Zarathushtra wanted people to clean up their minds with positive thinking and rid themselves of evil thoughts, thereby working towards a future in which we can celebrate righteousness. We cannot do anything about the past, but we can learn from our mistakes. No paradise can be created unless we fight evil on earth so we can enjoy the joys of life.
People have to work hard to serve humanity. We must sacrifice time, talent and money. I would like to narrate my own example. In 1961 I was offered the post of associate professor and head of the prosthodontics department at McGill University in Canada with a salary of USD 100,000 per year. I refused and returned to India as a pool officer under a Government of India scheme, drawing Rs 500 per month at the Government Dental College and Hospital in Bombay as a professor. I made this major decision to keep my promise to Zarathushtra to return to India and serve the people professionally as long as I am able to. Believe me, my whole life changed for the better.
We should be prepared to go through hardships to achieve our goals in life. For example, my mission was to popularize prosthodontics as a specialty in India. I, therefore, started implanting teeth in 1956 in Tufts University, Boston, USA and worked on oral implantology on returning to India. I could only do this collectively with others. It is not easy to start anything new in India as one failed case can ruin one’s career.
To follow Zarathushtra’s teachings is not easy. For instance, in the current scenario, there is much turmoil in the world through the Covid-19 pandemic. To fight this scourge man has discovered a vaccine, but this is not enough. We have to continue our efforts to confront new variants by developing more vaccines.
Understanding Zarathushtra’s teachings comes from within us. When a child is growing up he has to obey others, but when we become adults we have to obey our instincts and conscience. If we cannot obey ourselves, we will be commanded.
There is a difference between knowledge and knowing. Knowledge is acquired from scholars, philosophers, inventors and teachers, whereas knowing is something we have to do as per our own thinking. Dr FIROZE D. MIRZA
drfdmirza@gmail.com