Death--and After?

of Manu The Manusmriti or Laws of Manu, an ancient and influential legal and philosophical text of India., following on a disquisition on metempsychosisThe transmigration of the soul; the belief that the soul moves into a new body after death., and answering the question of deliverance from rebirths.

Amid all these holy acts, the knowledge of self [should be translated, knowledge of the Self, AtmâIn Hindu philosophy, the "Atma" refers to the true Self or essence of an individual, which is eternal and distinct from the physical body.] is said (to be) the highest; this indeed is the foremost of all sciences, since from it immortality is obtained. *

The testimony of the great ZarathustreanRelating to Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest continuously practiced religions, founded by the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) in ancient Persia. Religion is clear, as is shown by the following, translated from the Avesta The primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism., in which, the journey of the Soul after death having been described, the ancient Scripture proceeds:

The soul of the pure man goes the first step and arrives at (the Paradise) Humata The first level of heaven in Zoroastrianism, associated with "Good Thoughts."; the soul of the pure man takes the second step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hukhta The second level of heaven, associated with "Good Words."; it goes the third step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hvarst The third level of heaven, associated with "Good Deeds."; the soul of the pure man takes the fourth step and arrives at the Eternal Lights.

To it speaks a pure one deceased before, asking it: How art thou, O pure deceased, come away from the fleshy dwellings, from the earthly possessions, from the corporeal world hither to the invisible, from the perishable world hither to the imperishable, as it happened to thee—to whom hail!

Then speaks Ahura-MazdaThe supreme creator God in Zoroastrianism, representing light, truth, and goodness.: Ask not him whom thou asketh, (for) he is come on the fearful, terrible, trembling way, the separation of body and soul. †

The Persian Desatir A controversial 16th-century work that claimed to be a collection of writings from ancient Persian prophets. speaks with equal definiteness. This work consists of fifteen books, written by Persian prophets, and was written originally in the Avestaic language; "God" is Ahura-Mazda, or Yazdan A Middle Persian term for God or a divine being.:

God selected man from animals to confer on him the soul, which is a substance free, simple, immaterial, non-compounded and non-appetitive. And that becomes an angel by improvement.

* xii. 85. Trans. of Burnell and Hopkins.
† From the translation of Dhunjeebhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, Zoroastrian and some other Ancient Systems, xxvii.