Elucidation of Objectives — Page 29
Tau di h-e-Mar a m 29 drop of water that enters an oyster shell, or the womb of a mother, through the spiritual influence of these An- gels of God it is transformed into a ruby, a sapphire, a diamond, a highly lustrous and large pearl, or a human being with great qualities of head and heart. The Avesta, considered by the Magians 38 to be their revealed scripture, claims that it was revealed way back sometime in remote antiquity a billion times earlier than the Vedas. By this reckoning, the Vedas, whose age has been approximately fixed at a billion and nine hundred and sixty million years, are not even fractionally an- tique. On the contrary, the Avesta for its part claims to be as much as three trillion years old. Indeed, ours is only a modest estimate for the Avesta’s own claim is that it is not three but three hundred trillion years old. Now this scripture not only describes spirits pertaining to stars and other heavenly bodies as Angels, but also enjoins that they should be worshipped. 39 The Vedas too repeatedly highlight and praise these spirits not merely as intermediaries but as beings to whom prayer must be 38 Priestly class of the ancient Medes (the ancient people of Medea of Northern Iran) and Persians, who after the advent of Zoroaster became Priests of Zoroastrianism. See Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics for further detail. [Translator] 39 Angels are known as ' Mal a ’ik ' because they sustain the heavenly as well as earthly bodies. In other words, they are like souls in the context of the creation and survival (of these bodies). Another reason for calling them Mal a ’ik is because they function as messengers. [Author]