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Pahlavi Texts, Part II (SBE18), E.W. West, tr. [1882], at sacred-texts.com


CHAPTER XXXVIII.

1. As to the thirty-seventh question and reply, that which you ask is thus: The measure that they

p. 121

measure good works with being revealed 1, how is it then when there is more, or not, done by us?

2. The reply is this, that every thought, word, and deed whose result is joy, happiness, and commendable recompense--when a happy result is obtainable, and the exuberance (afzûnŏ) of thought, word, and deed is important--is well-thought, well-said, and well-done 2. 3. And for him the result of whose wish for good works is conclusively joy and exaltation of soul--which are his attainment of recompense from the constantly-beneficial space 3, the immortal and unlimited, which shall never perish--there is no measure of the multitude of good works. 4. For every one by whom many are performed, and who engages in still more, appropriates the result more fully, and is more worthy; but it is not obtained for the completion of that which is a definite measure, therefore he does not obtain still more, and it is not necessary he should; and it is, moreover not obtained even for the completion of a limit of unlimitedness 4.


Footnotes

121:1 They are balanced against the sins committed (see Chaps. XIII, 2-4, XXIV, 5, 6); if the good works exceed the sins by a very small quantity the soul is supposed to go to the ordinary heaven (vahistô), but if by a quantity sufficient to balance one unatonable sin it goes to the best existence, or supreme heaven (garôdmânô, see Sls. VI, 3, 4). M14 and J have merely: 'The measure for good works being revealed.'

121:2 The three characteristics of good works.

121:3 See Chaps. XXVI, 3, XXXI, 24, XXXVII, 22.

121:4 The good works in excess of the quantity necessary 'for admitting the soul into the supreme heaven cannot affect the destination of the soul, but. they add to its future enjoyment (see Chap. VIII, 4), and no limit can be assigned to the quantity that can be thus absorbed.


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