Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

GATHA USHTAVAITI CHANTED 

Symbolic of the giving attention to the higher emotions and aspirations, for such habits of thought bring satisfaction and peace.

"Zarathustra asked Ahuramazda: O most munificent Spirit, creator of the settlements supplied with creatures ! 'When & righteous man passes away, where dwells his soul that night?' Then said Ahuramazda: 'It sits down in the vicinity of the head, chanting the Gatha Ushtavaiti, imploring blessedness. . . . That night the soul experiences as much of pleasure as all that which it had as a living existence.'" - Haug, Hadokht Nask, Essays, p. 220.

The Soul questions the Supreme, who is the Emanator of the manifested worlds, When the perfected soul is projected, at the death of the body, beyond the physical plane, into what condition does it then enter? The reply is made that it returns inward towards the higher mental plane, and recapitulates the nature of the higher emotions and aspirations to which it had habituated itself when incarnate. And its enjoyment is proportionate to its capacity for realisation of bliss when in its physical life. The second and third "nights" of the perfected soul signify the arrival of the consciousness at the various sub-planes of the mental plane which contribute to the devachanic state. These three "nights" represent the intervening period between incarnations; also there is a connection between them and the cyclic periods. It must be remembered that only a very small part of a soul manifests in any particular incarnation, and that part is the lowest and least advanced part of the totality. Consequently a very advanced soul may be perfected all but that part.

See Also

AHURA-MAZDA
CREATURES
DEVACHAN
GILGOOLEM
HEAD
HYMN SINGING
INCARNATION OF SOULS
MAN (righteous)
MANAS
MUSIC
NIGHTS (three)
RE-INCARNATION
SETTLEMENTS
SOUL
ZOROASTER