USHAO

E-Mail Edition

JOURNAL OF INFORMAL RELIGIOUS MEETINGS 

Volume V No. 8 Mah Aban, Fasal Sal 1373: October-November-2004  

Self-Realization 

      Yậ Shyaothnậ yậ Vachańhâ   Through deeds I do, also through words I speak,

      yâ Yasnâ Amertatâtem,   Through meditation deep within myself,

      Ashem –châ Taibyô dâońhâ,   I bring mankind Eternal Life and Truth,

      Mazdâ! Kshathrem –châ Haurvatâtô;  Strength through Perfection, Mazdâ, do I bring;

      Aéshām tôi, Ahurâ!    United may we be in Them and Thee,

      êhma pourutemâis dastê.   Ahurâ, ardent in our sacrifice. 

[Ahunavaiti 7.1; Yasna 34.1: Translation of Irach  J. S. Taraporewala] 
 
 

In this Issue: 

      02: THE IDEAL OF ARYAN WOMANHOOD: By Irach J. S. Taraporewala B.A.; Ph.D 

      12: KĒM NĀ MAZDĀ [Prayer when in trouble] 
 

NO NEED FOR A MEDIATOR 

I

T is wrong to think that one can get salvation through the company of a Guru (mediator) who will plead for his devotees to get into heaven.  In the court of God no influence works. Unless the heart is cultivated to work on righteous lines one cannot get salvation.  Everyone has to work for his or her own salvation.

[“RAHNUMA-E-DIN” --DASTUR KHURSHED S. DABU] 
 

THE IDEAL OF ARYAN WOMANHOOD 

Irach J, S. Taraporewala B.A., Ph. D 

I

N modern days we hear a good deal about the “equality of man and woman” and about her possessing the same rights as her brothers.  We take it for granted that never before in the history of the world had woman attained such a high position, but that she had always been the obedient slave of man.   We have been brought up in the belief that, in the East especially woman was always regarded as the inferior of man, almost, as his chattel or his plaything.  Wrong notions about the status of woman in Hinduism and in Islam have been responsible for this idea prevalent in the West about the history of our Eastern woman, of course later writers among Hindus and Moslems themselves are responsible for this degraded view. And hundreds of Indians, who might be expected to know better, have been repeating these same false ideas.  We, Zoroastrians also, repeat this not merely with regard to the Hindus and Moslems, but many among us are willing to believe that even amongst us woman had always occupied the lower status until the revivifying breath of the West led us to “emancipate” our sisters.  Parsi women are now looked up with envy by their less fortunate sisters of other communities. 

      It is undoubtedly true that the condition of women both in India and in Iran had been very debased and degraded during many centuries preceding the modern age.  This was due to the terrible political upheavals and foreign invasions from which both these lands have suffered during their history.  This, however, could by no means justify the conclusion that our ancient ideal of womanhood was equally low.   We do find even in history the very high position of woman recorded, as for instance amongst the Rajputs in the glorious Annals of Mewar.  There, woman was looked upon almost as a goddess.  Rajput chivalry was just as ennobling and sanctified woman as reverently as at any court in the West.  Islamic chivalry was no whit less ennobling.  The Moghals and Afghans, as also the Marathas and the Sikhs were inspired with the ideals of chivalry. During the four or five centuries preceding the modern age the degradation of life’s ideals becomes more and more marked in both the lands.  In India the downfall begins practically from the luxurious and enervating days of Jehangir and Shah Jehan. 

      We usually compare these ages of degradation with our present days, which is most unjust.  The result of such comparison is of course predetermined, and what is worse it leaves behind our minds the insidious impression that things had never been better at any time.  A far better way to institute comparison is to have these with other contemporary countries, and then we see that neither India nor Iran has any reason to be ashamed of the particular culture of any age. 

