Both Ahura Mazdâ and the Evil Spirit have their agents among the humans. Ahura Mazdâ’s principal agent, the first human to “praise Order,” to “discard the daewas” as not worthy of sacrifice, and to “sacrifice to Ahura Mazda” was Zarathustra, the first human poet-sacrificer. Later poet-sacrificers imitate Zarathustra in order to perform a successful sacrifice. Zarathustra’s primary adversaries in the Gâthâs are the kawis and karpans (Pahlavi kaygs and karbs) “poetasters and mumblers.” The cosmic duality as reflected in mankind manifests itself through man’s choices as regards his thoughts, words, and acts. The sustainer of Order will think good thoughts, speak good words, and do good deeds, the one possessed by the Lie will think evil thoughts, speak evil words, and do evil deeds. Here we have to be cautious not to identify these terms with those of modern religions, such as Christianity, with which the Old Avestan concepts only partly overlap. In the Old Avestan religion “good thought,” etc., means exactly “thought which is in conformity with Order,” and “evil thought,” etc., means “thought which is opposed to good thought, which is in conformity with the Lie.” Once he has chosen his sides, the poet-sacrificer expects Ahura Mazda and the other divine beings to be on his side as well. This mutual dependency is well expressed by Darius, in his statement “I am Ahura Mazda’s, Ahura Mazda is mine.” The relationship between the poet-sacrificer and the divine world is regulated by the rules that obtain for the Ordered cosmos in general and which also regulate the natural cycles and social relationships. In this bipolar structure, which is valid for relations between the divine and human worlds, as well as among humans in society, both participants have their assigned job to do, and until the job is done they remain in debt to the other part. Thus the job is part of the elaborate system of gift exchange found in ancient and “primitive” societies and which has been identified and well studied for instance in the Greek and Old Indic literatures, but also in the wider Indo-European context. The reciprocity of divine and human contributions to the maintenance and re-establishment of Order is governed by two sets of rules: the datas, the rules or laws (apparently) established by Ahura Mazda in his function as king for everybody to follow, and the urwatas, the deals between gods and gods, gods and men, or men and men, corresponding, respectively, to Rigvedic dharman- “upholding, (cosmic) rule” and vrata-. While the dâtas are eternal established rules for behavior established by Ahura Mazda, the deals are eternal (OInd. prathama- “first, primeval”) conventions that regulate divine and human interaction to which both the divine and the human parts must conform. The mithra “contract,” on the other hand, seems to be a deal concluded between humans.
Dualism in Zoroastrianism: Dialectic of Good and Evil
