Broadening the scope

About 100 years ago, our fire temples were full of religious activities as there were well-trained and qualified priests who were frequently doing pav mehel ceremonies such as yazeshni, vandidad and nirangdin. Unfortunately, with the passage of time as we have no qualified priests, the religious activities in our fire temples are decreasing day by day. In many of our agiaries only jashan, afringan, farokshi, satoom and baj are performed. After 11 a.m. most of our fire temples are empty and forsaken as a result of which there is a danger of non-Parsis trying to enter our fire temples. So proper and tight security arrangement is the need of the day.

In this material world, faith and religion have taken a backseat in one’s life and Parsi Zoroastrians are no exception to the same. Day by day the number of persons coming to the fire temples for prayers is decreasing with the exception of half a dozen fire temples (out of 50 fire temples in Bombay). There is also a poor response to the appeal by the trustees of the fire temples for performing baj roz ceremonies for the departed one.

Some of the fire temples suffer from shortage of funds as a result of which the fire temples are not properly maintained nor proper salaries paid to panthakies, mobeds and the helpers serving for a long period. The price of kathi and sandalwood is increasing every year by leaps and bounds. Forty years ago the price of sandalwood was Rs 40 per kg, and today it is about Rs 6,000 per kg. Similarly, 40 years ago the price of kathi was Rs 40 per tonne and now it is Rs 6,000 per tonne. The present situation in our fire temples is pathetic and critical and unless some drastic steps are taken, I shudder to think what will happen to our fire temples after 100 years and whether there will be qualified priests, workers and sufficient funds to maintain them. In some of our agiaries in moffusil areas in Gujarat there are no priests to maintain our holy fire and they are being maintained by laymen. It is our bounden duty to see that such a situation does not arise in the agiaries of Bombay.

As Christians use the premises of their churches not only for religious activities but also for social welfare activities for the members of their community, time has now come for Parsi Zoroastrians to wake up and utilize our fire temple premises not only for praying or performing religious ceremonies but also for doing welfare activities such as providing free school books to the children, free grains to the poor and needy, and conducting classes for spreading religious knowledge and culture to our children and youth. I am aware that a few enlightened panthakies of our fire temples are carrying out such laudable activities, but it should spread to all the fire temples. It is the duty of the high priests, trustees and the panthakies to chalk out the religious, cultural and social programs for the benefit of the Zoroastrian Parsis of their locality. Moreover, it is the duty of every Zoroastrian to ensure that our fire temples become self-supporting so that they do not have to depend upon donations which are now far and few.

One of the suggestions made to salvage the situation is to reduce the number of agiaries in Bombay by keeping two holy fires separately in one agiary as is being done at the Adenwala Agiary in Lonavala and the Thuthi Agiary at Walkeshwar in Bombay. By following this procedure, we may be able to solve the problem of scarcity of priests and funds and utilize the trust properties for the benefit of the members of the community. Will our high priests, religious leaders and the concerned trustees of the agiaries guide the community in this matter otherwise God forbid, some of our holy fires will get extinguished, as has unfortunately happened in some moffusil agiaries.

Burjor Antia is a trustee of three atash behrams and nearly half a dozen agiaries.