Propitiating Avan Yazad

As the waves lapped against the jetty of the Radio Club on the evening of April 25, 2009 a host of devotees focused their eyes on the white robed priests performing a jashan led by High Priest of Udvada, Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, to celebrate the Avan Yazad nu Parav. This event, organized by an ad hoc committee, has been celebrated at the venue year after year for the past 30 years. Cyrus Patel, who helps the committee, sent a write-up to Parsiana.

Welcoming those present Kersi Limathwalla felt that every individual has a role to play in ensuring peace and harmony in the community. As a first step in this direction one should desist from taking sides and indulging in loose talk as this widens the divide in the community, he felt. A stage has come when community issues have, unfortunately, been discussed over television, eroding respect for us in the eyes of sister communities. Since Zoroastrians hold Bahman Ameshaspand next only to Ahura Mazda, we should not indulge in hate campaigns through derogatory write-ups in the media but should inculcate the virtues of the good and beneficial mind. Limathwalla enjoined the audience that Zoroastrianism is a practical religion not restricted to prayers and ceremonies but also about how one conducts oneself in everyday life, the write-up mentions.

Taking over from Limathwalla, Dastoor stressed that despite repeated advice to the contrary, Zoroastrians continue to pollute the water by throwing in flowers, coconuts, etc on Avan Yazad day, the write-up notes. We must stop this practice, he exhorted. Even though our community is educated, we remain ignorant in many matters. For instance, cell phones continue to ring inside atash behrams and agiaries distracting worshippers and disturbing those trying to attune themselves with Ahura Mazda, Dastoor said.

At the Avan Yazad nu Parav: jashan in progress; Parvez Bajan at mike with Zarine Commissariat, Kersi Limathwalla, Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, Dinshaw Mehta, Zarir Bhathena and Cawasji Dinshaw; section of the audience

Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Dinshaw Mehta provided an insight into the functioning of the premier body. He regretted that though the new generation of younger trustees is ready to shoulder responsibility, frivolous litigation stops new projects and schemes from being implemented, the write-up records.

Ervad Parvez Bajan spoke on the "Exodus of Parsis from Iran to India,” expounding on the ancient Peshdadian and Kayanian dynasties which ruled Iran from the dawn of civilization. It was during their rule that Zarathushtra was born and Zoroastrianism began. Bajan took the rapt audience through the various dynasties that ruled Iran since then and spoke of the deeds of Darius the Great who built Persepolis. A skilled administrator, Darius divided his empire into sections ruled by satraps whom he supervised through a secret service. He built a road from Sardis to Susa, a distance of about 2,500 km, lined with rest houses and introduced the world’s first postal service.

Bajan then dwelt on the Parthian and Sasanian dynasties and the downfall that followed in the 7th century after which ancestors of the present day Parsis left everything to preserve their religion and identity and landed on the west coast of India as recounted in Qissa-yi-Sanjan by the priest Bahman Kekobad Sanjana, a resident of Navsari in 1599 AD, as per the write-up.

The lengthening evening shadows brought the event to a close but not before thanks were expressed to Ahura Mazda and Avan Yazad for the success of the function, to the management of the Radio Club which had offered the venue at a concessional rate, the priests for conducting the jashan, Bajan for his talk, Marazban Mehta for musical entertainment, Sarosh Daruwalla for his sound system, Zarine Commissariat for being compere and the humdins for gracing the occasion.