Whither, Zoroastrians?

The establishment of the Zoroastrian presence is becoming a moot priority in the community mind in North America as attested by a significant rise in the activities of the young and the not so young. Whether as a religious group or as a community, North American Zoroastrians want their presence to be acknowledged in an environment that is throbbingly vibrant but disturbingly different from anything that the Parsi/Irani mind has encountered in the old world.

"In North America we can see our religion evolving into one based solely on intellectual discussions. As we move into the future, we must find a balance between blind faith and deeper understanding,” notes Putli Mirza of Ontario in her prize winning essay in the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario’s (ZSO) competition titled "Vision 2020: A Vision for our Future.”

Mirza, who moved to Canada in 1976 and became deeply involved with the ZSO’s religious classes, writes, "I look back with pride at all that we have achieved in Ontario in educating the community and most of all the children of our Zoroastrian faith. Every project was taken up with a lot of hope and enthusiasm to preserve our great religion on the North American continent. I felt that North America would be the place where Zoroastrianism will thrive and flourish. As the years went by, one could observe that there was no apparent religious revival, the children accepted the know­ledge of the religion as it was given to them. Most of our kids had no interest in researching or reading to gather more information or knowledge. There was no spiritual connection to our faith. The limited sessions our classes provided were no substitute to be in constant touch with your religion and your community.”

Harking back to her past in India, Mirza compares her own upbringing with the trend in North America: "I had absolutely no knowledge of the religion but we went to our own neighborhood agiary everyday and paid our homage, believing completely that we were bowing to the spirit of Ahura Mazda within the fire. A faith was developed not only to the sacred atash but also to the prayers that we were taught to recite.”

In a desire to re-create the Indian environment Mirza writes that she "felt that a consecrated fire in our midst would imbibe the younger generation with the faith and zeal to protect our prayers, rites and rituals. Our efforts to collect the funds for a consecrated fire didn’t meet with much success.” There was also "the nagging question:” if we did have a consecrated fire, would we be able to allow non-Zoroastrians to enter the premises? Transplanting the Bombay scenario in Toronto Mirza had to cope with the reality of interfaith marriages in North America. "The children being born and brought up in North America were increasingly marrying outside our faith. If we do not allow their spouses to come to our fire temple it would be a source of conflict within the family. Thus the vision of having an agiary, meaning a consecrated fire, did not materialize.”

Mirza also notes the difference in mindset that has crept into the community: "Our priests who were born and brought up in India became the stalwarts of our religion… They gave hours and days of service to the community and have kept our rites and rituals in the forefront. Today many of our younger navars who have been initiated in India have come back with just the basic requirements of becoming priests. Having not lived in the agiary or staying for any length of time in India they lack the same devotion and zeal to continue these rites and rituals… Some of the newly initiated navars choose not to practice at all…The young priests find it difficult to juggle their work schedules, family obligations and then put in some time to partake in the prayers.”

Not only is the trend in the Zoroastrian population leaning towards interfaith marriages, "the spouses of these couples seldom identify with our religion or their children follow the religion or its rites and rituals. Even the children of Zoroastrian couples have done away with the sudreh and kusti. The children do not even recite the basic prayers or take up a prayer book and try to pray. The way things are going, one wonders what are we trying to preserve?” enquires Mirza.

With two big community centers coming up in the area, Mirza asks, "There would be prayer rooms in both and we will have fires where ceremonies will take place, but in the next 20 years will we have priests to recite the pra­yers? Will we even have the congregation to attend those prayers and believe in them?” She goes on to suggest the sponsoring of two mobeds from India to be available to perform various prayers in case volunteer mobeds are not available. They would also be able to mentor the younger mobeds in the intricacies of the faith’s rituals, she notes.

"As we ‘March Forward,’ I see the future generations coming together for social functions at both these centers. They will keep the name of Zoroastrianism alive through various organizations like the Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce, Zoroastrian Cricket Club, Zoroastrian Scout groups, etc. That would give the community a chance to work and play together. As we are doing now, we should continue to organize Zoroastrian congresses especially in North America, India and Iran in order to keep an intellectual interest in Zoroastrianism alive. A continuous dialog must be maintained amongst the people who are interested in the welfare of Zoroastrianism…

"Finally, it is imperative to have and continue with darbe mehrs as symbolic agiaries where we continue to pay homage to the fires and draw solace from our ancient religion...Our intellectual knowledge will not keep Zoroastrianism alive, neither will our social activities. We need to experience our faith, believe in it and be passionate to preserve it for many more years to come.”

Despite the bleak scenario she envisages, Mirza’s religious zeal will not succumb to pessimism: "My incentive for writing this essay is my observation during the muktad observances of how well the community comes together to pray, to mingle, and to be like one, in their belief and love of our faith. It feels miraculous. Our community is growing as we have new young migrants from various parts of the world coming here and raising their children. Our goal should be to keep these children in our fold and provide them with a spiritual link to our religion so that they would find it in their hearts to preserve this great faith as we have known it.”