From his letter ("Idea of goodness,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, May 21, 2015) Zend Lakdavala seems oblivious to Zarathushtra’s notions of good and evil. Both are amply dealt with in the Gathas; one is left in no doubt that good as a concept is meaningless without its counterpart of evil. These are shown as fully, irreconcilably opposed (Ys.45.2) since only goodness emanates from good. What’s more, he offered a very practical solution for which one has to appraise for oneself the true nature and being of Mazda as Ahura ("Lordly Wisdom,” not "god”) with his helpers.
In invoking Socrates Lakdavala has shot wide of the mark. The wonderfully economical and coherent words of Zarathushtra to concisely present ethical and moral themes stand in sharp contrast to the dialectical verbiage of the Greeks. People for whom the Gathas are a closed book have ever since been thrashing around to make sense where it appears lacking, and they will surely be arguing over the idea of goodness ad nauseam.
The sun as symbolic of illumination of mind and of truthful perception has been with mankind for some 10,000 years. To Zarathushtra’s mind it represented the dispelling of the darkness of error (read evil). Khvang daraso — "beholding the sun” has its particular context in Ys. 43.16. Shortly after, his descendants elevated the "highest of lights, called the sun” (Ys.36.6 which happens to be the exact arithmetical mid-point of the 72-Yasna collection).
The fact that pre-telescope age ancients knew nothing of the true nature of the stars should not call for derision. They were more concerned with astronomical configurations (the 13 zodiacal constellations) for navigation and time-reckoning by land and sea. When astrology took over, with its inevitable superstitions, the diffuse structures within the minds of some succumbed to this insidious pseudo-scientific pariah, resulting in the discontinuance of philosophical thought within its meditative and speculative bounds.
Much the same remarks apply to fire and fire worship. Whereas in the Gathas this primal element is treated in the abstract throughout, the later priestly accretions that helped concoct Zoroastrianism were to account for the superstitious dread and abject, wasteful lip worship one sees among those spellbound by fear and mired in ignorance. Even whilst preaching environmental care, the fire worshippers among us continue with wood fuel profligacy.
The Zoroastrian purity laws multiplied at the behest of (male) priests who, clinging on to their "ancestral rights,” have imposed these — in Mazda’s name! — on pious womenfolk to the extent that female priests are excluded. Let these obscurantists explain the unequivocal passages from the Gathas regarding universality and gender equality.
The clearest is this: "May a good ruler, man or woman, arise to govern over us in both existences, that of the material and spiritual” (from Ys.41.2, being reflections of Ys.28.2; 43.3; 46.10; 48.5). Ask our dhongi (sham) priests why they pray these passages before the symbolic flame of truth during the sacred Yasna ceremony and in the next breath contradict and deny the very substance of what they have mindlessly uttered. Iran, thankfully, has taken the lead on ordaining female priests.
FARROKH VAJIFDAR
London
f.vajifdar@btinternet.com
While acknowledging Zend Lakdavala’s right to hold and voice his views on our religious and community practices ("Idea of goodness,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, May 21, 2015), I would like to counter some of his assertions.
It’s true that the sun is one of billions of stars in our galaxy destined to become a red giant on its way to eventual extinction; but it’s the only sun we have, and on which we depend for our sustenance. The fire in our temples, far from being a manifestation of a sun-fetish, provides much-needed focus to worshippers. It serves much the same purpose as idols and figures in other houses of worship. The main difference, however, is that unlike wood or stone, fire is visibly "alive.” It is dynamic. By always reaching upwards it teaches us to strive to live at a higher moral and spiritual level. It is a life giver; and even as it destroys, as sometimes it must, it purifies. And finally it is symbolic of the figurative fire that burns in our breasts, which we label as our conscience, to keep us on the straight and narrow.
On the subject of conversion, I can only say that we have, over the past 13 centuries, abided by the conditions stipulated to our ancients by Jadi Rana, who gave us refuge at Sanjan, non-conversion being the first of them. And this practice has stood us in good stead over the long period. (There is no reference to forbidding conversion among the supposed conditions laid down in the Qissa-i Sanjan by the mythical king, Jadi Rana — editors)
On the issue of intermarriage, ours being a patriarchal society, the non-Zoroastrian wife would automatically have been expected to embrace her husband’s Zoroastrianism, which would conflict with our stand on conversion. But I grant Lakdavala that intermingling must surely have taken place over the centuries. However, I cannot fail to mention here that we are being grossly unfair to Parsi women who opt for non-Zoroastrian husbands, and the offspring of such unions, by denying them religious privileges which would rightfully have been theirs otherwise.
Times have changed. The world has been shrinking over the past century, and our shrinking community sorely needs to adapt. For only therein lies its survival.
KERSASP R. DADACHANJI
dadakr@gmail.com