Religious sanctity

There is a perennial atmosphere of antagonism whenever any religious topic is under discussion. At present the question of conversion within Zoroastrianism has reached boiling point. I am inclined to pull out the fuel and cool it down.

A community is recognized by the name of the religion it follows, but we find that the followers of Zarathushtra, instead of being referred to as Zoroastrians are recognized as Iranis or Parsis in India. It was from Iran that the Zarathushtis offered this religion to the world. From the study of Avestan texts it is learnt that Zarathushtra was assigned as "Divine Spirit in charge of the material creation on earth” which includes mankind. To certify his claim he says, "Hama Athornan, Hama Ratheshtaran, Hama Vastro­san, Hama Hutokshan” meaning all of priest class, all of warriors, all of traders and all of agriculturists. Before Zarathushtra, where were the Zarathoshtis? After Zarathushtra, where are the Zarathoshtis?

The true authentic Zarathoshti is one who has zeal and enthusiasm, who has high intelligence and who learns the Avesta prayers. Merely wearing the sudreh and kusti does not make one a Zarathoshti. It is only a craze of the Parsis to be recognized as Parsis. As long as they were in Iran, they did not know what a sudreh or a kusti was. In the entire Avesta there is not a single mention of this particular custom.

It has been wrongly explained that this custom is of Zoroastrian origin. In actual fact it is a custom made by Indians. To be more explicit, when the first Iranians set foot on Indian soil, they were made to follow Hindu customs, which the Iranians promised to do. One of these customs was to wear the "janoi,” a sacred thread worn from one shoulder. The Iranians had to fulfill this condition and as they were against going bare, they wore a sudreh and the thread (kusti) was tied on the waist. This custom is obviously not of Zarathushti but of Parsi origin in India. Is there any information about the navjote ceremony in Iran? In the 12 volumes of Iranian history written by Firdausi Toosi there is no mention of the sudreh or the kusti.

A child is mentally and physically influenced more by his/her mother than father and is a descendent of the mother in the true sense. Before birth the child is nourished in the mother’s womb and after birth by the mother’s milk. The child spends more time with the mother than with the father and also learns the religious scriptures, rites and rituals from the mother. It was decided in a court of law that the child of a Parsi father and non-Parsi mother may become a Parsi and enter fire temples, but not the child of a Parsi mother and non-Parsi father. This law has nothing to do with the religious tenets of Zoroastrianism.

Some time ago a Parsi man married to a non-Parsi woman came with his child to the Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada. The priest in charge stood at the gate and refused to allow the man and his child entry to the fire temple. His reasoning was that the child was considered a Parsi only by the court of law but as a priest he did not recognize this and did not consider the child to be a Parsi, being born of a non-Parsi mother.

The priest class in the Zoroastrian religion has the duty to guard the laws pertaining to it as well as to conduct the rites and rituals. The religious understanding of a community is influenced by its priests and their judgment is based upon their study of the religious texts and experience in performing various ceremonies. Our fire temples are sacred places of worship and their sanctified atmosphere must be preserved. Those who have learnt the Avesta prayers come to the fire temple to worship. In Islam, those who do not belong to the religion are called kafirs; in our religion, non-Zoroastrians are called durvan or juddin and are not permitted to enter our fire temples or encroach upon our religious rights. One should, therefore, respect the sentiments of the majority in our religion. Our holy Avesta scriptures, our rites and rituals of olden times, being entirely of a spiritual nature, cannot be modernized as science (material). To introduce new and adverse ideas without adequate knowledge is a sin. It is the duty of the priests to uphold the sanctity of the good religion.

HOMI DORABJI BANA