      As we travel backwards in history into the days of Aryan domination in India we find that life and life’s ideals were than very different from what many of us have been taught to have existed.  The same holds true of Iran.   In fact both these peoples had received their ideals from a common source –the Aryan.  If we are to appraise the culture of both these lands at their true worth we must always remember these ancient Aryan ideals.  For not even once in the centuries of darkness and degradation that preceded the modern age were these ideal wholly forgotten.  They have always existed and have influenced, however, dimly, the lives of the people.  Our strongest hope for the future lies in a revival or rather in a reinterpretation suitable to modern conditions of these ideals.  We must never forget that these Aryan ideals were born of long experience and have stood the test of time during fifty centuries.         

      Of all these ideals that have made the Aryans so truly noble is their grand conception of woman.  Here they remained true to God’s own Plan, for they stressed the prime (God-ordained) function of woman—MOTHERHOOD.  The woman was the MOTHER and everything relating to her turned upon that central vital fact.  This it was that determined her position at every stage and in every walk of life.  She was created by God to be a Mother and hence she was sacred.  She was the Creatrix and as such her work came nearest that of God Himself.  She it was who carried forward the race and kept alive the race-ideals age after age and hence she was to be loved, honored and cherished.  The cult of the mother was the center, and pivot around which the whole family life, indeed the whole social organization, revolved.  There is a beautiful little tale told about the wise Ganesha.  Once Shiva wanted to know which of his two sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha, could go the quickest round the world.  The elder Kartikeya, as soon as he heard this, started off in great hurry to go round the globe.  Some time after his brother had left, Ganesha quietly got up and slowly went round his mother, Parvati, saying, “The Mother is the whole world to her son.” 

      Amongst Iranians, too the mother was deeply venerated.  In the Zoroastrian Angel Hierarchy we have a fair number of feminine Spirits.  Nay, even among the six highest the “Holy Immortals”  - Who stand next to the Throne of the Almighty Himself, we have three of the feminine gender.  Of these Spenta-Armaiti is the Mother of all humanity.  A Zoroastrian, when initiated into his faith, invokes her protection and after death he gives up his body to her tender care. 

      Every girl is a potential mother, she is to be looked upon as “somebody’s mother,” and as such she is sacred and she is to be surrounded with loving care.  A verse in Manu’s Code has always been quoted to prove that the Aryans held women in low esteem.  The usual rendering is this: “The father takes care of her during her childhood, the husband during her youth, and the son during her old age: a woman does not deserve independence.” Even Hindus themselves, especially in the later ages of degradation, have given the same rendering and have perverted Manu into upholding the subjugation of women.   The final clause:  né stree savatrayamhit –has not, I feel been rightly translated; I would render it: “a woman ought not to be thrown upon her own resources.”  We see the dire results of woman left to the tender mercies of man’s world.  We see where the competitive “independence” has led woman in the West. She misses the very purpose of her own creation.  In the West she has been granted a position of perfect equality with man and in modern days this equality shows itself even in her outward appearance and her dress.  She has become a serious competitor of man, with all that this competition implies.  It was to prevent this that Manu laid down his wise rule of never “throwing her upon her own resources” to sift for herself.  We, Aryans, had the far higher ideal of her as Mother.  She was not the equal, but the superior of man.  She was the nourisher of his body, the gentle guide of his mind in his childhood, and the inspirer of his soul when mature.  She was the guardian of our Aryan ideals, and under her fostering care the Arya-Dharma was kept bright and untarnished, a living flame to inspire the race.  Therefore it has been said that, “wherever women are honored and are cherished there the very Heavens rejoice.”  We know both from tradition as well as from recorded history how faithfully Aryan woman has guarded this sacred trust and how nobly has man responded to her call both in India and in Iran.     

      The woman as comrade and friend was not unknown to us Aryans, but she never was the competitor.  The sweetest relations of mature age are between husband and wife.  The Aryan woman was not the salve of her lord and master but she was his equal in every way.  The ideal for a wife was the “half” (ardhaginee) of the husband.  Another name for her as wife in Sanskrit is bama, literally, “the left (half)” for our Aryans were well aware of the fact that the human heart is on the left side.  No man was regarded as complete in the world who lacked this “left half” of his being.  To fulfill his life’s task he must take unto himself his helpmate.  Hence both in India and in Iran the life of a householder had been looked upon as the highest fulfillment of human effort.  Indeed certain important ceremonies were forbidden to the unmarried.  In the Vendidad Ahura Mazda is represented as saying that He values a married man higher than an unmarried one. 

