“A toll booth to heaven”

Giving free, frank and impartial coverage to all the topics relevant to our community in India and abroad — since our diaspora is not only increasing but also willing to break out of the traditional mold and change with the times — Parsiana now has an international reach. This was evident from the queries I received from so many countries, including Norway and Sweden, following the publication of the article "The energy of education” (Parsiana, August 21, 2013).
History is reconstructing the past for the benefit of the future. Each of the founding fathers has laid a brick to build this grand edifice of 50 years and counting. The reminiscences of the past which you are trying to preserve and bring alive form a continuous stream for posterity. It is a pleasurable though ambitious task, and when you are researching and digging into your past it will be gratifying to recall all the achievements and accolades you have received. At the same time, your journey was not all fair weather; you had your share of heartbreaks, hiccups, faults and foibles, tensions and worries. But all this seems worthwhile when you realize that your joint efforts brought a bit of sunshine into your subscribers’ lives.
What you all have done is just a drop in the ocean. "But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop,” said Mother Teresa.
Let me now take the liberty to express some of my views and thoughts.
Life is a most easy exam. Many of us fail because we try to copy from others without realizing that each one of us has a different paper. Let us also remember that perfection is fantasy but truth is reality.
Our forefathers have been very generous and far-sighted, setting up trusts for various projects. No other community has so many welfare trusts or institutions like the Parsi punchayets dedicated to manage them. But, unfortunately, our "garib” Parsis take these doles as their right. We need to develop a conscience as a community. We need to be honest like our forefathers. We no longer have any entrepreneurial skills or fire in the belly to excel at what we do. Except for a handful of exceptions in India and abroad, Parsis have become a decadent lot who seek to follow the latest trends and try to be as modern as possible while neglecting our rich culture, heritage and homeland, which is the very core of our existence.
Our religion is lenient; it does not impose any major restrictions and does not advocate celibacy even for our priests. But it enjoins us to celebrate the good things of life, and to live by the axiom: "To live is to give.”
It pains me to see the way we denigrate ourselves and wash our dirty linen in public. We are spending crores from our corpus funds on petty personal quarrels and hare brained ideas such as an aviary for breeding vultures. May our akabars learn to change before we become extinct in the rear view of history.
Zoroaster gave his life to teach us the path of ashoi, to lead a fulfilling life and not be misled by the teachings of the Magi who believed in symbols and unholy rituals. The irony is that we the Parsis (not Zoroastrians) have spurned righteousness and returned to the unholy symbols and decadent rituals of the Magi.
As the sun rose over Poona, I looked up to the heavens where the last of the stars were fading. I thought about science, about faith, about man. I thought about how every culture, in every country, in every time has always shared one thing. We all have the creator. We use different names, different faces and different prayers — but God is the universal constant for man. God is the symbol we all share — the symbol of all the mysteries of life that we could not understand. The ancients had praised God as a symbol of our limitless human potential — and understood that God resides in our human soul and is the architect of our existence.
We have lost the true meaning of religion. It exists in all the enduring texts from the Gathas, the Geeta, to the Bible, the Quran and beyond. We have made religion a toll booth to heaven.
If there is anything that history has taught us it is that more murders, pillage and horrific crimes have been committed in the name of religion than anything else. Religion is the bane of mankind.
Let us acknowledge that we are all children of the same creator and not differentiate on manmade religious lines. Let’s throw open our minds and our religious temples to all.
May providence protect and grant our minuscule community and Parsiana a glorious future.

Prof Hoshang D. Moogat is a retired principal of Poona’s Nowrosjee Wadia College of Arts and Science. A renowned teacher of mathematics, Moogat, now 81, has contributed greatly over decades to the cause of education.

At Parsiana’s request, Zoroastrian scholar Farrokh Vajifdar explains the role of the Magi:
"The Magi were a freelancing priestly caste within the larger Median tribal confederations to the west of Iran — today’s Iranian Azarbaijan. The great Greek historian Herodotus had met them in what is now western Turkey and studied them from the curiosity viewpoint of a foreigner (although he was a Persian subject). He considered them to be practitioners of the dark arts (hence "magi”cians!) and astrology (three of them supposedly followed the Star of Bethlehem!).
"The authentic priests of Zara­thush­tra’s persuasion were from eastern Iran. They were the real poryotkeshan or upholders of the original doctrines. They founded the genuine Zoroastrian schools of learning and its transmission to the western Magi. From then on the Magian story becomes clearer. Many of the Magi converted to true Zoroastrianism and must be credited with preserving Zarathushtra’s Gathas and other Avestan texts. Without them, we would have had nothing by which to call ourselves Zoroastrians.
"Magian learning was revived from the 18th century to our times and one must be deeply grateful to them for their genuine efforts at preserving and promoting Zarathushtra. Today’s Magi (karpans) are deplorably ignorant: they dishonestly make up all manner of gobbledegook in Zarathushtra’s name. I hold them in deep contempt for instilling fear and ignorance amongst today’s Parsis, both in India and in the diaspora.

Life is a most easy exam. Many of us fail because we try to copy from others without realizing that each one of us has a different paper

Parsis have become a decadent lot who seek to follow the latest trends and try to be as modern as possible while neglecting our rich culture, heritage and homeland