"How not to foil customs”
The silly season is upon us with this latest ripe-for-a-laugh plaint over the new-fangled method of disposal of ashes ("How not to foil customs,” Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, June 7, 2014). Barefoot mystics walk harmlessly over hot coals; some even toss hot coals from palm to palm. Never have any yet been hauled over them for infringing the sole (?) removal method of ashen residues from a dedicated fire whose ritual life has run its intended course. There is always time found for serial lamentation and outcry over such non-issues as exposed in your editorial.
Will it ever be understood that once a fire is lit and blazed up for solemn ritual uses it serves its pious use only as long as the particular prayers last, allowing for lay individuals later to reverentially offer their symbolic little pieces of firewood and even incense. The officiating priests are merely intermediaries; the sponsors are the intended beneficiaries.
Any clean, well-scented, knot-free woods suffice — and when done with, the fire is no longer sacrosanct. The ashes remaining on the sarposh "fire-tray,” with or without intervening foil may then be safely transported to any place specially set aside and left to cool. Some even gently spread out the hot ash layers to expedite cooling before disposal. These are simply matters of safety and common sense, and hardly of rocket science!
Safety, because no priest or his finery is fireproof; common sense, because there’s so little by way of precaution when arguing over ritualistic trivia. Of course, in this age of crass superstition with its frazzled perceptions attached to anything considered "holy,” the entire fire ritual is seen as so numinous (religiously emotive), that with logically challenged crackpot views all manner of ropey (poor quality) explanations are brought into play!
Has nobody from our non-counseling priests’ council worked out the simple logic of the scattering procedures in the Vandidad’s 16-fold fire purification? It surely must have occurred to our internally squabbling clerics that it is this priest concocted text which has provided the ritual basis for the coy Religious ceremonies and customs of the Parsees (Jivanji Modi) and the dated Gujarati-scripted Pavmahalni kriyao of Manekji Unwalla and Khurshedji Pavri. Why then this additional fuss over a "dangerous” new custom (tomorrow’s "tradition”)?
FARROKH VAJIFDAR
London
f.vajifdar@btinternet.com