“Haurvatat is a flow”

"I want the Parsi community to accept me as another type of Zoroastrian who cherishes their culture without belonging to the community,” says Alexander Bard, an expert on the impact of new technologies, like the Internet and mobile phones, on society, who teaches at the Advanced Management Programme of the Stockholm School of Economics. His subject involves him in economics and sociology, political science and philosophy. At it for over 20 years, Bard, with a Master’s in economics, says he is the first in Sweden to focus exclusively on the subject, determining how information technology and mobiles have changed the way society works, how subway systems are constructed using mobiles and computers.

Bard travels through Europe and America on lecture assignments and has authored two books: Netocracy – The New Power Elite and Life After Capitalism which speaks of people being left behind because they cannot cope with the changes that these new technologies have unleashed. The second one, The Global Empire, focuses on the interdependence of society, culture and economics. He points out that it is also the cause of global warming and increasing epidemics.

"Globalization is putting a lot of strain on many peoples’ lives. It is very hard for people to comprehend (and thus) is creating a lot of fear. That fear is deeply problematic. People who feel left out will either degrade, that is isolate themselves, or become fundamentalist and stick to an easy-to-follow dogma,” Bard explains. In that context, he says, "Parsi isolationism is understandable.”

Increasing travel for business and tourism, the integration of national economies into a global one, is adding to the strains on the environment. According to Bard, globalization is the cause of the problem but it is also the only way of solving it: "Putting our heads in the sand won’t do it…

Alexander Bard: understanding Zoroastrianism

"The message of Zoroastrianism is very attractive in this global world with its emphasis on human rights and individualism,” says Bard, referring to Acheme­nian Emperor Cyrus’ cylinder on human rights, noting that "it is the strongest innovation given by Zoroastrianism. It is deeply unfair that Zoroastrians are not given due credit as innovators.”

Bard considers Zoroastrianism as "small (in numbers) but the fastest growing religion today in percentage terms. Bahaism has stopped growing. Islam and Catholicism are growing because they have a strong birth count. The only religion growing through conversion is Zoroastrianism. These converts to Zoroastrianism come from around the world — from Russia, Tajikistan, Australia, England, Brazil, Venezuela…Almost all of them have studied its scriptures. The understanding of the religion is identical: it is a philosophical understanding of Zoroastrianism.”

His understanding of good thoughts, good words, good deeds, has a psychological ring: "What is unique in Zoroastrianism is the order, a specific order of cause and effect…Ahura Mazda is not involved. It is a process we follow to become like Him. It’s what ethics is all about. I think and speak and act and identify myself by what I do… Zoroastrianism is about a special attitude towards life — whether we adopt a constructive or destructive attitude. Haurvatat (perfection) is not somewhere in the future. It comes and goes in our lives. It is a flow. Constructive thoughts produce constructive words and constructive action, which is what Zoroastrian ethics is all about.”

Bard considers Zoroastrianism the most misunderstood religion and philosophy in the western world but is sanguine that the Internet is providing a way to correct those faults of understanding and perception. He says the 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza is one who came closest to Zarathushtra’s vision. "Spinoza had never read Zarathushtra, but if he had, he would have found a brother in faith,” says Bard. A Jew by descent, living in Holland, Spinoza’s roots lie in Sufism which is the Zoroastrian philosophy practiced by those who call themselves Muslim, Bard tells us. Sufist ideas spread from Iran to Europe via the conquering Arabs. "Spinoza was way ahead of his time…He was against Judaism and Christianity. He taught that everything goes by cause and effect… It took 300 years before he was recognized in Europe,” says Bard, noting that he recommends those interested in Zoroastrianism to start with Spinoza. "If you want to know what you are, you need to look at what you do. It’s a very pragmatic attitude,” he reiterates.

All westerners are assumed to be Christian or secular atheists, which Bard believes is all wrong. The son of liberal Christian parents with three secular brothers and a Christian sister, Bard says, "I have been able to convince many in Europe to become Zoroastrian but not my own family!” He considers his navjote by Mobed Kamran Jamshidi in Stockholm in 1992 as "social recognition.” Three of them from different faith traditions were initiated together: Bard, a Christian, Trita Parsi, a Muslim and Gautam Bhattacharyya, a Hindu Brahmin. Parsi is now in the US, head of the National Iranian American Council, a moderate body promoting dialog between Iran and the US, Bard tells us. Their navjote had the full endorsement of the Iranian Council of Modeds in Tehran, he adds.

