The path to divinity

I am a practicing Zoroastrian and have been pained at the present diatribes against Ervad Khushroo Madon in the media and though the Internet.

I am reminded of a story told to me by one of my psychology professors: God and man were walking down the road and God said to man, "There I see truth,” and man replied to God, "Come let me organize it.”

Being a psychologist, I would like to clarify the difference between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is an important and natural dimension of the human psyche and a legitimate and fully justified human endeavor. It is a special kind of relationship between the individual and the cosmos, in its essence a personal and private affair. A spiritual experience can happen when we are in nature, climbing a mountain or even while jogging! Such experiences tend to dissolve boundaries between religions, as one glimpses the divinity of all humanity. We discover the sacred dimensions of our own nature, an invisible state of consciousness, which does not require a special place or officially appointed persons which mediate contact with the divine, it does not depend on ideologies and dogmas of organized religions.

By comparison organized religion is an institutionalized group activity that takes place in a designated location, an agiary, an atash behram, a temple or a church. It involves a system of appointed officials who might or might not have had a personal experience of the spiritual realm. Once a religion becomes organized, it loses the connection with the spiritual source and becomes a secular institution that exploits human spiritual needs without satisfying them. They become hierarchical systems that focus on power, control, money, politics and other worldly concerns and tend to emphasize differences and rules that engender antagonism and hostility. They dislike direct spiritual experiences because such individuals then can effectively no longer be controlled as they foster a bigger vision of humanity, and lose the narrow group identity.

The question arises whether any body or appointed group has the right to judge how another should live, their private affairs between themselves and their path to divinity, who they should marry, who should be allowed or not allowed into places of worship. We happen to be educated citizens living in the 21st century in a democratic country. Such interferences by one group versus another should effectively be considered a violation of human rights.

Priests play a vital role for the rites of passage in communities like births, initiation into a spiritual life for young adults, marriages and deaths. They may or may not have had a spiritual experience personally, and that will qualify their actions and behavior. It is my private and personal choice as to which priest suits my inner development. If I wish to choose Madon as my spiritual inter-mediatory, I need no authority from the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis or the Bombay Parsi Punchayet to conduct my life or my affairs.

We as a religious identity have migrated to this country and for centuries have been respected for our good thoughts, words and deeds. Let us not be diverted from this path and respect each other to live and let live.

RASHNA IMHASLY-GANDHY