A surprising number of non-Parsis have faith in Zoroastrian prayers
There is this anecdote about a solitary fisherman’s
tiny boat being tossed around in stormy waters with the shore nowhere in sight.
A few years earlier this fisherman had witnessed, in a similar situation, his
Parsi master reciting the Yatha Ahu Vairyo after which the sea suddenly
turned benign, thus saving precious lives. However, the only word the fisherman
could remember was “Thavario.”
With great devotion and faith, he started
chanting, “Parsi taro Thavario (Parsi, your Thavario).” The
miracle is said to have occurred again: the stormy skies cleared and the wind
dropped.
In those towns of Gujarat which have an agiary
it is commonplace for non-Parsis to hand over sandalwood sticks to Parsis
entering the fire temple and requesting them to light a divo. Barring
some occasional oddball, Parsis would gracefully accede to this touching
request.
Even in Udvada non-Parsis buy sandalwood and
leave it at the Iranshah gate. In the 1940s when the revered Sardar Dastur
Noshirwan Dastur, designated Head Priest of the Deccan, was in charge of
Poona’s Sardar Sorabji Patel Agiary in Nana Peth (Gaam ni Agiary), it was
widely known that non-Parsis would leave sandalwood outside the fire temple as
offerings to the atash padshah. The benign priest, noted for his spiritual aura,
would also reportedly receive written requests (which were tied to the branches
of a pomegranate tree in the compound) asking him to make special intercessions
on their behalf to solve the problems they were facing.
This now occurs in Bombay as well. On Meher mah,
Meher roz, as the queue winds its way through the narrow lane leading to
the famed Aslaji Agiary, non-Parsis can be seen handing money to Parsi devotees
to offer sandalwood to the holy fire on their behalf.
At Bombay’s Bhikha Behram Well, located at the
southern end of Cross Maidan, several non-Parsis stand outside the venerated
premises to offer their devotion.
Our progressive priests (and their number is
gradually increasing) who perform funeral rites for those opting for cremation
and navjotes of children of intermarried Parsi mothers, are now being
requisitioned to conduct jashans at non-Parsi homes. The fervor with which
these jashans are attended by non-Parsis is to be seen to be believed, report
the priests. The potency of manthric prayers is appreciated. Non-Parsis
suffering from chronic illnesses or inexplicable malevolence request their
Parsi friends to recite the Ardibehesht Yasht or the nirang of
Afsoon-e-Shah-e-Faridoon, the divine healer. A Maharashtrian lady on dialysis
recently surprised this columnist by reciting the central manthra of that
nirang, with impeccable pronunciation.
Does this mean that if the faith was to open its
doors to non-Parsis there would be an implosion? We think not. Just as Parsis,
substantial numbers of whom routinely worship at the temples of other faiths
but remain Zoroastrians, non-Parsis who offer devotion at Zoroastrian places of
worship would stay with their religion. Many such non-Parsi believers often
express a wish to worship in our fire temples and some of them have even done
so. This will undoubtedly enrage the orthodox. However, what seems sacrilege
today will, over the next two or three decades, become accepted practice.
Closed door practices generally crumble under the pressure of external factors.
Parsis should be legitimately proud of the power
of their faith being appreciated by others. Every religion is universal and
man-made rules of exclusion are bound to fall by the wayside when the time is
ripe.
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