They decided to follow the Iranian Zoroastrian tradition because "the Iranians had opened their arms to us.” By deliberately not choosing Parsi Zoroastrian ceremonies from India they avoided the controversies that dogged Joseph Peterson’s navjote. We ask him about the California based Zarathushtrian Assembly (ZA) and learn that though its office bearers Ali Jafarey and Daryush Irani had offered to hold his navjote, he had decided to accept the Iranian option. "We have a very friendly relationship with the ZA but Swedish Zoroastrians have chosen to stay with the Iranian tradition,” he notes.

Bard assesses the Zoroastrian community in Sweden at "at least 2,000,” including Iranian and western converts. There are many Kurds there — they refer to themselves as Yazidis but are intellectually Zoroastrian, he notes; but they maintain their own separate congregation. They speak some Swedish but hardly any English, Bard tells us. If people want to convert only for nationalistic or political purposes, they are turned down. Also if their knowledge of the Gathas and Zoroastrian philosophy is considered inadequate. "We don’t want Zoroastrians in Sweden to be politicized. The two aims of the Swedish Zoroastrian Society are to endorse Zoroastrianism in dogma and practice and organize social events as well as to support Kurdish and Zoroastrian immigrants. "We all want Iran to become more democratic but that is not the aim of the Zoroastrian community.”

Accepting both terms — Zoroastrian and Mazdayasni – Bard is very clear about keeping a distance from the Parsi identity. He has been studying the Parsi culture and maintains that "for hundreds of years Zoroastrianism would not have survived without Parsis. Maybe now the Iranian branch is becoming more dominant but the Parsi community is the key to the understanding of Zoroastrianism.” But Bard is also clear that there is no support in Zoroastrian scriptures for isolationism which is a much later historical and cultural product stemming from the position of Zoroastrians in Indian society and has to be seen that way. "Even children from mixed marriages can’t call themselves Parsi,” he adds.

Maintaining "statistics in religion is very hard. Zoroastrianism was never pro mission. If people converted, it’s because people have chosen it for themselves,” Bard notes, adding that quality is important rather than quantity. There would be more Zoroastrians in Central Asia if freedom of religion was allowed. "I am not a ‘Gathas only’ Zoroastrian. All the Avesta (is relevant) but Zara­thushtra is the mainspring. He left it open to anybody to convert, but did not force it.”

Bard is enthused to find the Wadia Brothers — Kerssie and Vispy of the Association for Revival of Zoroastrianism — trying to build a fire temple open to everybody, maybe even non-Zoroastrians who want to come in and see. He had visited India "at least five times” before Parsiana met up with him in early January 2008. He thinks India has a great combination of nature and culture and most of his trips have taken him to Delhi and south India, notably Kerala and Goa. This was the first visit to Bombay of a man who says he shares a very Parsi experience — he enjoys the single life, music, fashion and clubbing but also his academic pursuits. Though he had learned about Parsi traditions from Parsi friends in Sweden and America, it was his interest in Indian philosophy that led him to Zoroastrianism through Sufism and Zen Buddhism whose roots, he says, lie in Iran. However, it was from among the 80,000 Iranian immigrants in Sweden, many of whom came from Yazd and eastern Iran, that Bard first met a Zoroastrian. He prizes his friendship with Prof Kaikhosrov Irani and Dina McIntyre, both of whom he has known for over 15 years. "I have learnt a lot from them. I regard them as my teachers,” he says.

Economics, sociology, religion and philosophy still leave a portion of the bearded intellectual’s life open to a different pursuit: composing electronic pop music. He says he began creating music on the computer in the 1980s as a challenge and has sold millions of records in Sweden and internationally. It’s only the human vocals that you can’t create on a computer, he tells us.

But while talking to Parsiana religion was uppermost on Bard’s mind. "It’s easy to be a fundamentalist in Islam and in Protestant Christianity… But it is very hard to be a fundamentalist in Zoroastrianism. It is too rich and pluralistic and oh, so tolerant…The issue of conversion is so important because it’s dividing a community that needs to stay together…”