Chapter 26
Sakaya said: You cannot associate with all men, for many are of diverse tastes and habits.
Nevertheless, do not refuse all association because of this, for there are those who are consonant with you. And yet, those who are disagreeable to you nevertheless are compatible to others.
Ormazd has created a large field; His people are numerous, and there are many in the world so like others that they are as one in all things.
Choose those with whom you are consonant; and as you become one with one another, so do you become one with the Creator.
But most of all, virtue, industry and good works will come into the world by the examples you place before the young. It is better to hide and subdue your temper in presence of the young, than to conquer a whole state by force of arms.
The young are your angels given to you by the Creator; and you are their Gods. Consider, then, what kind of a kingdom you raise up.
Happiness on earth is answered by happiness in heaven; and that which is planted on earth, is reaped in heaven.
Touching charity: I say it is good to take the alms-bowl, and go about begging for the poor; and yet, in the same breath, I say it is an evil.
I have found of all charity that it has two great evils: First, it flatters him who gives, that he has done a good work, and this is an injury to his own soul; second, charity injures the poor, because it destroys manhood, and gives good caste to a beggar.
Even though this kingdom is filled with hospitals and houses of charity, it is not any less free from vagrants and helpless ones.
And though you build a thousand houses for the poor, and feed them too, yet you will have just as many still unprovided for, as when there was only one poorhouse.
For the law is unalterable in heaven and earth, that whatever you nurse, will grow.
I also declare to you an equally severe law, which is: That if you do nothing to benefit the afflicted, distressed and helpless, you cannot escape the damnation of earth and heaven.
To remedy which, it devolves upon you, to find a remedy in society itself, where there shall be no rich and no poor.
For it is also law, that where there are rich, there must be poor. Where there are masters, there must be servants.
In which the rich man is a sinner before heaven and earth, even more so than the poor man. ||
Some of them asked Sakaya: Suppose a rich man does not feed the poor and helpless, but he gives employment to a thousand hired servants; is he not good?
Sakaya said: A man may feed his cattle, caring for the sick ones, but still he treats them as cattle. A man may employ many cattle, but still he treats them like cattle. And he who does this to his brothers and sisters, the curse of the Creator is upon that man.
But if he gives up what he has, and makes himself a father over them, to develop himself and them in manliness, wisdom and virtue, then his charities are as virtue.
In whatever a man does, and his own self receives prestige over others, that man offends in the sight of Jehovih (Ormazd).
Yet these things are not new in the world; they were the doctrines of the ancients. And in this day, the Brahmin priests preach them in languages you do not understand. Behold, I break away from their languages, and preach the truth in your native tongue, and it sounds new to you.
I have tried, and proved in my own person, and I declare to you, that preaching alone is of little benefit in the world. Spoken words are a breath of air. They blow away. Written words lay in silence; they are dead.
I have not come to preach, nor to build up a new order of preaching, but to found a practice in life, by which crime, misery and starvation may be averted.
Capilya covered the earth over with families of communities, and the earth became like a garden, rich in fruit and flowers. Pauperism was taken away from this land. Then came cruel wars and the destruction of harmony and of learning.