Time to look within

With the passage of time, some practices that are alien to Zoroastrianism have crept in, wittingly or unwittingly. Parsis visit places of worship of others like the Haji Ali and Haji Malang dargahs, Catholic churches for novenas, and Hanuman or Sai Baba temples. Parsis in the hinterland still practice ootar (casting out of the evil eye). Some of us consult fakirs and sadhus who are charlatans.

We practice anachronistic customs like aada antar at our weddings which is stupid. It is a cultural borrowing which has no validity today. My correspondence with the Athornan Mandal in this matter was fruitless as its chairman gave a very unconvincing oral response about the inability of our priests to change with the times.

There has been no crusade by our priests and high priests against overt and covert dilution of our religion. They are passive spectators of unacceptable things happening to our social and religious mores. There is a special responsibility for the heads of the two Athornan Madressas to impress on the aspirant priests to stay away from such wrong practices.

There is no logical explanation for the practice of not eating meat for the first three days after someone dies, but compulsorily eating it on the fourth day. What is the logic in not performing ceremonies for the first four days at the fire temples of those who opt for alternate modes of disposal, but permitting prayers thereafter? What about those who die abroad and even within India in places where there are no fire temples and ceremonies for whose obsequies are performed at agiaries elsewhere from day one?

A very sore question is that of accepting the children of Parsi fathers and non-Parsi mothers while refusing to accept the children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers where the latter have no objection to their children embracing our religion. An aberration has come to my notice where the son of an athornan and a non-Parsi mother is unable to have his navar ceremony performed even though the father had declared that he has a non-Parsi wife. If the navjote of the child of a Parsi father and a non-Parsi mother can be performed, should there be any problem in performing the navar ceremony of this boy? Will the Athornan Mandal take a categorical stand on this and give an official reply to this query? To me it appears that the Athornan Mandal has degenerated into a moribund organization that needs to be dismantled since it has proved both archaic and ineffective in providing a logical leadership in religious matters.

Our scriptures impose no embargo on the acceptance of the children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers. The concept of bunak pasbani (racial purity) has been torn out of context and purveyed as a religious injunction by fanatics. In Bombay one in three Zoroastrians marries out. In Calcutta it is 12 out of 13. Are we to write ourselves into extinction?

Zoroastrianism is a million-fold more valuable than the Parsis of India. Reject rabid preachers like Khojeste Mistree and let us create a new path for Zoroastrians. Let the orthodox Parsis keep aloof, if they so choose. The Jews have shown a practicable way out of such an impasse. Our high priests stand frozen in time, with a vision blinded by dogmatism, ignoring the dilution of our religious practices.

B. T. DASTUR