For whom the bell tolls

The disbursement of funds to full-time practicing priests by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) will ease their financial hardships and may help to keep the mobeds in the profession. Each priest receives a monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 while the parents of children studying at the M. F. Cama Athornan Institute and the Dadar Athornan Institute receive a sum of Rs 7,500 every month.

The BPP is also spending considerable amounts of money in the form of incentives to parents to have more children. For every second child born to a couple, a sum of Rs 3,000 is given monthly and for the third child the figure is Rs 5,000. In addition, fertility treatment for couples having difficulty conceiving is being subsidized by the apex trust and now the Government of India is also chipping in.

Any effort to ensure the perpetuity of the Parsi priesthood and the community is welcome. Both have to survive in an increasingly secular world where the trends are towards smaller families.

But there is another problem that has rarely been voiced. At the July 28, West Zone B meet of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India in Ahmedabad this year, a priest observed that the rationale of having mobeds and functioning fire temples would serve little purpose if there were no worshippers.

In many agiaries when the neighborhood Parsi population shifts abode, the number of devotees drops. Attempts to build housing in the vicinity are sometimes thwarted as in the case of the Dadysett Atash Behram in Fanaswadi, once the geographic heart of the community. Disputes over preserving a heritage structure in the compound thwarted construction of 70 flats. Once that plan was aborted, preserving the sanctity of this oldest atash behram in Bombay became problematic.

Already a garbage dump is located on the periphery of the fire temple’s compound wall. Requests, persuasion, Press write-ups have been to no avail. Whether the existence of the stinking eyesore would have been averted had Parsi residents remained in the vicinity is questionable. But their presence would certainly have served as a deterrent. Municipal corporators look to votes to be garnered or lost before deciding on civic issues.

Commuting long distances on crowded, potholed roads with no observance of traffic rules or traveling on a suburban train system which sees an average of 10 deaths a day, would sap the energies of the most devout worshippers. Safer to just shift the family prayers to the new locale’s closest agiary and offer obeisance there. Sometimes worshippers opt for the fire temple closest to their place of employment. Upon retirement they may frequent an agiary near to their residence but they may not venture further, especially on roads with non-existent pavements and fire temples not geared for the physically handicapped.

On occasion people do travel great distances such as to Udvada to pray at the Iranshah Atash Behram or to Shirdi to offer prayers at Sai Baba’s samadhi. Crowded trains and the danger of physical injury or thefts of valuables while trying to board or alight are ever present. Driving on India’s killer highways is another terrifying venture.

After surviving the hazardous journey and entering the Iranshah precincts, one is confronted with a daunting barrage of dos and don’ts listed on garish boards with scant regard for design, color or typography. All these deterrents do not daunt the determined pilgrim.

A few diehards may frequent the shrine once a month on Bahram roz or some other auspicious days. But most worshippers venture once in a year or two or three. While Iranshah, like most religious meccas, is mercifully well endowed, there are numerous agiaries that are rarely frequented and in a state of disrepair.

What deters devotees from visiting agiaries is not only the geographical isolation, disrepair of the physical structure, lack of cleanliness or shortage of mobeds but the approach and attitude of the trustees and priests. The religious leadership often discourages devotees. While nearly all other religions welcome or permit entry to their abodes of worship, Parsis are determined to keep people out. And not only the juddins (non-Parsis) but even the humdins (Parsis). Forget the racial discrimination openly proclaimed by the boards that state "Admission restricted to Parsi Zoroastrians only."

Study the unwritten code of conduct that imposes proscriptions on Parsi Irani Zoroastrians: The head must be covered, the sudreh kusti must be worn, hands must be washed, the sudreh kusti untucked, the kusti prayers recited; footwear removed before stepping on carpeted areas in the sanctum; women desirous of entering should not be in their menses. If a person has opted for cremation then their four-day funerary prayers will not be recited in the agiary. If they die and are cremated abroad though, the ceremonies are performed. If Parsis have married non-Parsis, the non-Parsi spouses are denied admission. Parsi women married to non-Parsis under the Special Marriage Act 1954 and continuing to profess the Zoroastrian faith may enter but their husbands and children may not. In Valsad even these women are barred! The religious heads do not believe in the adage that a family that prays together stays together. They don’t want interfaith matrimonial alliances to endure.

In a harsh and unforgiving environment such as India’s, any form of refuge is welcome. A person can walk off the streets, enter a church, kneel at a pew, derive a few minutes of spiritual solace and depart. They have to be decently dressed and the head uncovered. No elaborate formalities are required. They may or may not be Christians. All are welcome. View the number of Parsis regularly attending the Wednesday novena services at the Mahim church.

Christianity, Islam and Baha’iism welcome all to their fold. Their teachings, theology, doctrines are made available in all languages. From documentaries to full length movies, novels, literature, discourses, hymns and songs, the message is of inclusion. Judaism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism do not seek to convert others but at the same time keep their religion and doors open to all.

In most Hindu temples one can sit and meditate or participate in an aarti ritual and partake of prasad. In contrast the food blessed by a Parsi priest can only be eaten by Parsis or be given to animals. There is normally no elaborate ritualistic procedure one has to go through in a Hindu temple to avail a few fleeting moments of spiritual peace.

In Iran, Zoroastrianism is practiced as it should be. The agiaries are open to all. Women can become priests.

One does not expect the Parsis to change their racial and gender based customs overnight. But the least the clergy and the trustees of these institutions can do is to ensure the houses of worship offer solace and comfort to devout community members. Beyond funding priests and maintaining the physical structure of the agiaries they must most importantly focus on the beneficiaries for whom these edifices were originally created.