that the exiles in Babylonia brought with them under the Persian influence the belief in the compensatory justice in the life after death.
The mightiest of men cower before death. Every creature that is born in this earth dies when the demon of death comes to it.[1] The soul is immortal, and survives the death of the body which is perishable.[2] The ignorant man, intoxicated with the pride of youth, encircled in the heat of passion, and enchained by the bonds of fleeting desires, forgets the transitoriness and death of the body.[3] One who lives for the body alone comes to sorrow at the end of life, and finds his soul thrown into the terrible den of Angra Mainyu.[4] Man should act in such a way that his soul may attain to heaven after death.[5] The individual who blindly seeks the passing good of the body, thus sacrificing the lasting good of the soul, is merciless to himself and if he has no mercy on himself, he cannot expect it from others.[6] This ignorance brings his spiritual ruin.[7] He should not live in forgetfulness of the everlasting life, and lose it by yielding to his passions. Man sees his fellow-being snatched away from this earth, but he grows so indifferent that he forgets that his own turn may soon come to sever his connection with this world.[8] The man may be faring sumptuously in the forenoon, but his fall may come in the afternoon.[9] The demon of death overpowers everyone. Ever since the world began, and man graced this earth with his presence, no mortal has ever escaped his clutches, nor shall one ever escape until the resurrection.[10] The priests and the princes, the righteous and the wicked, have all to tread the dreary path of death.[11] Neither the first man, Gaya Maretan, who kept the world free from disease and death, nor Haoshyangha, who killed two-thirds of the demons, nor Takhma Urupi, who bridled and rode on the Evil Spirit, nor Yima, who dispelled old age and death from his kingdom, nor Dahaka, who was a scourge to humanity, nor Thraetaona, who bound Dahaka, nor Kavi Usa, who flew in the sky, nor Franrasyan, who hid himself under the earth, could struggle successfully against death. All these great and mighty men delivered up their bodies, when Astovidhotu grasped them by their hands.[12]
