Ilm-e-Khshnoom - Traditional Zoroastrianism: Tenets of the Religion

community of crackpots!
Let me state the theme of this article right here; IIm-e-Khshnoom is the only white ray of hope in these
clouds of despair. Please do not brush aside this statement; I propose to elaborate it and to convince you
about its truth; my only appeal to you is to be objective and open-minded and not to be carried away by your
past prejudices, most of which are based on nothing more than hearsay.
But to go back to the gloomy story of our degeneration, when and how did it set in ? The germs were first
generated at the end of the last century. Two factors were their breeding ground. One was the onslaught of
sciences and the other was the advent of Zoroastrian - studies in the West.
Physical sciences pretended to explain away the whole Universe. Every event and every phenomenon
had a "natural" explanation, which did not require that curious creature, God. Earth? An accident and an
explosion? Men? Life by 'natural' selection and survival of the fittest! Matter? A combination of storms and
nothing more …. No need to introduce any mystical force; all forces are known and understood and therefore
God and Religion are just superstitions, "unscientific and unscholarly!" All Religions were shaken to the
foundation. "This infidel half century" - even Bernard Shaw shouted.
This poisonous wind blew over our Religion and added to it was the radio-active fall out of the Western
studies. They reduced our scriptures to mere historical and geographical records. The verbal and grammatical
translations drowned in them all the devotional and spiritual fervour of our holy scriptures. Our religious
traditions and institutions were branded as superstitions. Our own 'scholars' and 'savants' fell victims to this
further onslaught. The pillars of the Parsi life began having tremors.
From the muddy whirlpool where the degeneration germs were breeding, a monster suddenly drew its
long neck. That was the notorious question of Juddin-marriage and marriage mix-ups. Some Parsis desired to
marry non-Parsi ladies and brand them as Parsis. "What is wrong in that?" - it was asked. Nothing Wrong!
Scriptures are history and geography; institutions are superstitions; and add to that some scholars reading in
the Scriptures that Zoroastrian Religion preaches conversion!
This happened at the beginning of this century. The faithful in the Community resisted; but it was a
difficult task. If physical sciences have discarded God and Western Studies have discarded our religious
institutions, how can the Community sustain its faith in Sudreh Kusthi, and Manthra and Yasna and Holy Fire
and Dokhmas and above all the preservation of the racial gene?
And yet the Community sustained its faith, and that was mainly because of the Parsi Theosophists and
thereafter IIm-e-Khshnoom.
Most of the Parsis are hazily aware of the existence of "something" called IIm-e-Khshnoom. There is
some miracle attributed to it, they think, where somebody had come into contact with some Holy 'Abed's or
Zarathushtrian Saints; but it is something beyond us, too difficult to understand. The present day Parsi
scholars nurtured in the Western studies have no strength and courage to look straight towards Khshnoom
because of their ego or obstinacy or mental laziness or fear of unsetting their preconceived paradigms or
even self-interest. Khshnoom can upset their apple cart, they inherently apprehend. But that is NOT the way
towards the TRUTH.
Baheramshah Navroji Shroff brought the name IIm-e-Khshnoom amongst the Parsis of India. He said that
at his young age of about 18 years he was taken to a secret and secluded place in the Iranian mountains of
Daemaavand where he stayed for about three and a half years (1875-78) approximately) amongst a small
group of people leading a strict and highly spiritually oriented Zarathushtrian life. The leaders of the group
were a few very highly advanced 'Aabed's i.e. the holy saints, called 'Saheb-Dilan'. The mystical and esoteric
knowledge contained in the Religion of Zarathushtra was imparted to a certain degree on Baheramshah by
the Saints, after getting him passed through certain spiritual exercises. 'IIm-e-Khshnoom' was the name,
current amongst those Saints, for the Zarathushtrian Divine Knowledge.
For more than two decades Baheramshah did not reveal the miracle of his life to the Parsi pubic.
Somewhere in the year 1905-06, he narrated it to a small assembly of young Parsi boys at Surat. The news
about his extraordinary experience trickled in the Parsi community and after a most exerting persuasion of his
disciple Manchershah Palonji Kekobad, he agreed, most reluctantly, to go to Bombay to propagate IIm-e-
Khshnoom, the mystic science of the Zarathushtrian Religion. It was difficult for the Parsis, nurtured in the
19th century materialism, to believe in the truth of his miracle. However, a band of sincere disciples made
strenuous efforts to spread the knowledge brought by him from the amazing source. Ervad Phiroz Masani, an
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