      The ideal purpose of marriage is not sex-indulgence, but the fulfillment of the Divine purpose of continuation of the race.  Sex cannot enter where the man looks upon his wife as the Mother of his children.  In becoming father and mother the highest duty human beings owe to their Creator is fulfilled, and this correct attitude towards this duty did not give any occasion for the use of artificial birth control.  In the Vendidad again Ahura Mazda says that He prefers a home with children to one where children are wanting,  

      It has often been urged that the Aryans preferred getting sons to getting daughters.  Here, too, later political and economic disabilities attaching to girl children seem to have clouded the issue.  Where the name of the family was carried forward by sons it is but natural that sons are desired.  Among Aryans a son was desired indeed, but the birth of daughters was by no means regarded as a calamity.   Indeed it is laid down at one place in Sanskrit work that a mother becomes truly sanctified only after she has given birth to a daughter. 

      However, tender and true the ideal of woman, as comrade and wife may have been the one supreme ideal of Aryan womanhood was MOTHER.  Every other function of woman, every other duty she has to perform in this world, pales into insignificance before this supreme fulfillment.  The very word “Mother” shuts out all sex-concept in thinking of woman.  Hence in every language of India men are taught to look upon every woman as mother (har stree mat baraber).  The sacredness surrounding all mothers has kept our ideal of womanhood pure even through the darkest and deepest degradation. 

      I have already admitted freely at the very beginning that during the centuries of turmoil, which preceded the modern age both in India and in Iran the status of woman had touched a very low level indeed.  But it was not very much better in contemporary West either.  The present age has certainly raised woman to a higher level all the world over.  The West seems to think that this is the pinnacle, the highest level attainable.  Their comradeship and political and economic equality has been the goal, and they have almost attained it.  Yet even there we have great seers who saw clearly beyond this level.  The incomparable Goethe, perhaps the greatest writer Europe has produced, at the very end of his great work Foust has the very significant lines pregnant with deep meaning: 

“The ever-womanly

“Draws us above.” 

      But when woman is not thought of as mother primarily, the great danger is the unconscious stressing of sex.  Though we rightly rejoice over the improved status of woman we must not shut our eyes to this sex-complex.  Especially we Parsis, who have been of late aping the West more or less blindly, are in real danger from this. We have not had the steadying traditions of the West and we have all but lost sight of our true Aryan ideals.  We are beginning to see the tangle, which has arisen in our small community as more or less the direct result of the “freedom” and “emancipation” of women. 

      I am certainly not one of the old-fashioned, orthodox people who want to go back to “the good old days” when woman obeyed without question her lord and master.  I maintain that we have progressed and that today our women are in a higher position than they were, say a century ago.  And what is more, I maintain that our progress has been in the right direction.  All I wish to emphasize here that there are dangers, very grave dangers, ahead arising from sex-complex we have released as a result of this very progress.  Let us not shut our eyes to this.  To my mind there is one remedy for this, and one only, and that is reaffirming with all our strength the ancient Aryan ideal of regarding woman as Mother.  That is her God-appointed destiny, yet today how many hundreds of our women have been prevented by social, economic and other reasons from fulfilling this.  Let us emphasize this motherhood of woman in all our teaching both to boys and girls.  Let us give saner sex teaching to our children and emphasize the glories of wise marriage and of the fulfillment of God’s purpose without the help of artificial birth control.  In short let our young ones be prepared to enter upon the duties of their mature lives with purer and saner ideals than most of the present generation have had.       

