With the community focus on the dwindling number of mobeds, Ervad Sarosh Aibara believes the importance of Zoroastrian prayers has been taking a back seat. This is a matter of serious concern. Aibara therefore formed The Parsi Prayer Group to impart knowledge on the power of prayers to the younger generation.
The project resulted in a video of the entire yasna ceremony, an audio of the entire Khordeh Avesta, non-pav-mahal and pav-mahal ceremony prayers namely Aafringaans, Aafrins, Aashirwad (Pazand and Sanskrit), the Yasna, Visparad and the Vandidad. The entire navjote ceremony prayers are included, with pauses for children to learn and recite along with the video. Since most of our youngsters do not know Gujarati, audio recordings are a perfect tool to master diction and pronunciation.
With the scarcity of priests, there are few experienced mobeds available to train the young. By leveraging technology, this tool will teach, help revise and refresh people’s memory in the privacy and convenience of their own homes.
There is a need to digitize prayers and the hands-on practical forms (kriya-kaam) of the yasna ceremony, enabling people to learn it accurately. The yasna is the core of all the pav-mahal ritual, namely Visparad, Vandidad, Nirangdin prayers as also, navar and maratab ceremonies.
The trustees of the M. F. Cama Athornan Institute were kind enough to permit us to use their premises for this video shoot. Ervad Keki Ravji, panthaky of the Cama Baug Agiary, Ervad Farzad Ravji, panthaky of the Behram Baug Agiary and Ervad Capt Kaizad Aibara, a 29-year-old commercial pilot employed with an airline, voluntarily devoted many hours for the video shoot of the yasna ceremony. The entire cost was sponsored by well-wishers.
The video is not to be used as a substitute for the actual prayers. It is a tutoring tool, a research instrument, an archival resource created to preserve and impart knowledge to all Zoroastrians. It is available free of cost on Google Drive.
Ervad Capt KAIZAD AIBARA
kaizad.aibara@gmail.com