Inducing the prodigals to return

In Iran, during Sassanian times, Zoroastrianism was the state religion and the king was — what the British later called their monarchs — "The Defender of the Faith.”

At that time the head priests wielded immense power — both spiritual and temporal. The economic prosperity of some of our Iranian fire temples was such that in times of war they were in a position to advance large loans to the king’s treasury! Several of the most famous fire temples of Iran were founded by the kings themselves.

Absent royal support, our fire temples in India and elsewhere have had to be built and maintained by the charitable instincts of the rich and the not-so-rich of our community.

Since for us Parsis the holy fire is a symbol of Ahura Mazda, our fire temples continue to be Houses of God. They are Houses of God in the sense that they are consecrated places to which we Zoroastrians resort when we as individuals feel the need to pray in an institutionalized setting.

To the extent that they are so used by devout Zoroastrians even today, our fire temples are well-needed, well-used and well-beloved spiritual centers of rest, comfort and the recharging of our spiritual batteries. They are temporary harbors for the storm-tossed or weather-worn ships of our lives.

With some notable and honorable exceptions over the years, for most priests, our fire temples serve only the purpose of being convenient ritual centers where they can earn their livelihood by the performance of various ceremonies which they are paid to perform by the Parsi laity — generally in memory of their dear departed.

We are living in an increasingly democratic world. Democracy leads to men thinking that they can question everything. Therefore, increasingly in the present age people (especially the young) question everything. And they need convincing answers to their questions.

Priests, like all teachers will be increasingly open to questions — whether expressed or implied. If Zoroastrianism is to survive and flourish the answers will have to be attractively presented. Faith without an attractively explained foundation of rationality and knowledge will tend to wither away.

Already this is happening in our lifetimes. There was hardly an old Zoroastrian home where the picture of Zarthost Saheb (lovingly garlanded on happy days) did not grace at least the hall and/or the dining room. Over the years I have sadly seen these pictures one by one vanishing from the hall and dining rooms of Zoroastrian houses.

In the old days a Zoroastrian who did not wear a sudreh and a kusti was a rarity. Today you know how things are. In matters of religion, apathy and ignorance rule the roost and empty vessels make the loudest noise.

In order to capture — and enrapture — the minds and hearts of our people we will increasingly have to combine sincere faith with deep knowledge, knowledge with communication skills and communicational skills with organizational abilities.

It is here that our agiaries and atash behrams will have a vital role to play for the upliftment of our community. For the future, our agiaries and atash behrams will need to be not only ritual centers but spiritual centers. For this to come about the trustees of our fire temples and our priests need to realize and remember that they carry a special burden for ensuring the survival and progress of our religion; and that the ritual is only the means to the end which is spiritual.

Our trustees, and our priests, must realize and keep trying to satisfy the near-paradoxical need for converting or more correctly "reclaiming” Zoroastrians for Zoroastrianism. The lost sheep must be brought back to the herd. The prodigal sons must be brought home. Only then will we have cause for great rejoicing.

The community and the trustees must continue to realize, and emphatically vocalize the need for knowledge-based Zoroastrianism and for making religion relevant to our daily lives. If this is done, the law of demand and supply will begin to operate. An ever increasing demand for knowledge should be satisfyingly met through educated and enthusiastic priests and lay scholars who in our agiaries and atash behrams will find the right readymade infrastructure for enthusing, educating and guiding the community in matters of religious and spiritual import.

The trustees and panthakies of our fire temples must realize that they are not there only to protect the material assets of the agiaries or atash behrams. They have the higher duty of taking steps to strengthen the religious and ethical foundations of the community. They can organize and cooperate with a working committee of dedicated behdins staying within the neighborhood. Their avowed objects should include taking specific steps to enthuse, increase and encourage the growth of religious knowledge and ethical practices in the community. For this the committee could have the free use of the facilities of the agiary halls, seating arrangements, notice boards and staff assistance. Any such working committee will obviously need persons of genuine dedication and sincerity with the requisite time, energy, determination and persistence. Any such committee would need a small core group of people who are friendly with each other, who have a balanced approach, and who additionally have the required knowledge and experience in the field of communal, religious and spiritual welfare and progress.

The trustees of various fire temples in cities where there is more than one agiary could consider the formation of an association of agiary trustees to discuss and seek mutual guidance and help out with problems including augmenting finances, building maintenance, kathi and fruit supplies, paucity of priests or other staff, etc.

Henry Ford’s six-word formula for success was: "Think things through, then follow through.” If we follow this formula, our main problem will not be lack of finance. Our community needs human wealth more than financial wealth. If the interest and enthusiasm of the community/our trustees are aroused and properly activated the community’s generosity can be relied upon.

In any case, with our fire temples located all over Bombay and elsewhere in India and with them being generally within good reach of public transport, we would not need any initial major investments of money to find venues from where good work can be started.

A strongly felt public need often brings forth unexpected public saviors. When a few of the right type of people, namely with the right mix of intelligence, energy, experience and enthusiasm realize the gravity of the situation that we are heading towards a crisis of spiritual dehydration, then with the grace of Ahura Mazda the right type of response is likely to come up from within the community itself.

As a community we have known how to survive and — with the grace of Ahura Mazda — excel and we have not been given any notice by Him whose 92nd name is "Khawar” (i.e. Meherban = gracious) that His grace is to be terminated for us.

We all know that God helps those who help themselves. We also know that God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. If the Zoroastrian community world-wide is ethically and spiritually rejuvenated through the instrumentality of our agiaries and atash behrams that will truly be a wonder to behold!

Nadir Modi is the chairman of the Arhornan Mandal and a trustee of the H. B. Wadia Atas Bahram.