                                

      We have absorbed a great deal of the spirit of “revolt” of the modern age (another step, I maintain, in the right direction), we have learnt a great deal of modern science and its achievements, and we are the rightful heirs of the oldest and the grandest ideals on earth.  It is not a mere “accident of history” that the oldest culture surviving in our world that of India, has been brought into such close contact with the most advanced of the nations, today the British. We are also rejoicing to witness the renaissance of the other great Aryan people, our brothers of Iran.  We Parsis have thus a double cause for hope and a twofold reason for doing our utmost to revivify the great Aryan ideal.  Our very smallness of numbers is in our favor, for if once we begin on right lines our progress will be all the faster, and the sooner shall we realize these ideals.  We pride ourselves on having been pioneers of Western mode and Western learning in this glorious land.   

      God grant that in the near future we may be pioneers again in the reawakening of our Aryan ideals, when every woman would be looked upon and loved as MOTHER. ■

[Source: Silver Jubilee Memorial Volume: Y.M.Z.A. Karachi 1935] 
 
 

TO MY MOTHER 

“Most of all other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes by dozens

  and hundreds; plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters,

aunts and cousins, but only one mother in all the wide world.” 

[KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN] 
 
 

PEACE AND JUSTICE 

By Cyrus P. Mehta  

    [A verse from “IN MEMORIUM” by Alfred Tennyson] 

P

ROPHETS have taken birth at different times in different lands to give mankind a spiritual push. Prophet Zarathushtra appeared at the dawn of civilization in the ancient land of Iran.  At the outset of his mission he prayed to God whom he called Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Life and Wisdom: 

        Ashâ vispéñg shyaothnâ   Grant that I may perform all actions with Righteousness,

   vańghėus khratûm manańgho       Thy Divine Law and acquire the Wisdom of Good

yâ khshnevishâ Géush -châ urvânem.  Mind. Thus may I bring solace to the Soul of the Universe. 

[Ahunvaiti 1.1 Ys. 28.1] 

      Since Zarathushtra, other Prophets and Great Spiritual Masters have followed in order to awaken mankind from its deep slumber.  In spite of their valuable teachings, the Soul of the Mother Earth is in great torment and mankind is still far from its goal of One God, One Humanity, One Brotherhood, living a blissful existence where Peace and Justice prevail. 

      But we cannot have peace and justice without knowing what are the factors that cause discord in the world.  Briefly stated they are: 

 
 
 
 
 
 

“We don’t appreciate what we have got until we lose it,

[Author unknown] 
 
 
 
 

           CHAPTER 9

     CHARITY GALORE 

PARSIS have well earned the acclamation ‘Parsi Thy Name is Charity’.  As soon as the Parsi community began to prosper in Surat, from the time of Moghul rule, they won a high reputation as charitable donors. They built bridges, dug wells, erected dharamsallas (travelers’ homes) etc., all for general public, and not just for their own community.  Fortunately Parsis did not have superstitious obligations like the rich Hindus around them.  They did not have to spend donations on temples and to feed hundreds of pilgrims.  When a rich Hindu died his widow had to spend thousands of rupees on his funeral ceremonies.  And if the widow felt charitable she would be asked to spend thousands of rupees to feed vagabond Brahmins. 

      Contrary to that, to a Parsi it is a social obligation to do charity for public welfare.  Some of the very rich instituted trusts for pursuing long-term public welfare purposes, like hospitals, schools etc.  Way back in 1849, Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy demanded a special legislation for charitable donations in order to encourage more donations.  Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy, Dinshaw Petit and Cowasji Jehangir were raised to the hereditary rank of nobility because of their cosmopolitan charities.  Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy, the most famous Parsi philanthropists, besides his prolific Parsi charities, has donated vast sums for non-Parsi charities.  When the great fire of Surat destroyed 20000 houses, hundreds of shops and bazaars, Jamshedji chartered a ship and filled it’s holds with bags of rice, dal, bales of cloth and cases full of one rupee coins and sent it to Surat.  He saw to it that every thing was distributed equally to Parsis and non-Parsis alike.  He donated large sums for the starving Irish during the potato famine in 1846 and to victims of floods in France.  He is believed to have donated Pound sterling 234272 of which only Pound sterling 113380 were for Parsi charities.  Big donations were not the only form of Parsi charities.  Innumerable number of charitable works, some unique in nature were also seen e.g., during a Small Pox epidemic in 1851, C.N. Cama offered a prize for the best essay on the use and advantages of vaccinations, and then had the prize-winning essay printed and distributed in the entire Bombay Presidency at his own cost. 

