I am not a tunneling engineer, nor an advocate, nor a priest. I am a Zoroastrian, and the vastly contrasting views of eminent scholars and know-alls in our community have left me with an increasingly puzzling conundrum regarding the tunneling work being carried out by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) for Metro 3 which is slated to pass under the H. B. Wadia Atash Behram and alongside the Anjumanna Atash Behram.
The MMRCL tunneling machines are boring their way towards the two Atash Behrams since the Bombay High Court did not "find it appropriate to withhold the infrastructure project of this magnitude any further,” and even the Supreme Court gave the go ahead to continue the work ("Metro stay lifted,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, December 21, 2018).
The petitioners stated that "if a tunnel for the Metro is allowed to be bored under the premises of the atash behram, the spiritual circuits will be breached, and negative physical and spiritual forces will attack the holy fire, thus diminishing its spiritual prowess. The respondents argued that one cannot "establish the fact that if the tunnel is allowed to pass beneath the premises of the atash behram, an essential and integral part of the Zoroastrian faith would be defeated.”
I didn’t know what to believe. So I turned to my faith and asked myself one question: Is our atash really that fragile? The atash, or holy flame of the Zoroastrians, is an eternal flame. Growing up, I was taught that it represents the spirit within all of us, makes us mighty, symbolizes timeless purity and gives us something to pray to — a visible signature of Ahura Mazda, God of the Zoroastrians.
The fires burning in our atash dadgahs, atash adarians and atash behrams have survived the harshest of forces over centuries of our existence. In Iran, they survived the fall of the Sassanid Empire after the conquest of Persia and persecution by the conquerors. In India, consecrated fires have survived the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni, the wars of Alauddin Khilji, the Battle of Diu against the Portuguese Empire, the exploitation by the East India Company, the Indo-Pak War, floods, cyclones, earthquakes, communal riots, terrorist attacks, bomb explosions, droughts, pollution, traffic, communal differences and much more.
If the consecrated fires have survived all this, I am convinced that a Metro tunnel with a passenger filled train passing under the sanctum sanctorum will never ever "result in complete desecration” of the atashs. Add to this the basic maxim of the Zoroastrian religion which encourages thinking good thoughts, speaking good words, doing good deeds and the spirituality will remain eternal with good conquering evil.
Anyone who thinks otherwise may just have tunnel vision!
ZAHIRAB ASPI WADIA
zahirabwadia@gmail.com
Before the sacred fires are harmed, to protect them they can possibly be merged with the fire at the Iranshah in Udvada. Currently that may be the most graceful yet decisive act for the Parsis.
ZUBIN SOHRAB MORRIS
morris@littlecompany.com