“Parsis and prejudice”

I write to congratulate you for your Parsiana issues and for an excellently readable Navroz edition of August 7, 2014. It was both good for the intellect and sentiment. I enjoyed reading the entire issue but will share my thoughts on a few articles.
As both a Zoroastrian and a history teacher, "Parsis and prejudice” by Shereen Ratnagar was an eye-opener for one believing "the grievance that we were expelled from Iran by Muslim intolerance.” Zoroastrian intolerance came as a complete surprise and deflated my sense of superiority of our own tolerance when Zoroastrians reigned. We’re all the same under the skin, aren’t we, where intolerance is concerned? The chilling warning at the end of the article in Madhav Sadashiv Golwarkar’s words that "minorities can remain in India if they were wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation claiming nothing not even citizens’ rights” should set us all thinking seriously. Sadly, it repudiates the myth and boast of Hinduism being an all encompassing, tolerant religion and way of life. It seems all religious factions are just as intolerant, led by misguided zealots. This brings to mind the recent decimation of the Yazidis. It is heartbreakingly disappointing that there is total silence on our part when this Kurd group who also share some part of Zoroastrian beliefs is being eradicated.
Another challenging article is "A Zoroastrian by choice” by Dorian Gordon Bates. Most original! It struck a sympathetic chord in me kindling pride in being Zoroastrian!
Dr Khosro Khazai Pardis’ articles are always absorbing and reflective and "Happiness belongs…” is no exception. I share his opinion that no religion in the world has given a better definition of the purpose of existence and life than Zarathushtra in the Gathas when he says: "The purpose of our creation is to take part actively in the improvement of the world, in order that all living beings: human, animal and plants live in peace and fullness.”
The Zoroastrians expose their dead to the elements so that there should be no wastage whatsoever. Over 8,000 years ago, exposure to the elements must have seemed the best way out of wastage. Today, in our scientific age, perhaps poet Robert N. Test’s To Remember Me… (Test was one of the pioneers of organ and tissue donation — editors) makes more sense. But it may sound too radical for Parsis embroiled in the fight of dakhmenashini vs cremation!
I would like to reproduce here the entire text of To Remember Me… by Test, originally published in The Cincinati Post in 1976:
"The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes my life has stopped.
"When that happens do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don’t call this my death bed. Let it be called the Best of Life and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
"Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face nor love in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play. Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week. Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
"Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that someday, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.
"Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow. If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man.
"Give my sins to the devil. My soul to God.
"If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.”
AMY BILIMORIA