CORE PRINCIPLES OF
ZARATHUSHTI LIFE – DOCTRINAL ASPECTS
Talk prepared by Khushroo Mirza to be presented at
The NAMC Seminar on July 30, 2005
Good morning and thank you all for being here.
When I first began to work on this talk, I wrote down
some of the major doctrinal aspects of our religion and
then I found myself totally bogged-down in a quicksand
of academic material. Then, when I was discussing it
with our son, he asked me how any of this stuff applied
to the way we lived. This led me to think about my life
in India, specifically in the Dadar Parsi colony, where
I grew up. There, surrounded by Zarathushtis, one did
not have to think consciously about doctrine, or even
try to connect it to one’s daily life. We learned to
live our religion through a process of osmosis.
When we woke up in the morning, we would see the servant
sweeping and mopping the floors of our house. The sight
of our mother and aunts covering their heads with
mathu-banoos was taken by us as a matter of course. It
was only in later years when they stopped wearing them
that we felt something had changed.
We performed kusti padyab without being ordered. We went
to a catholic school, and during mass, we Zarathushtis
covered our heads with our hands and said Yatha ahu
vairyo and Ashem vohu prayers. When we returned home in
the evening, we bathed, and at sunset our mother would
do the loban which filled the house with fragrance.
Before going to meet our gang, we would drop in on the
agiary, say a few select prayers and be on our way.
On special days such as birthdays, Pateti, Navroz etc..,
the house would be decorated with floral garlands and
pretty chalk designs. We would put on new clothes and go
to the agiary. Later we would make the rounds visiting
our elders. In those days Navroz was a bank holiday in
Bombay, a fact that we took for granted.
I can still remember going with our family to the beach
to pray for the avan adar nu parabh, and offering
coconuts to the sea.
We learned to respect fire, not just in the agiary, but
in every walk of our lives. We never put out a flame by
blowing on it. Mind you, this practice has almost
disappeared with the adopting of the western custom of
blowing out birthday candles on cakes.
Whenever we came home after a haircut, we would go
straight for a bath without making contact with any one,
as loose hair was considered unclean. So were cut nails,
therefore we never trimmed our nails in the house or let
them fall on the ground. We were taught to be kind to
animals. When we visited our grandmother’s house in
Jamnagar, I remember saving fruit peels in order to feed
them to the goats that roamed around beyond our compound
gates. We did not have a fridge, so it was a natural act
to give any left over food to beggars after the last
meal of the day.
So what does all this have to do with the core
principles of Zarathushti life?
At its core the Zarathushti religion is Reflective not
Prescriptive. The teachings of Asho Zarathushtra are not
intended to be used literally, as a manual of rules by
which one conducts daily life. Rather, they are a
collection of aspirations and principles that operate in
the subconscious and can have an impact on our daily
life decisions.
A large part of the doctrinal aspects of Zarathushti
life is very aptly summed up by Professor Irach
Taraporewala in his book “The Divine Songs of
Zarathushtra” when he discusses the Ahuna Vairya prayer:
“This sacred verse clearly indicates the Three Paths to
God – the Path of Knowledge, the Path of Love and the
Path of Service.”
In order to understand this statement, let us look at
the meaning of the prayer as given by Prof. Taraporewala:
“Just as the Temporal lord is all-powerful, so also is
the Spiritual Teacher by virtue of his store of Asha
(Righteousness). The gift of Vohu Mano is bestowed upon
him who works for Ahura Mazda, and the Kshathra (power)
of Ahura Mazda descends upon him who helps the poor and
needy.”
The essence of this message has been absorbed by
Zarathushtis for generations through the good examples
set by elders. Our forefathers have demonstrated this in
practical terms, by building schools to foster
knowledge, by inculcating the value of truth and
righteousness in their off springs until it becomes a
second nature and by establishing charitable
organizations to help the poor and needy.
The importance given to righteousness by ancient
Zarathushtis can be seen through Herodotus, who records
that among the Persians of the fifth century B.C., it
was usual for boys of the noble or warrior class to
begin their training at the age of five, by learning to
ride and shoot and tell the truth.
