by Jayaram V
Zoroastrians believe that the material world is afflicted with the
evils of
death,decay and disintegration due to the presence of Ahirman and
his fiendish forces. Their presence in the world is as per a covenant agreed upon by
God, who wanted them to remain confined to a particular region in the
universe so that they all could eventually be destroyed. So the world is
marked by dichotomy between good and evil. God represents life and light, where as Ahirman
represents, malice, death and darkness. Death is the domain of Ahirman into which God or his
forces would not enter. So Ahirman's will reigns unopposed in the domain of
death. He cannot
touch the spirit, because it is made of the same material
as of God and he does not have the strength to deal with it. However when the spirit leaves
the body, he and his forces rush into the body and contaminate it with their
foul presence. Zoroastrian scriptures insist
that when a
person dies, people should dispose it of immediately in a prescribed
manner and save themselves and others from contamination caused by the foul presence
of Nashu, an evil matter. Touching a corpse or causing others to touch it intentionally
or unintentionally is viewed as a mortal sin, which used to warrant death penalty
in ancient times.
The method suggested by the Zoroastrian texts to dispose of a dead
body is by placing it in a rounded structure called dakhma, specially built for the purpose
and leave it there in the open till it is consumed by vultures, dogs and other flesh eating birds and
animals. When the flesh is completely gone and the bones are dry, close
relatives of the deceased should collect the remains and place them inside an
underground vault, where they should be allowed to disintegrate slowly
over a long period of time. Zoroastrian religion do not permit the
disposal of the dead through burial or cremation or by dropping them into
the waters of a river or lake or ocean. There is only one way to dispose
it of and it is through the dakhma, in the manner described above.
However, as in other religions, prayers and
rituals are offered by Zoroastrians as a part of the funeral proceedings
for the safety of the spirit and the purity of those involved
in the disposal of the body.
The journey of the soul
According to Zoroastrian beliefs, when a person dies, his or her
spirit leaves the body, but remains in its vicinity for three days and
nights, suffering from temporary anxiety and distress caused by the
sudden separation. During this period, the archangel Vohuman and Mithra
prepare an account of the good works and the sins of the soul, to be used later to decide
its fate in the spiritual world. On the third night the soul leaves the
material world and enters into the spiritual world, led by an angel
called Daena (who symbolically represents conscience). There it stands
before the Chinawad or Chinavat Bridge or the Bridge of Judgment, where the deeds of the soul
are reviewed. Good souls are led to the Paradise and evil souls are led
to the world of of punishment. The journey of the souls who are
destined to go to the heaven is made pleasant by the angels, where as the
sinners go through an agonizing experience as they are forcibly pushed towards the hell. The souls will remain in their respective abodes till
the end of the current cycle of time. At the end of it there will be a Judgment
Day, when God will revive all the dead souls and review their actions
once again.
Those who were on the side of the good and God will be rewarded with an
eternal heavenly life, while the rest will be consigned to a world of
torment permanently.
Descriptions of Heaven and Hell
As in other religions, descriptions of the heaven and hell in Zoroastrianism
present
contrasting pictures. The heaven described as is a pleasant place, filled with the
radiance of God and great comforts. The hell is a dark world, where
souls are subjected to intense agony by the creatures of Ahirman, who
takes great delight in the suffering of the souls. We find descriptions of heaven
and hell in some Zoroastrian scriptures, like the Dadestan-i-Denig, a
later day Zoroastrian text, which describes the heaven as, "lofty, exalted,
supreme, most brilliant, most fragrant, most pure, filled with beautiful existences, most desirable, and most good,
which is the place
and abode of the sacred beings (yazdano), where is found all comfort,
pleasure, joy, happiness (vashidagih), and welfare, better even than the
greatest and most supreme welfare and pleasure in the world. There is no
want, pain, distress, or discomfort in it; and it is pleasantness. It is
the constantly beneficial place (gas), full and unending space, a good and boundless world."
In contrast the hell is a place of chaos. It lies beneath the earth,
with its gates located in the earth. By all accounts, it is a terrible dark place,
"deep, and descending, most dark, most stinking, and most terrible,
filled with wretched existences (anazidantum), with the most bad cave (grestako) of the demons and fiends. In it there is no comfort,
pleasantness, or joy whatever; but stench, filth, pain, punishment,
distress, profound evil, and discomfort. There is no resemblance of it
whatever to the worldly stench, filthiness, pain, and evil. So much more
grievous is the evil in hell than even the most grievous evil on earth
and more grievous is the terror of the punishment on the soul than that
of the vileness of the demons on the body. There the sinful soul
is punished by the wicked demons and darkness, the head (kamarako) of
whom is Ahriman the deadly."
The Chinawad Bridge
Description of the Chinawad or Chinavat bridge is also provided in the Dadestan (Chp
21). The souls have to cross this bridge invariably before going to
either heaven or hell according to their deeds. The scripture describes
the bridge like a beam of many sides. Some of its edges (posto) are broad, and some
are thin and razon sharp. "When the
souls of the righteous and wicked arrive at the bridge, it turns to that
side which is suitable to their necessities. For the righteous souls it
becomes a broad bridge, as much as the height of nine spears (nizhako); and
for the sinful souls it turns into a narrow bridge, like the the edge of a
razor." When the righteous pass over the bridge, his path becomes
pleasant like gold colored spring, strewn with sweet scented blossoms. But when
the wicked walks upon it it becomes thorny, foul smelling and agonizing
to cross.
Conclusion
The Zoroastrian mode of disposal of the dead makes it one of the most
difficult religions to follow in the modern world. The descriptions of
the suffering of the sinful souls in the hell, as described in by Arda
Viraf in his composition that goes by the same name, is a grim reminder
to the followers of Mazda as to the importance of righteousness in their
lives. More than the actions, it is the choices people make in their
lives which determines their fate in the afterworld. The simplest and
the best way to practice righteousness is to follow the three
commandments preached by Zoroaster, good thoughts, good words and good
actions and avoid all possible contamination with evil. Finally, the
scriptures offer a hope to every one since the stay in heaven or hell is
deemed temporary because the souls will be resurrected once again and
subjected to judgment by God at the end of the current time cycle.
Suggested Further Reading
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