Readers' Forum
Prophet’s true message
I believe the fundamental problem is that today’s Parsis have forgotten how to be Zarathushtis. What they know about their "religion” has been gleaned from dogmatic high priests and self-important "experts.” I have first-hand experience of this. When I visit Parsi friends in America and some white person asks them to explain what their religion teaches, they spin that tired old fable about Jadi Rana and the dasturji dissolving sugar in milk. Then they mouth the phrase "good thoughts, good words and good deeds” which has unfortunately become hackneyed due to ignorant overuse. And that is the extent of their knowledge.
They are blissfully oblivious of Zoroaster’s true message of tolerance and inclusiveness. They live in a happy fog where mouthing pages of incomprehensible sentences, or paying some priests to do so, amounts to adequately fulfilling their religious obligation. Indeed, ceremonies and rituals have assumed such dominant influence that the essence of the religion — assuming they are even interested — is virtually forgotten.
The needless and ludicrous controversy over dakhmas is a telling example. Only the spiritually bankrupt would believe that the soul’s passage to its final destination is dependent on the method by which a lifeless carcass is disposed of. You earn your place in heaven or hell based on how you have lived your life. A group of bored priests muttering prayers learnt by rote is certainly not going to score you any brownie points with the Almighty.
And is it not the height of arrogance for a few self-styled "authorities” to determine who can or cannot be a Parsi? Their authority certainly does not come from Zarathushtra who would have abhorred this exclusion from a faith he proclaimed to be universal. It is time Parsis accepted the reality that we are just an ethnic group with merely a romantic fantasy about our origins and our religion.
They are blissfully oblivious of Zoroaster’s true message of tolerance and inclusiveness. They live in a happy fog where mouthing pages of incomprehensible sentences, or paying some priests to do so, amounts to adequately fulfilling their religious obligation. Indeed, ceremonies and rituals have assumed such dominant influence that the essence of the religion — assuming they are even interested — is virtually forgotten.
The needless and ludicrous controversy over dakhmas is a telling example. Only the spiritually bankrupt would believe that the soul’s passage to its final destination is dependent on the method by which a lifeless carcass is disposed of. You earn your place in heaven or hell based on how you have lived your life. A group of bored priests muttering prayers learnt by rote is certainly not going to score you any brownie points with the Almighty.
And is it not the height of arrogance for a few self-styled "authorities” to determine who can or cannot be a Parsi? Their authority certainly does not come from Zarathushtra who would have abhorred this exclusion from a faith he proclaimed to be universal. It is time Parsis accepted the reality that we are just an ethnic group with merely a romantic fantasy about our origins and our religion.
FIROZE HIRJIKAKA
leonardo899@gmail.com
leonardo899@gmail.com
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