A Parsi is a Parsi…

I strongly disagree with the idea that one cannot be a Parsi without being a Zarathushti, as some Parsi pseudo-scholars maintain. A Parsi is a person born of one or both Parsi parents. Inherited traits are passed on through birth and cannot be changed by whatever religion a person adopts. A Parsi is a Parsi till s/he dies.

However, anybody who accepts the teachings of the Zarathushti religion and willingly agrees to abide by them is a Zarathushti, regardless of whether he wears the sudreh-kusti or not, whether his navjote has been performed or not. A Zarathushti is known by the way he conducts his life and not by whether he is accepted as such by self-righteous, self-proclaimed authorities of the religion. JAMSHED RATANSHA UDVADIA

Lansing, MI, USA

jrudvadia1@sbcglobal.net