Chapter 42
God in Craoshivi prayed to Jehovih as to what he should do to release De’yus and Anubi; Jehovih answered, saying: My Son, you shall first labor for those who desire; whoever courts darkness does not deserve your hand. Since the early days, I have proclaimed warnings to those who put Me away; but in their self-conceit they denied My person and power.
If you were, this day, to deliver from hell De’yus and Anubi, and their billions of self-torturing slaves, they would only use their deliverance to mock My creation, saying: It did not last; it was only a breath of wind. || For which reason you shall not yet meddle with the hells of Hored.
In four hundred years I will bring the earth into another dawn of light. Till then, let De’yus and Anubi and their hosts take their course.
God inquired concerning Osiris, Te-in and Sudga, and Jehovih answered him, saying: Sufficient for them is the light they have received. Allow them also to take their course, for they also shall become involved in hells of their own building.
But be attentive to My Chosen, the Faithists, in all parts of heaven and earth; not letting one of them fall into the hells of My enemies.
God acquainted Ahura with Jehovih’s words; then Ahura prayed to Jehovih, saying: O Father, grant me permission to go to Osiris, and to Te-in, and to Sudga, to plead Your cause. Behold, the Lord God is locked up in hell; even high-raised Gods would not find it safe to go to him.
Jehovih said: Why, O Ahura, do you desire to go to Osiris, Te-in and to Sudga? Do you not know how difficult it is to alter the mind of a mortal man; and yet these self-Gods are ten times more stubborn!
Ahura said: I know, I cannot change them. To break this matter of conceit—and all learned men are liable to fall into it—none but You, O Jehovih, have power. But these self-Gods were long ago my most loved friends; behold, I will go to them as a father would go to a son, and plead with them. || And Jehovih gave permission to Ahura to visit the three great self-Gods.
So Ahura fitted out an otevan, and, with ten thousand attendants, one thousand heralds and five thousand musicians, besides the officers of the fire-ship, set sail for Che-su-gow, Te-in’s heavenly place, over Jaffeth. And when he arrived near the place he halted and sent his heralds ahead to inquire if he could have audience with Te-in.
Te-in received the heralds cordially, and being informed of their object, sent back this word: Te-in, the most high ruler of heaven and earth sends greeting to Ahura, commanding his presence, but forbidding Ahura and his hosts from speaking to any soul in Che-su-gow except himself (Te-in).
Ahura received this insulting message with composure, and then proceeded and entered the capital city, the heavenly place of Te-in, where he was met by one million slaves, arrayed in the most gorgeous manner. These conducted him and his attendants to the arena, where Ahura was received by the marshals, who brought him to the throne, leaving the attendants in the arena. Here Te-in saluted on the SIGN OF TAURUS [Ex-bau –Ed.], and Ahura answered in the Sign FRIENDSHIP [Aries –Ed.].
Te-in signaled privacy, and so all others fell back, leaving Ahura and Te-in alone. Te-in said: Come and sit beside me on the throne. Ahura said: Because you have not forgotten me I am rejoiced. And he went up and sat on the throne. Te-in said: Because you are my friend I love you; because you are beside me I am rejoiced. It is more than a thousand years since my eyes have seen you. Tell me, Ahura, how is it with yourself and your kingdom?
Ahura said: As for myself I am happy; for the greater part, my kingdom is happy also. My trials have been severe and long enduring. But of my four billion, more than half of them are delivered beyond atmospherea, high raised; and of the others they grade from fifty to ninety.
Te-in said: And for your toil of more than two thousand years, what have you gained by striving to raise up these drujas? Ahura said: Only this, O Te-in, peace and rejoicing in my soul.
Te-in said: On that hangs two philosophies: One seeks peace and rejoicing by laboring with the lowest of the low; the other, by leading the highest of the high. As for myself the latter suits me better than the former. I tell you, Ahura, all things come of the will; if we will ourselves to shut out horrid sights and complaints, like those the poor druk and the druj indulge in, we have joy in a higher heaven. To me it is thus: Sympathy is our most damnable enemy, for it binds us to the wretched and miserable. To put away sympathy is to begin to be a great master over others, to make them subservient to our wills.
Ahura said: Is it not a good thing to help the wretched? Te-in answered: To help them is like drinking nectar; it makes one’s senses buoyant for the time being. That is all. They relapse and are less resolute than before, but depend on being helped again. For which reason, he who helps the wretched wrongs them woefully. To make them know their places, this is the highest. For do not even the Gods have to submit to their places? To learn to be happy with one’s place and condition is great wisdom.
In this matter thousands of Gods have fallen; they helped up the poor and wretched; as one may, in sympathy to serpents, take them into his house and pity them; but they immediately turn and bite their helpers. But speak, O Ahura; for I have respect for your words.
Ahura said: If a man plants an acorn in a flowerpot, and it takes root and grows, one of two things must follow: the growth must be provided against or the pot will burst. Even in the same way, the lowest druj in heaven draws from the surrounding sources. None of the Gods can bind him forever. Alas, he will grow. All our bondage over them cannot prevent the soul, sooner or later, from taking root and growing. How, then, can we be Gods over them forever?
Te-in said: You are a God over them; I am a God over them. Where is the difference? Ahura said: I am not in my own name; though I am God over them, yet I am not God over them. For I teach them they shall not worship me, but Jehovih. I train them so that I may raise them away from me. Nor do my people serve me, but serve the Great Spirit. You teach your drujas that you are the all highest, and that they shall be contented to serve you everlastingly. You limit them to the compass of your kingdom. I do not limit my subjects, but teach them that their progression is forever onward, upward.
