Wearing while robes / As well a white cap/ Which are symbols of purity/ Don a padan while facing/ The sacred fire/ Doesn’t it prick your conscience/ Cause you are raising/ Ahura Mazda’s ire?/ How many of you skirt/ Around the issue/ Of equality, universality /Treat people with respect/ Dignity?/ Or is it:/ "Eat, drink and be merry”?
I have heard lectures/ On Zoom/ They do not impress/ As everything is hypothetical/ Nothing is proven to be true/ Except the Gathas of Asho Zarathushtra/ Pardon me I’m not/ Trying to be insulting/ Insolent or rude/ Why? Skirting the real issue/ Of Inclusion main/ Focus of our religion.
Do you believe/ That those who practice/ Racism, discrimination/ Bigotry will be ascending/ To heaven?/ Put your "white thinking cap” on/ Keep on dreaming!
Many Zoroastrians thronged/ To see the Cyrus Cylinder/ How many took the
Charter of Human Rights to heart?/ If one didn’t want to be a part/ Was it just out of curiosity?/ Or took the message to heart/ To save humanity? Of course not.
He didn’t etch the Charter of/ Human Rights to be famous/ Or etch it for fun/ He believed in humanity/ Cause he thought like a/ Zoroastrian/ (Equality, universality/ Treat people with respect/ Dignity regardless of/ Color, caste, religion or creed)/ Living in harmony peace prosperity.
So before one pretends/ To be the anointed one/ Pause, chill and rethink/ If one wants be a Zoroastrian/ At the same "ascend” to "heaven.”
(I have penned this poem because Zoroastrianism is being torn apart, and nobody seems to care! Let a variant be let loose... and watch the fun!) FARIDA BAMJI
Ottawa, Canada
faridabam@gmail.com