Chapter 14
In course of time, word came to Ahura, in Vara-pishanaha, of the proceedings of the Lord God, now styled De’yus, and of the revolt of all the lowest heavens in one fell swoop. And Ahura remembered his own shortcomings, thousands of years ago, and the terrible bondage that came upon him in the end. And he knew De’yus, who had been a sub-God under him for hundreds of years, under the name Anuhasaj, who had tried to break the lines in the arc of Spe-ta, in the resurrection of Ailkin.
So Ahura prayed to Jehovih, before the Holy Council in Vara-pishanaha, to know what he should say or do in the matter, or if he should do nothing at all. Jehovih answered him, saying:
My Son, you are no longer a child. Address the Lord God, or not, as seems fit in your own eyes. Behold, I allowed you to try the same road, so that you could understand Me and My kingdoms.
So Ahura decided to send, in his own name, and in his own way, word to De’yus. This, then, is what he sent:
To Anuhasaj, my one-time sub-God, greeting to you in justice and wisdom. If you were inexperienced, I would treat you with respect. But you know you are false. And because you are false, you shall reap in falsehood.
Behold, the day shall come when your Gods will desert you; for such is the tree you have planted in your kingdoms. This rule holds on earth and in all the heavens. Can that which is unborn, restrain its own birth? Or that which is not quickened into life, restrain the Creator’s hand?
So also does it hold true for him who sows for self: He shall reap a harvest of selfs. And your Gods will be for themselves, and your marshals, and all your hosts; every one pulling in an opposite way.
Not suddenly will these things come upon you; for you shall have a mighty kingdom and great honor and glory, like no other God before you has had in these heavens. And your people shall be jealous to serve you, striving with all their might to outdo one another in worshipful obedience to you. And your name, even the names De’yus and Lord God, shall stand for a season as the highest on the earth of all the names that have ever been.
And yet the time shall come when your names shall be cast out of earth and heaven. And it shall be the deeds that you shall do, that shall be the means of making your names execrable.
Do not think, O my Lord God, that you will deal righteously, and keep yourself holy. Behold, I, too, was a revolted God who set up a kingdom for my own glory. And at its beginning I was most resolute to practice righteousness in all things.
But the surroundings overcame me; for as I was allied to self, so selfish officers under me beset me on all occasions, and I was forced to find new places and new glories for them, or, by their grumbling, they would sow my fields with mutiny. I was powerless in the great kingdom I built up. You know the result.
Do you think the larger your kingdom, the greater will be your power to avert your fall? My experience was the opposite of this.
I admonish you in wisdom and justice; I know you are doing these things not for the raising up of the fruit of the earth, but for your own aggrandizement and glory. And I say to you, the time will surely come when your Gods will do the same things against you. And in that time the wise and learned and truthful will fly from you, but the drujas and slaves will not leave you; but you shall be environed with them, and cast into hell.
You shall heap misery upon millions of your subjects, but you shall not escape the hand of justice: You shall reimburse every one of them. You have cast your net in shoal water; your own feet shall be tangled in its meshes.
Behold, I, too, once craved a great heavenly kingdom; now I weep day and night because I have it. And you, too, shall experience the time of scalding tears, to be rid of that which you crave even now.
Yet, how else shall the dumb be raised in heaven? Who else shall minister to the wandering spirits that overspread the earth; and the evil drujas; and the lusters; and the foul-smelling? Shall I say to you: Go on, you self-presuming Lord God, the Great Spirit has a rod in pickle for you!
Yes, He answers the ambition of men and Gods sooner or later; in a way they do not think of, He brings them up with a round turn.
You are like a man who, desirous of great bulk, shuts up the pores of the skin of his flesh; you seek to shut up the course of the heavens that rises out of the earth, upward forever. And as the man chokes up with a foul smell, and dies, so shall it be with your kingdom. Behold, the way of everlasting light is outward, onward, away from the corporeal worlds; but the way of darkness is toward the earth.
Do you say the spirits of the dead shall not rise away from the earth? And, in their ignorance of the higher heavens, become guides to mortals!