Te-in said: How do we know that the time will not come upon them, when they shall say: Alas, I was taught in error. They told me there was a Great Spirit, a Person comprising all things, but I have not found Him. Will they not then revolt also? Was this not the cause of De’yus’ fall? He had searched the heavens to the extreme, but did not find Jehovih. Then he returned, and possessed heaven and earth for himself. Although he failed, and is cast into hell, it is plain that his sympathy for drujas caused his fall. From his errors, I hope to guard myself; for I shall neither show sympathy for the poor or wretched, nor will I permit education on earth or in heaven, except to my Lords or marshals. When a mortal city displeases me, I will send spirits of darkness to overwhelm it to destruction. Yes, they shall incite mortals to fire the place, and to riot and death. Thus I will keep the drujas of heaven forever busy playing games with mortals, and in bringing provender and diadems to forever glorify my heavenly kingdom.
Ahura said: Where in all the world has a self-God stood and not fallen? Te-in said: You may well ask of mortals: Where is a kingdom or a nation that stood, and has not fallen? Yet you perceive that nations continue to try to establish themselves everlastingly. But they are leveled in time. Things spring up and grow, and then fall into dissolution. Will it not be so with ourselves in the far future? Will we not become one with the ever-changing elements, and as nothing, and wasted away?
Ahura said: One might say of man and spirits: There were some seeds planted; and many of them rotted and returned to earth; but others took root and grew and became large trees. But yet, is it not also true of the trees that they have a time? For they die, fall down, rot, and also return to earth.
Ahura continued: Admit this to be true, O Te-in, and that the time may come when you and I shall pass out of being, then does it not follow that for the time we live we should contribute all we can to make others happy?
Te-in said: If by so doing it will render ourselves happy, with no danger to our kingdoms, then yes, truly. For which reason, are we not forced back, after all is said and done, to the position that we shall labor for our own happiness, without regard to others? One man delights in art, another in philosophy, another in helping the poor and wretched; and another in eating and drinking, and another in ruling over others; shall they not all have enjoyment in the way of their desires? Shall you say to him who delights in eating and drinking: Stop; come and delight yourself helping the wretched!
Ahura said: This I have seen: The intelligent and clean have more delight than do the stupid and filthy; the rich more enjoyment than the poor. As for ourselves, we delight more in seeing the delighted than in seeing the wretched. More do we delight to see a child smile than to hear it cry; but there are those who delight more to make a child cry than to see it smile; but such persons are evil and take delight in evil. Shall we, then, indulge them in their means of delight? Or is there not a limit, as when we say: All men have a right to that which delights themselves, provided it does not mar the delight of others?
Te-in said: You have reasoned well. We shall delight ourselves only in such ways as do not mar the delight of others. Upon which, Ahura said: Then I am not delighted with the manner of your kingdom; and you should not practice what gives me pain. Because you have resolved to not educate mortals or angels, you have raised a hideous wall in the face of Gods.
Te-in said: This also you will admit: That as we desire to delight ourselves we should look for the things that delight us, and turn away from things that do not delight us. Therefore, let the Gods not turn their faces this way, but to their own affairs.
Ahura said: You are wise, O Te-in. But this I have found; that something within us grows, that will not be put down or turned aside. In the beginning of life we look to ourselves, which is the nature of the young; but when we grow, we take a wife, and we delight to see her delighted; then comes offspring, and we delight to see them delighted. After this, we delight to see our neighbors delighted; and then the state, and then the whole kingdom. This delight to be delighted grows within us; and when we become Gods we delight no longer in the delight of a few only, but we expand to many kingdoms. As for myself, I first delighted in the delight of Vara-pishanaha; but now I delight to see other Gods and other kingdoms delighted. For that, I have come to you. I fear your fate. I love you. I love all your people, good and bad. Behold, this I have found, that it is an easier matter to suffer a river to run its course than to dam it up; but to dam up a river and not have it overflow or break the dam, this I have not found. The course of the spirit of man is growth; it goes onward like a running river. When you shut up the mouth, saying: Thus far and no farther! I fear for you. I tried this matter once; I was flooded; the dam was broken. I see you shutting out knowledge from mortals and angels; but I tell you, O Te-in, the time will come when the channel will be too broad for you.
Te-in said: How shall I answer such great wisdom? Where find a God like you, O Ahura? And yet, behold, the Lord God, Anuhasaj, toiled with you hundreds of years, and learned all these things; yes, he traveled in the far-off heavens (etherea), where there are Gods and kingdoms which have existed for millions of years. And he came back and renounced the Great Person, Jehovih. He said: All things are not a harmonious whole; but a jumble; a disordered mass, playing catch as catch can.
Ahura said: And what has befallen him? And is this, itself, not a great argument? For we behold in all times, conditions and places, in heaven and on earth, wherever people assume doctrines like his, they begin to go down into hell. They flourish a little while, but only as a summer plant, to yield in the winter’s blast. I have seen this coming for a long time against these heavens, even yours, that as darkness crushed De’yus, so will your heavenly dominions sooner or later fall, and in the shock and fray you will suffer a fate like De’yus.
Te-in said: For your wise words, O Ahura, I am your servant. I will consider your argument, and remember you with love. In a thousand years from now I may be wiser; and I may have my kingdom so built up that it will be an argument stronger than words. ||
With that, the two Gods brought their argument to a close, and Te-in signaled his vice-Gods and marshals, and they came; and when Ahura and Te-in had saluted each other, Ahura was conducted away from the place of the throne, and after that beyond the capital. The vice-Gods and marshals delivered him to his own attendants, and with them he embarked in his otevan, and set sail for Sudga’s heavenly kingdom, over the land of Vind’yu.