one giving his opinion. But at the end of forty days Ahura resolved upon the following method: to send a prophecy of his own.
Accordingly he had an otevan built, and sent trumpeters forth with these words: I, Ahura’Mazda, Only Son of the All Nothing Presence, personated in My Very Self, proclaim from My All Highest Heavenly Judgment Seat! Hear My words, O Gods, and tremble! Hear Me, O angels, and fall down! Hear Me, O mortals, and bow down to My decrees. Behold, I sent My fire-ship, prophesying that in less than two hundred years I would come in a dawn of dan! But you did not obey; you were defiant before Me! Then I swore an oath against the whole world! You shall know My power! Then I came down out of My holy, high heaven; and I have already come. Now is the dawn of dan! I send My trumpeters first; after them come My lashers and enchainers, whose captain is Daevas, whose God is Anra’mainyus. I will have Mine, and I will cast into everlasting torments, druks and drujas by the thousands and tens of thousands.
Ahura’s Gods had become acquainted with him during the hundreds and hundreds of years, and they no longer trembled at his commandments. In their hearts they knew he could not do what he professed; they knew his prophecies were vain boastings. Indeed, his very trumpeters did not believe what they proclaimed.