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I am a Zarathushti seeker, born in an athornan family in Ahmedabad in August 1950. From my early years I have always had the urge to seek the truth. I delved into several books which my grandfather Dastur Khurshed Dabu had in his extensive library. Later, by listening to his public discourses and lectures on the truths in our Zarathushti religion, daena-deen, my zeal to learn more about our sublime religion increased. My grandfather was a Vada Dastur, High Priest of the Wadiaji Atash Behram in Bombay. As an eminent scholar of Zoroastrianism and one of the seven High Priests of the Supreme Council of the Zarathushti Deen his word was among the final ones for the Parsis of India on our religious theology, ritual practices and spiritual matters.

Though a talented natural artist, I am a civil engineer by profession and worked as project manager with the National Dairy Development Board for 12 years. I was part of Operation Flood which took India from being a milk deficit country to a milk surplus one.

  above: Zarathushtra painting for Gatha calendar

As a self-taught artist I created oil paintings on Zarathushti religious themes solely to inspire and create interest and enthusiasm in community members so that they would learn more about our scriptures, and the most important message of Zarathushtra embedded within his sublime hymns, the Gathas. It was then that I realized it was my duty to be a seeker of the truth and to convey my findings to those who want to know them.

My actual spiritual journey started when the shock of suddenly losing my mother made me retreat inward to realize who I am and why coming on this earth and going away is a certainty. During 2006, the real spiritual transformation occurred when I started getting multiple flashes of insights which answered my inner queries and doubts in "waves and flashes,” as I can best describe them. These flashes and messages which guided me were published in my book, Jam e-Zarathushtra, which contained my spiritual visions and was elaborately illustrated with my paintings. I am not an Avesta scholar, but for those like me who do not know how to read that ancient language the great scholar Dr Irach J. S. Taraporevala has left a remarkable word by word translation of the Gathas in The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra.  His book helped me discover the hidden gems of wisdom with my inner mind and arrive at answers to my queries and doubts. 

I have established a permanent dadgah at my home at Vadodara which has been burning continuously from 2019 where I offer loving service in the form of the boi ceremony to the holy fire three times a day. This is very satisfying for me. 

I started painting themes like the Shahnameh stories of Rustam Pehelvan, etc in watercolors on paper. Later I mastered the art of oil painting and painted my visions of Asho Zarathushtra. I must have created many different paintings of Zarathushtra; prints of my paintings adorn many fire temples like the one at Dadysett Atash Behram with Zarathushtra seated on a throne. One original portrait of Zarathushtra was recently donated by me to the newly renovated Abu Dar-e-Meher, inaugurated by retired Justice Rohinton Nariman in 2021 and my original oil painting of Zarathushtra praying in front of the fire has been installed at the Contractor Agiary in Vadodara. 

In 2014, a group of "seekers” from Ahmedabad, who called themselves the Gatha Study Group, established under the aegis of the Ushta-Te Foundation, decided to come up with a Parsi Shahenshahi Gatha Calendar. They had seen the paintings in my book, Jam e-Zarathushtra, and requested me to illustrate selected verses of the Gathas. I painted six canvases illustrating the conceptual essence of the verses for the calendar which was launched by Vada Dastur Khurshed Dastoor at the Iranshah Udvada Utsav on December 25, 2015. Ushta-te has printed poster size reprints of these which now adorn fire temples across Iran, the USA and elsewhere.

I am also in touch with the members of the Grand Council of Zoroastrians of Iraqi Kurdistan like Ibrahim Zrary, Awat Darya, Faiza Foad, Esphandyar Abnoos, Kvarenah Zoroaster, etc. They ask for information, which I provide to help them understand the message of Zarathushtra. Zrary has written books on the Zarathushti religion (which they call Zardasti), in the Kurdish language, and one of my paintings is on the cover of his book. Many of the Kurdish people whose ancestors were Zoroastrian (Median Zoroastrians to be exact) now want to return to their ancestral religion — the good religion — daena vanghuhim, of Zarathushtra. We must help them in this endeavor, for the message of Zarathushtra is universal and it is predicted that "it has yet to guide the world.” Outside India, there is no law prohibiting people from returning to their ancestral religion by choice, and the number of Kurdish Zarathushtis is increasing by the day, for which we should be happy.

Growing up in an orthodox environment I understood that being orthodox means being open to the concepts of others and, after weighing them in one’s inner self, deciding whether to agree or to politely decline while respecting the other’s point of view. That is being "orthodox.” Orthodox Parsis are the middle section between the extreme right fundamentalists who have a closed mind, and the extreme left reformists who want to change for the sake of change. Both are extremes. This is against our religion, which advocates following the middle path — which is what orthodox Parsis want; holding on to the pristine teachings of the Prophet, while listening to the other point of view and changing minor cultural aspects as required (like our wise ancestors who landed on the shores of Sanjan did by wearing local dress, speaking the local language, yet holding on to the core values in India, of no intermarriages, no conversion, no change in our prayers and practices in our fire temples and disposal of the dead by dakhmenashini. It is due to this that we have survived in a sea of other ethnic multitudes and yet maintained our individual religion and culture for the past 1,400 years.

My most recent activity has been to create and upload videos related to various Zoroastrian themes on YouTube. The topics range from Mushkil Aasan Behram Yazad nirangs, to the sublime hymns of the holy Gathas (which are portrayed in my paintings), Sarosh Baj, Tir Yasht Nirang, mystic healing prayers, esoteric Fshusho manthra prayers, Dastur Azar Kaivan’s nirangs, etc. These include manthric prayers along with their explanations. 

My family has contributed in molding my spiritual development. I learnt a lot from my grandfather Dastur Khurshed Dabu, uncle Noshir Daboo, wife Behroz, daughters Nekshan and Rashnaz and friends. My wife has been an astute critic of my paintings, always challenging and questioning me to bring about a positive attitudinal change in me, as a friend, companion, supporter, encourager, critic and improver-in-chief.  Nekshan urged me to introspect more on various occasions when spiritualism was bracketed as religion, which was a learning experience for me. Having obtained a Masters in Fine Arts, she has always inspired and goaded me to create better religious art. Rashnaz would always try to understand spiritual concepts. To answer her, I needed to research and introspect, which was a learning curve for me too. It was she who goaded me to start my YouTube channel so that I can convey my findings not only to a small group but to the community at large. It was mainly due to her that I started creating YouTube videos on various religious themes, reciting our manthric prayers with their explanations. My granddaughter, Tishtrya, being herself a good singer, taught me to sing our prayers with varied rhythms and devotion. My friends and all those who I came into contact with taught me something or the other. Learning is a never ending endeavor. 

This is an abridged version of the autobiographical note by Rustom Daboo dated October 10, 2024, forwarded to Parsiana by the Ushta-te Foundation.