Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/323

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290
THE RENOVATION

life and immortality will come to pass forever and the dead will rise up again.[1] Plutarch records that it is the Magian belief that at the time of the Renovation mankind will speak one language and have one commonwealth; men will live without food and they will not cast shadows.[2] Vohu Manah at the time of this final dispensation will smite Aka Manah; truth will rout falsehood; Haurvatat and Ameretat will smite once and for all the fiends of hunger and thirst, at which moment the deadly Aeshma will bow and flee helpless forever.[3] The demons are believed to have existed as long as physical and moral imperfections lasted; with the cessation of all such evils, the fiends will be no more. The Saoshyants will join in reciting the Airyaman Ishya prayer, and the divine Kingdom of Ahura Mazda will come to pass, as the sovereignty of Angra Mainyu will then end. Impotent, the Prince of Evil will acknowledge his defeat in the warfare that has gone on for ages between the powers of Right and Wrong. Bowing before Ahura Mazda, Angra Mainyu will hide himself with the demons in the earth.[4] The wicked Druj and her hundredfold brood will forthwith vanish,[5] and with it will disappear all evil propensities in man. With the disappearance of evil from the universe, good will prevail everywhere and for all time; and the accursed name of Angra Mainyu will be forgotten. Ahura Mazda will be forever, even as he has been from all eternity.

  1. Yt. 19. 11, 19, 20, 23, 24, 89; WFr. 4. 3.
  2. Is. et Os. 47.
  3. Yt. 19. 95, 96.
  4. Yt. 19. 96; WFr. 4. 2, 3.
  5. Yt. 19. 12, 90.