Acceptance – Never Ever. - Traditional Zoroastrianism: Tenets of the ...

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(ii) PREAMBLE It is indeed a sad fact that we Zoroastrians have reached a state, which necessitates producing a book on 'Conversion' or 'Proselytisation'. It is at times like these, when the Parsee faith is shaken and the demons of Westernisation, Rationalism and Materialism have crept into our veins, and cooled off our Kyanian fervour, that many of us keep moving away from the hub of Zoroastrianism to a life of creature comforts. They would prefer to have a "religion", that suits their lifestyles: It cannot be gainsaid that in almost every third family, a Zoroastrian boy or girl marries a non- Zoroastrian. In order to keep up with the next-door Jamasjis or Framjis, both father and mother proudly leave their homes for work every day, and leave their children of impressionable ages at the mercy of servants and ayahs or maids. Where is then any time left for "Religion" when both the parents are involved in mad rat race? Yet, by the principle of duality, there is some aching void in them somewhere, which cries out for some poor substitute for "Religion", which may produce instant results or miracles: Thus, shortcuts are readily sought and you find even hard-boiled Parsee Zoroastrians chasing mere shadows, in the form of "babas" and "bawas" : One of the major causes of the rapid decline of intellectual faith in our religion is the total dependence on philological translations, most of which are devoid of the essence and spirit of the Zoroastrian Religion. One should hasten to add that in the last two centuries of philological studies of Avesta and Pahlavi languages some scholars both Western and Parsee, have rendered yeomen services in trying to interpret the religion, to the best of their ability. But the unfortunate fact also remains that many others have only distorted the facts and truths, in trying to unravel the abstruse technicalities and mysteries of the Zoroastrian doctrines and canons. The author has ably tackled this vital aspect in Chapter 12 of this booklet. The Avesta abounds in allegories, just as the Bible is full of parables. These allegories have to be penetrated into and the hidden meanings unearthed, otherwise we have just the superficial, dry, drab translations which, many times, do not make any sense. There is that classic anecdote of two Iranians philologists, one a staunch vegetarian, and the other a confirmed non-veg. They could never come to any agreement regarding the meaning of an Avestic word. While the former insisted it meant, "sweet yogurt", the inveterate meat-eater was adamant, it meant "tender veal" ! Yet another cause of the confusion in the minds of many Zoroastrians regarding their Religion is that, they are saddled with unauthorised translations by those who have never ever seen the Avesta or Pahlavi script Thus, we have the dime-a-dozen interpreters, who may have read just one book, say, Dr. Dhalla's, and pronto ! They think they are qualified and competent enough to read or write longwinding papers on the history and doctrines of our Religion ! These are the people who have caused the greatest harm to our co-religionists. They neither have any genuine faith in their religion nor are they, even to a small extent, the practitioners of this glorious Religion. Summing up, every Zoroastrian needs to ponder the following points: Faith in our Religion has shaken because of, (a) lack of the right kind of religious education; (b) craze for the study of the English language, to the point of adopting it as one's mother tongue, and the close contacts of
(iii) Zoroastrian children with children of other faiths in schools and colleges; (c) quick results and material favours sought by impatient Zoroastrians, which drive them to babas and fake godmen; (d) our forgetting the "Declaration of Faith" that we recite after tying the Kushti, and the pertinent words therein, "Mazeeshtacha, vaheeshtacha sraeshtacha, yaa Ahurish Zarathushtrish..." (e) The unfortunate ridiculing of our rituals, traditions, etc. by some academic students of Zoroastrianism; (f) The thoughtless borrowing of alien concepts and beliefs of many of the Western scholars by some Parsee savants; (g) The dangerous practice of jumping on the bandwagon of scholarship, after reading a couple of books on Zoroastrianism. This small book is published with the hope that Zoroastrians, the world over, will eschew for all time to come the dangerous, anti-Zoroastrian doctrine of 'conversion'. - PUBLISHER.
Page 1 and 2: Acceptance - Never Ever. CONVERSION
Page 3: INTRODUCTION The purpose of this li
Page 7 and 8: Thus, our present-day scriptures ha
Page 9 and 10: Chapter 3 LIFE AND TIMES BEFORE THE
Page 11 and 12: Chapter 4 THE PROPHET COMETH With s
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 6 "FREEDOM OF CHOICE" - THE
Page 15 and 16: A MAN WOULD SUCH AN ASHAVAN BE? WHA
Page 17 and 18: Chapter 7 BRIEF EXAMINATION OF SOME
Page 19 and 20: are there in the Universe. Mazdayas
Page 21 and 22: Keshvar, because of their antiquate
Page 23 and 24: It is also a known fact that the Ac
Page 25 and 26: Chapter 9 PARSEES - THE TRUE FOLLOW
Page 27 and 28: Chapter 10 MIXED MARRAIGES - FIRST
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 11 THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE O
Page 31 and 32: husky nature, since they do not con
Page 33: REFERENCES Boyce, Mary: 1. Zoroastr

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