The six Amesha Spentas (major attributes) of Ahura
Mazda, embody the primal principles of the Zarathushti
religion, and as such, can function as a guiding
back-drop throughout our daily lives.
Let us look at these attributes in detail,
Vohu Manah: Good
Mind, which has the capacity to reason and differentiate
between right and wrong.
Asha Vahishta: Best
Righteousness, or the ultimate underlying order of the
universe.
Kshathra Vairya:
Divine Kingdom, or the good society.
Spenta Armaity: Holy
Devotion, or a quality which is present in an individual
which inspires him or her to goodness.
Haurvetat: The
spirit of well being which progressively becomes
perfection.
Ameretat:
Immortality.
Thus it is with the help of our Good Mind that we search
for and find the Best Righteousness. This in turn
creates the Desirable Kingdom or society in which our
Holy Devotion for Ahura Mazda leads us to Perfection (or
wholeness of being) and eventual Immortality of spirit.
The question that springs to our mind is “how can we
incorporate these divine attributes in our day-to-day
lives ?”
Well, each of these divine attributes has also got an
earthly connection. Thus, Vohu Manah is in charge of
animals, Asha Vahishta is associated with fire, Kshathra
Vairya with metal, Spenta Armaiti represents the earth.
Haurvetat is connected with water, and Ameretat with
plants.
Not only do these Attributes have earthly connections
but one can observe their manifestations in the daily
life that we lived in India. For example the essence of
maintaining Vohu Manah, is the rejection of all things
negative. Therefore the habit of keeping our house free
of all nasho such as dirt, loose hair, cut finger nails
was aimed at filling our surroundings and consequently
our minds with positives. Also, kindness to animals,
and, in some orthodox households abstaining from eating
flesh on Bahman roj and Bahman mahino was a way of
paying respect to Vohu Manah.
Respect for fire and the ritual of doing the loban was
perhaps a constant reminder for us to strive for the
Best Righteousness. The act of giving false promises was
considered sinful. This is not to imply that all
Zarathushtis were always truthful, but, by and large
trustworthiness was a desirable goal.
The ancient (and fast disappearing) Zarathushti beliefs
about not polluting our earth could have been in direct
homage to Spenta Armaity, borne out of our devotion to
all creations of Ahura Mazda.
Our reverence for water, in the form of offering prayers
at Avan Adar nu parabh, could have been aimed at
attaining Haurvetat.
As mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, when
I first started writing down the doctrinal aspects of
Zarathushti living, I felt blocked. This blockage was
created by a feeling of futility in trying to apply this
doctrine in today’s fast-paced North American way of
life. Then, when I revisited my early life in India, I
realized how easily and seamlessly these doctrines were
woven into our daily routines. Of course, this was made
easier by the fact that most of us (especially those
living in Parsi colonies), were surrounded by our own
community and had easy access to places of worship and
halls for social gatherings. When we immigrated to North
America, we felt the lack of these facilities but were
unable to do much about the problem as all of us were
busy trying to find our footing in a foreign land.
So where does this leave us?
If we do not have access to Parsi colonies do we not
have the ability to weave the core doctrines easily into
our daily lives here?
As for going to an agiary, one can see the difficulties
involved with distances in this continent. We drive for
hours getting to and from work every day. If we then
have to drive for another half hour to reach the nearest
Darbe Meher every evening we are not going to be up to
it. But there are many other routines that can be
maintained at home, saying our prayers, developing a
habit of being truthful even in our business dealings (a
rare phenomenon in the business world).
In this way, although we Parsis are an exilic people,
wherever we take our religion and its core principles
and make them a part of our daily lives, we will keep
our religion alive.
The Zarathushti religion is not rooted in buildings and
neighbourhoods, otherwise it would have ended in Iran.
It lives within us and survives. The doctrine is not
enshrined in books but in how we keep it in our hearts
and in our lives.