      Parsis of Karachi did not lag behind in any way and numerous examples of cosmopolitan charities by Parsis are there.  Some of them are being mentioned in this paper. 

      There have always been examples of Parsi zest of philanthropy verging on eccentricity.  One such was a Karachiite, Hormusji Sohrabji Kothari.  Hormusji had come to Karachi from Surat in 1846 and did very well as a contractor for the army.  During the Cholera epidemic he supplied sherry and champagne free to the patients.  The incentive was sufficient for some to fake the sickness.  During the severe winter of 1867, Hormusji distributed thousands of large pieces of Broadcloth free to the poor, so that they could protect themselves from the cold.  He took great interest in community affairs.  He took the lead in making of the Anjuman Dokhma, had a wall and a gate erected around the Dar-e-meher for it’s security.  It was he who had some toddy palms planted and introduced toddy in Karachi.  He passed away in 1876.   

      The Karachi harbor got its first real recognition in 1867 when s.s. ‘Veterna’ started its maiden-

voyage from here.  It was the property of British India Steam Navigation (BISN) and was built in Glasgow.  As the Suez Canal had not opened yet it had come to Karachi round the Cape of Good Hope.  Its route was Basra-Karachi-Bombay-Calcutta, with small stops.  It was a huge ship with a capacity of 1400 passengers.  It was powered by a 2500 HP steam engine and had eight propellers.  The most unique thing about this ship was that it was equipped with 2000 electric lamps (arc lamps) and the electricity was generated by dynamo (magneto) recently invented by Michael Faraday (1791-1867).  Because of these electric lamps the ship was nicknamed BIJLEE.  The previous three years had been very bad for Sindh, Kutch, Kathiyawar, because of plague, cholera and famine.  As a result travel between Karachi and these places had stopped.  So when this s.s..Bijlee came she was in great demand.  Among the passengers were 400 students going to Bombay to give their matriculation exams.  There were also 28 intending bridegrooms with full ‘BARATS’.  When the ship made its stop at Porbunder there was a storm at sea.  The BISN agent there advised the captain not to proceed till the storm was raging.  But the captain decided to go on.  The ship left Porbunder but did not reach its next stop Mangrol.  It was lost at sea with 1478 souls on board. 

      Main world events of the year 1867 were the purchase of Alaska by USA from the Czarist Russia for $7 million. Karl Marx wrote “Das Kapital”, Johan Strauss composed one of the most beautiful music pieces ‘On the Blue Danube’, and Alfred Noble invented dynamite. ■ (continued) 

CHAPTER 10

FIRST MOBEDS AND THEIR ÂLATS 

NAOROJI Nusserwanji Pochaji, left his job as manager of J. Nusserwanji & Co (Jassawala ) in 1867 and started his own auctioneering  business.  He was successful and as he prospered he indulged in philanthropy.  Besides a fountain and water trough for animals at Empress Market and various other donations, in his will he left Rs.150000/- for Parsi education.  This amount was given to the Mama Parsi Girls School when it was founded.    

      Modern Freemasonry first arose in the early decades of the 18th Century.  The first Grand Lodge was founded in London in 1716.  With its clubs for discussion and social enjoyment (women excluded), it met a need and became a well-known feature of English life.  The movement quickly spread abroad to places, which had direct trade links with England.  On 28th November 1868 Lodge Harmony was established in Karachi.  The Parsis who joined this lodge on the very first day were: - Ardesher Gustadji Kohiyar, Jamshedji Ardesher Maneckshah, Dadabhai Hirjibhai Patel, Khurshedji Darashaw Majaina, Naoroji Nusserwanji Pochaji, Dadabhai Edulji Sukhia, Dinshaw Pestonji Nazar, Faredoonji Nusserwanji Mazgamwalla and Meherwanji Ardesher Mukadam. 

