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Let’s see what happens today when many Parsis in Bombay have the sachkar and geh sarna ceremonies performed at one place, viz in one of the upper bunglis of Doongerwadi, but have the rest of the ceremonies till the dawn of charum, performed at an atash behram or an agiary.
Suppose one Fali Fekuchand passes away and his funeral service is to be held at the Albless Bungli. From the time of the sachkar ceremony, Fali’s soul is sitting in his kehrp (home or ‘spaceship’ of the soul) plumb near his head, deeply engrossed in viewing the wide panorama of all the ghotalas (mistakes, mix-ups) that he had done during the life that has just passed. Sometime after the geh sarna is over and the corpse is laid in the dakhma, Fali’s soul, ensconced in the kehrp, suddenly realizes that his nearest and dearest ones, some of whom had literally brought the very roof down when he had passed away, depart with the rest of the crowd who had come to bid him the final farewell!
After the geh sarna, the priests had loudly announced that the uthamna (and, therefore, all other subsequent ceremonies) will be held at Patel Agiary in Andheri! Poor Fali’s soul is in a veritable panic. What did his close relations think? That they were religiously following some Christian burial ceremony where, once the body is laid to rest in a grave after the funeral service, there’s nothing left to be done at the spot? The limit of ignorance and callousness!
Fali’s soul is much disturbed. It can hardly concentrate on the videotape of his present and past lives that is being played before it. Ahriman’s army is waiting round the corner, ready to pounce on the soul-carrying kehrp, once the sun sets and darkness creeps in. If only some numbskull would realize how very vital and indispensable are the srosh ceremonies right near it at present! But the only presence there is that of a small oil lamp burning nearby. Everyone else has gone to enjoy the cosy comfort of home! Fali’s soul shudders. There is silence all round. No stoat (the science of sound) vibrations whatsoever to protect, guide and nourish the soul!

 

 

 

Instead, some 25 kms away, close relations and friends troop in at the agiary with poker faces for the srosh no kardo. They try to look as solemn as possible, but soon the ice is broken. Conversation ranges from the state of affairs in the Bombay Parsi Punchayet to the state of the economy. No one bothers about the fate of the now shivering soul of the late Fali at Doongerwadi! Why should they? After all, the pair of priests has already started reciting "Naam chesti anushey rawan rawani (in the name of the immortal soul of the departed) behdin Fali behdin Framroze.” So, everything is hunky dory!
But, is it? At the Doongerwadi, only the soul of late Fali later knows how it spent the night, when it barely managed to escape the attacks of the hordes of Ahriman. In the absence of srosh ceremonies and other Avesta prayers near it, it was hounded by those evil forces every minute. One might as well say that one was being kind and generous by offering a lantern in Andheri to a person when he is standing in complete darkness at Kemps Corner! Fali’s soul barely escaped the clutches of the dark forces only because, during his lifetime, he had prayed well and had thereby collected to his credit some powerful vibrationary forces. These plus the sachkar and the geh sarna ceremonies had helped for that one night. But Fali’s real ordeal was yet to begin!
The following morning, the second day of the departed soul’s sojourn on earth, there was a flurry outside the Albless Bungli and to its mortification, Fali’s soul was shocked to find the pall-bearers bring in another sachkared corpse and place it exactly where his body lay a day ago. He soon recognized the soul inside the kehrp of the newcomer, which sat meditating very close to him, as that of Dinbai Daruwalla, an old woman living in the same colony when he still had his mortal shell. Dinbai’s presence at the same spot surely spelt doom for Fali’s soul.
Luckily for Dinbai, because of her relatively better karma, all the ceremonies up to the charum were performed at Albless Bungli. Thus, while Fali’s soul received a constant barrage of bombardment from Ganamin (the oppressor) and his gang, Dinbai’s soul experienced peace and tranquility of a high order.