“A few questions”

With reference to Parvez S. Dastoor’s letter ("A few questions,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, August 7, 2011), I would like to partly lift the fog, though I am not an erudite scholar.

Death separates the body from the soul i.e. tanu from urvan. Bodily functions like heartbeats and breathing cease but thought, cognitive analytical skills and memory are carried by the soul. The soul is our eternal self and goes on living after physical death. The fravashi or farohar is the divine counterpart, a spark of God attached to all different creations. Our fravashi will be attached to our soul till ristakhiz, resurrection when we relinquish our final body — tan pasin — a body without any taint of evil (Nirang-e-Hormuz Yasht).

The final goal of human existence is to attain haurvatat and ameretat — perfection and immortality, after which the soul merges with its fravashi which is to say the soul merges with its source, Ahura Mazda. I am one of those Zoroastrians who believes in rebirth since attaining perfection in one single life of 60, 70 or 80 years is not possible. I have met many human beings who are excellent but not a single one who is perfect.

The soul has to undergo a period of remorse or jubilation for the life it has led on earth. It will enjoy reward or punishment and for further purification prepare for another life on earth. The soul will take birth in a suitable environment with suitable parents to take it further in its path of final salvation. (A perfect and just God does not let a soul burn in hell and that too forever for whatever wrong was done during one lifetime of 80 years — even sinful persons do much good. Nor does a good man deserve to live in heaven for all eternity — even the best of us have evil clinging to us. We are told that our deeds are weighed on a scale and the slightest tilting of this scale seals our fate for eternity. In that case an infant who dies at birth is very lucky. It gets to go to heaven, no questions asked, without undergoing the rigors of life.)

There are strong indications that Zoroastrianism sets forth the idea of reincarnation: Our sudreh has a girdo at the back of the neck which is a bag containing our karmic burdens of past lives and a gireban which awaits the deposition of good deeds of our present life; all of us have different talents and some of us are very talented in a given field. What is talent? It is the carry over of accomplishments of past lives carried in the memory of the soul. Asneh Kherdi is knowledge acquired at birth, as against Gosho-shrute Kherdi, knowledge acquired by hearing; on the morning of charum the priests pray to the soul just departed, "If you have to return may you do so as a Mazdayasni. If you do not need to return, may you speedily and without delay progress to the Pastures of Meher!”

Heaven and hell are states of mind — Vahishtem Ahum is the best state of mind and Achistem Ahum, the worst state of mind. Purity of thought, word and deed, or lack of these causes these states.

The Ashem Vohu is a chant which predates Zarathushtra and declares that good should be done without any hope of reward, in this world or the next — the only motive is attainment of ushta, bliss.

The sudreh and kusti are symbolic of our purpose in life, besides aids in physical and psychic health. The white muslin cloth shirt and the woolen girdle around our navel vitalizes our aura, which is an invisible electromagnetic field around our bodies about 18 inches around us.

To answer the question about charum (chehar means four in Persian), on the fourth morning after physical death the soul finally severs all connections with the physical world.

Human existence has nine components. Mortal parts comprise tanu (the exterior physical body), azda (organs) and gaetha (fluid portion). The mortal invisible parts are: ushta tanu (shining body), keherp (causal body) and tevishi (astral body). The immortal parts are baodhang (wisdom), urvan (soul) and fravashi (guardian spirit).

At death ushtan disintegrates; till 72 hours thereafter the soul resides in the keherp after which the body too disintegrates. After the charum prayers, living relatives and wellwishers bid farewell and resume their own lives. Every ritual and ceremony has a logical and scientific basis.

The tevishi or astral body is used by very holy persons for out-of-body experience, e.g. Dastur Azar Kaivan and Adarbad Marespand.

Muktad or Mukta Aiti is the fravashis of the departed visiting us upon being invoked for 18 days leading up to Navroz till Pateti — the last day of the year (Vahishtoishti Gatha) when they depart to the spirit world after rejoicing with living beings.

Each and every form of creation is allotted a fravashi, man, animal, plant, stone — which conveys clearly that God is present in all His creations.

If any reader should find fault with anything, please do so gently unless the person has obtained first hand knowledge.

CYRUS S. MEHERJI

Calcutta

cymeher@rediffmail.com