Rescue the religion

The sudden surge of interest in Zoroastrianism the world over and the amazing desire of many to embrace our religion is nothing less than miraculous. There seems to be God’s hand in rejuvenating our great religion and saving it from its self imposed death.

The ongoing debate on this subject in the Parsi community reminds me of the following story.

A man was drowning in the sea but he had full faith in God and was sure that He will save his life in a miraculous way. A boat passed by and spotting him went to his help but the man would not accept the proffered help saying that he had full faith in God and the Almighty will save him. When he was chin deep in water a helicopter was sent to rescue him but again he gave the same reply. At last he drowned and when he faced his Creator the man angrily admonished Him, "I trusted you fully but you did nothing to save my life.” And God said, "But I sent a canoe to rescue you and later even a helicopter but you would not accept my repeated attempts to save you.”

Will we Parsis get a similar reply when the last of us drowns and confronts Ahura Mazda with the same complaint? He might say, "But I inspired so many people in the whole world to embrace the great Zoroastrian religion and increase your numbers but instead of welcoming them into your fold and sharing with them your knowledge and values, you were more interested in protecting your Parsi community rather than the religion of Zarathushtra.”

D. MULLA-FEROZE