SAKAYA'S DOCTRINES.
1. SAKAYA said: Ye cannot associate with all men; for many are of diverse tastes and habits.
2. Nevertheless, refuse ye not all association because of this, for there are such, as are consonant with you. And such, as are disagreeable to you, are nevertheless compatable to others.
3. Ormazd hath created a large field; His people are numerous, and there are many in the world so like unto others, they are as one in all things.
4. Choose ye such, and as ye are one with one another, so are ye one with the Creator.
5. But most of all, will virtue and industry and good works come into the world by the examples ye place before the young. Better is it to hide and subdue your temper in presence of the young, than to conquer a whole state by force of arms.
6. The young are your angels given you by the Creator; and ye are their Gods. Consider ye, then, what kind of a kingdom ye raise up.
7. Happiness on earth is answered by happiness in heaven; and that which is planted on earth, is reaped in heaven.
8. Touching charity: I say, it is good to take the alms-bowl, and go about begging for the poor; and yet, in the same breath, I say, it is an evil.
9. This I have found of all charity: It hath two great evils: First, it flattereth him that giveth, that he hath done a good work, and this is an injury to his own soul; second, charity injureth the poor, because it destroyeth manhood, and giveth good caste to a beggar.
10. Though this kingdom is filled with hospitals and houses of charity, it is none the less free from vagrants and helpless ones.
11. And though ye build a thousand houses for the poor, and feed them withal, yet ye will have just as many still unprovided for, as when there was but one poor-house.
12. The law is unalterable in heaven and earth, that, whatsoever ye nurse, will grow.
13. I also declare unto you an equally severe law, which is: That if ye do nothing to benefit the afflicted, distressed and helpless, ye can not escape the damnation of earth and heaven.
14. To remedy which, it devolveth upon you, to find a remedy in society itself, whereby there shall be no rich and no poor.
15. For it is also law, that where there are rich, there must be poor. Where there are masters, there must be servants.
16. In which the rich man is a sinner before heaven and earth, even more so than the poor man.
17. Some of them asked Sakaya: Suppose a rich man do not feed the poor and helpless, but he give employment to a thousand hired servants; is he not good?
18. Sakaya said: A man may feed his cattle, caring for the sick ones, but still he treateth them as cattle. A man may employ many cattle, but still he treateth them as cattle. And he who doeth this to his brothers and sisters, the curse of the Creator is upon that man.
19. But if he give up, what he hath, and maketh himself a father over them, to develop himself in manliness and wisdom and virtue, then his charities are as virtue.
20. In whatsoever a man doeth, and his own self receiveth prestige over others, that man offendeth in the sight of Jehovih (Ormazd).
21. Yet these things are not new in the world; they were the doctrines of the ancients. And in this day, the Brahmin priests preach them in languages ye understand not. Behold, I break away from their languages, and preach the truth in your native tongue, and it soundeth new to you.
22. I have tried, and proved in mine own person, and I declare unto you, that preaching alone is of little avail in the world. Spoken words are a breath of air. They blow away. Written words lay in silence. they are dead.
23. I am not come to preach, nor to build up a new order of preaching, but to found a practice in life, whereby crime and misery and starvation may be averted.
24. Capilya covered the earth over with families of communities, and the earth became as a garden, rich in fruit and flowers. Pauperism was taken away from this land. Then came cruel wars and the destruction of harmony and of learning.