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

whether I shall be able to convey the original lustre of his expressions.
Ervad Manekji begins by saying that a high and noble soul has left this world on "the last" 7th July. (His
article must have been written in the year 1927.) He says that the date on which Baheramshah was born must
be an auspicious day. But
"On what ill-omened moment this 20th Century had begun, that this material world has been shaken
through its root and trunk. Numerous changes of all kinds have come and are coming in the world and it is
extremely difficult to say where all that will end. Wherever we look, nature acts as if it is on revolt. But
misfortune it is of the human species that its eyes are not open as to why these great changes have
occurred."
It really surprised me to read these words. What an instinctive insight this simple Mobed had! His words
sound so prophetic when the century is coming to an end and mankind is in a suicidal mess!
Ervad Bhathena then refers to the Parsis. He says, that the Parsi Community imported wholesale the
changes brought to our country by the ruling Britishers. The Parsis did not care that these changes were not
reforms but a decay. They were absolutely incompatible with the religious and social controls then prevalent
in India. We allowed them with relish to penetrate our community without thinking about their terrifying and
destructive consequences.
"As a result the moral foundation of the community was loosened; religious fervour waned; faith on
kriyakaam cooled down; the use of the miraculous Avesta Manthra prayers became almost nil; where
those prayers are required to be offered five times a day, even one Kushti became rare; Parsi men
succumbed to the never-forgivable sin of smoking 'bidi'; women bade good-by to the tenet of monthly
menses, which was current since centuries and required for the renovation of the body, mind and
'Khoreh' (the spiritual fields) of the community."
Ervad Manekji laments that our brave ancestors' great ideals and tenets, which had brought our
community up in worldly as well as moral statures, are forgotten because of our kicking away those religious
ideals and tenets; and this blind-in spite of - having - eyes - community has no idea of their sad plight, present
and future. It was in such sorrowful circumstances that Ustaad Saheb Baheramshah arrived to the
rescue of the community. Now mark the inspired words of Ervad Bhathena :
"When, from the beginning of the century, this material wave from the West was suffocating the
community,
When the religious faith of the community was shaken from its trunk,
When the very existence of the Avesta Manthra Prayers and religious Kriyakaam was in danger,
When we did not have a single source to unfold the mysteries of these tenets and teachings,
When the Dastoors of the Community were helpless for this great task,
When the priestly class was found to be incapable,
then, to tackle the frightful situation, and to decipher those mystical tenets, there arrived a high
soul as decreed by the divine will of the Community's "Harvespa Khoda" (the Lord of Destiny)
AND THAT WAS RESPECTED USTAD SAHEB BAHERAMSHAH SHARAAF."
These words, about the sorry plight of the community were written seventy two years back. Don't you, my
dear reader, find them extraordinarily oracular? Every decade after 1927, invited further and further
deterioration and the fear of extinction is not found to be unreasonable. But still there is HOPE, if the
community looks to Ilm-e-Khshnoom. Let Ervad Manekji speak:
"The man who, through the lofty weapon of IIm-e-Khshnoom, gave an effective support to the trunk of
this declining religion, was nobody else but he" (Baheramshahji).
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