Behold, you have traveled far; and you strut about, saying: It is enough; I, the Lord God, have traveled in the far-off heavens (etherea); stay at home, and work for me forever, so that I may be glorified!
Will you say: I, the Lord God, I, De’yus, am the only Son of the Void! Behold, my kingdom lies in a little corner! Come and worship me, the Lord God, and you shall see me on my throne!
Or will you say: The impersonal space, senselessness, by accident fructified itself in corporeal substance, and became me, the Lord God, in the form of a full-grown man, and then I created all the creations! For which reason let men and angels fall down and worship the man, De’yus, who dwells in Hored, a ripple in the lowest heavens!
I am not professing love to you, Anuhasaj, but justice toward those beneath you. For you shall hoodwink mortals, and even angels of little experience, to believe you were the very Creator; but your Gods know who you truly are, and the Gods above you know also. All your days at most have been only two thousand and seven hundred years! And the time shall come upon you when you shall be forced, by your own fault, to assert you were the very Creator, Whose worlds have run billions of years! Who can carry so great a falsehood as this! And not carrying it, it shall fall down on you and on your people, and take root and spread abroad, till your place and your Gods’ places are the foundations of nothing but lies.
For the rule holds in all places, high and low, that according to the seed sown so shall be the harvest, whether good or bad. Nor can any man or God alter this rule, or bend it to the right or left.
If it is Jehovih’s decree that someone shall make the names of God, and Lord God, and De’yus, execrable on earth and in heaven, it may well be that you have put yourself into the yoke to that end. Yet I would not have you so, if I could prevent it.
You were once my sub-God, and I remember you well; you were young and full of promise. My judgment spoke to me of you, saying: A sub-God to be proud of for thousands of years! But my judgment was not Jehovih’s. My love for you was early nipped in the bud, for you were forever talking about yourself. You made your neighbor Gods sick by forever relating your experiences and your prophecies as to what you would do.
And when Jehovih encompassed me about in my own evil, you tormented me because I had not followed your advice. Now I repeat to you, I could not follow anyone’s advice. And you too shall be environed about and unable to follow anyone’s advice; for such is the bondage of the Godhead, unless we cut ourselves loose making Jehovih the Head and Front, and ourselves His servants. For the God should not only be the greatest in his kingdom, but the most menial servant of his people; forever casting off responsibility, and forever urging his subjects not to idolize him, but Jehovih! Forever showing them that their God is nothing more than they are; that they must stand alone, and become, not slaves to their God, but independent beings full of manliness, having faith in the Great Spirit only.
By which the God binds neither himself nor his people; giving full sway to the love of liberty in every soul, but in tenderness and love that harmonize with Jehovih’s proceedings.
Now when you came back to me after I was delivered out of hell, and my kingdoms raised to Vara-pishanaha, you did profess to understand these things, and, in truth, to love this philosophy. And you prayed fervently to Jehovih, repenting of your former ways, and taking part in the rites and ceremonies.
Then I opened my heart to you. My much love for you, as when I first knew you, returned upon me a thousand fold. In joy and in tears I fell upon you, and I praised Jehovih that He had sent me so sweet a love.
In each other’s arms we repented, and we swore our mutual love forever. Then we both saw the way of Jehovih clear, and He made us strong and wise, full of rejoicing.
And we fell to work, hand in hand, laboring with drujas, dark and most foul, teaching them day and night, forever repeating to their stupid minds. And when we were both nearly exhausted thousands of times, and we slacked up, and withdrew for a short spell, we rested in each other’s arms!
Then we reasoned and philosophized on the plans and glories of Jehovih’s works; watching hopefully for signs of progress in our wards. O the glory of those days! O the richness of your wisdom and love to me in those days of darkness! For a hundred years we toiled thus, and I was blessed, and my people were blessed, by you, you star of our love.
When we raised up my four billion wards a small way up out of darkness, our far-off Goddess, Atcheni, needed one who was great, like you, to travel in other regions. And I parted with you. My soul was as if divided in two.
For hundreds of years you traveled and became rich in knowledge; but did not return to me, to my bursting heart! What more can I say? You are in your place, and I am in mine; but Jehovih is with Wisdom, Love, Truth and Fidelity, for these are His abiding places. ||