Thus far extend the illustrations of the sage Jamásp. But that the scope of Zardusht is couched under allegories agrees with the declaration made by the great Bahman, the son of Isfendiár, the son of king Gushtásp, who says: “Zardusht once said to me: ‘My father and mother delivered me to nurses, who dwelt in a place far remote from the city of my birth; with these I remained many a long year, until I quite forgot my father, mother, and native town. Suddenly this thought came over my mind—Who are my parents, and where the place of my birth?—I struggled hard until I returned naked and bare the way by which I had come; and having gained my house and beheld my father and mother, I returned again to the place where my nurses dwelt. As the dress worn by the people of this country was on my person, I shall therefore remain here until this dress is worn out, and then depart, in order that it may not be said—He was unable to perform his office and has run away, leaving our despised garments.’”
Bahman, the son of Isfendiár, thus says: “All that Zardusht uttered was enigmatical: the ‘city and native place’ are the angelic world; by ‘father,’ is meant the primary intelligence; and by ‘mother,’ the universal soul; ‘the nurses,’ this lower world and junction with body; ‘forgetting the original abode,’ attachment to the elements of body; ‘recalling it to memory,’ implies the struggle towards that direction; ‘the arriving there,’ means religious austerities; ‘the state of nakedness,’ the divesting one’s self of bodily attachments; ‘the returning back to the nurses,’ means resuming the body; ‘that it may not be said that he was alarmed at the performance of duty, and ran off, leaving his clothes behind; I shall not therefore depart from hence, until these clothes be worn out;—the performance of duty,’ signifies the amassing of the capital of knowledge, true faith, and good works; by ‘the clothes being worn out,’ is implied the separation of the bodily members; that is, I will remain here as long as the body lasts, and after its dissolution return to my native place.”
Prince Isfendiár, the son of king Gushtásp, also tells us: “Zardusht once said to me: ‘A number of persons once left their native place for the purpose of acquiring wealth, that on their return they might pass their time in pleasure and enjoyment. On arriving at the city of their destination, some of them amassed wealth; some devoted themselves to wandering about the place and contemplating the beauties with which it abounded; whilst others remained altogether inactive. When the time of packing up came, the king of that people said—Depart from hence, that another set may arrive, and obtain their portion, as you have done.—On which all these people went out, some provided with stores for the journey; some without any provision; a few on horseback; a multitude on foot; a wide desert lay before, and a toilsome road, through rocks and prickly thorns, devoid of cultivation, destitute of water and shade. Those who were on horseback and furnished with provisions passed over, and having reached their native city, gave themselves up to joy and gladness; those who were on foot, and had provided stores for the journey, after experiencing many ups and downs, at last, with extreme difficulty, reached their halting place, where they passed their time in a state of happiness proportioned to their gains, although, on instituting a comparison between themselves and those inhabitants and dignified persons who had acquired opulence by commercial pursuits, they feel pangs of regret; but those who came out of the city without any kind of conveyance or stores, and thinking that without supplies they could reach their native place, when they had gone some little distance, became wearied and unable to proceed through weakness, and fatigue from walking, want of provisions, the difficulties of the road, distress, the sun’s overpowering heat, and the gloom of night; they were forced by necessity to turn back to the city, where they had been; but other merchants had in the meantime taken possession of the houses, dwellings, shops, and apartments which they formerly occupied: they were thus reduced to a state of destitution, and had no resource left but that of working for hire or turning mendicants, pursuits which they adopted.’”
Isfendiar says: “‘The city from which they departed for the purposes of commerce’ is the angelic world; that to which they came with the design of accumulating wealth’ is the lower world; ‘the houses, shops, etc.,’ signify the human body; ‘the people of the city’ are the animals, vegetables, and minerals; ‘the king,’ the elemental nature; ‘what the merchants have amassed’ are their words and deeds; ‘what others have collected’ is devotion without knowledge; ‘the inactive’ are those whose only “pursuits were sleep, sensual gratification, etc.; ‘the exclamation of the king’ is Death, who expels them from the mansions of body; ‘the deserts and mountains,’ the extremes of heat and cold; ‘the equestrians’ are those who unite the speculative and practical; ‘the pedestrians, who were furnished with some provisions’ are those who adore God, but neither knew themselves nor the Lord; ‘they who are without provisions or conveyance’ are those destitute of knowledge and good works, who being unable to reach the angelic world, return in despair to the elemental world, forfeiting the rank they once possessed.”
The sage Shah Nasir Khusran says on this head:
“When any one travels this road for that important purpose,
He takes at least a loaf of bread under his arm:
How then canst thou, who hast no store, proceed up the mount,
From the centre of darkness to the zenith of Saturn?”
In some other parables of Zardusht, which are here noticed, he speaks thus: “When the travellers, in consequence of the want of stores and fatigue of walking, return back to the king’s city, not finding their former beautiful mansions, they settle themselves in caverns or lanes, hiring themselves as labourers or subsisting on alms.”