      In 1868 at the today’s site of the KMC head office stood the Karachi jail that was completed after many years of construction.   

      The school going community had out grown it’s building, so in 1869 it was decided to start a building fund for the Balakshala.   

      Municipal policy of sale of land was showing success.  Rich traders bought lands in area between the old town and Saddar and built residential buildings to give on rent.  This way Rattan Tallao, Rambag, Gari Khatta, Ranchorlines, Ramswami and Nanakwada came up  

        Besides the main suburb Saddar, there was substantial number of Parsi residents in and around Gari Khatta (now Pakistan Chowk). They found going to Saddar Agyari very inconvenient and decided to have one of their own.  So in 1853 they started a fund for this purpose.  Sohrabji Dhanjibhai Wadia, offered a part of his school which he had built for this purpose.  With Rs.3475/- collected by the residents of that area, plus Rs.5433/- donated by other Parsis of Karachi and some donations from Bombay a total of Rs.15720/- was collected.  Sohrabji’s offer was gratefully accepted.  After necessary renovations and alterations, the Dar-e-Meher was consecrated on 28th May 1869.  It was named Dosabhai Wadia Dar-e-Meher.  Bejonji Khurshedji Golwalla got the necessary utensils –âlats purchased specially from China.  

      The requisites of Parsi religious services are called âlat. They are the metallic requisites and Gomez or bull’s urine.  Among the ancient Iranians; water, urine and sand or a particular kind of earth or clay were considered to be the means of purification. (One of the ingredients of urine is ammonia, which has cleansing properties.  The pungent smell in metal polishes, and glass cleaning mixtures is that of ammonia.  It is a good degreasing agent). When the bull’s urine is consecrated by religious ceremonies, in religious parlance it is spoken as Nirang or Nirang-din i.e. the nirang prepared by religious ceremonies.  It is so called, because a nirang, a religious incantation, is recited on its application.  The Parsis of Karachi too needed the necessary âlats and mobeds. 

      There is nothing definitely known about the first mobeds but it is safe to state that Hormusji Ghadyali had invited two mobeds from Bharuch to perform the necessary ceremonies.  These mobeds came by road to Hyderabad with the âlat.  As there was no bridge over Indus river at that time they crossed it by boat, but the nirang was put in a pitcher –matlu, and one Parsi of Hyderabad, Maneckji swam across with it   This method had been used in other cases too all over India.  The mobeds continued their journey by road.  The two mobeds were Ervad Maneckji Ookaji Kamdina and his son Dinshah.  They were appointed puntahkeys of Hirjikaka Dar-e-Meher.  Though Hormusji arranged for the two mobeds, at the time of the consecration of the Ghadyali dokhma, Dastur Faridunji Jamaspasana presided.   

      After some time there was need for more mobeds.  So one Adarji Shurbatwalla went to Navsari and brought back two mobeds.  Since mobeds of Bharuch will not co-officiate at ceremonies with the Navasrai mobeds, the Navsari mobeds brought their own âlats and performed ceremonies separately.  Professional antagonism amongst mobeds had been a common feature all through out Parsi history.  

      At the time of establishment of the Gari Khata Agyari three mobeds were sent for, from Udvada.  They came by road with their âlats, which took them more than two months.  They were Ervad Muncherji Khurshedji Gorana, Ervad Navroji Muncherji Gorana and Ervad Bhikhaji Palonji Sidhwa.  They brought along with them an athornan Shapurji Navroji Katila as their cook.  With the increase in number of mobeds, many disputes and disagreements arose amongst them and partnerships and associations were changed very often. ■

[To be continued] 
 

PUTTING FAITH TO WORK AT WORK 

By Tom Schaefer 

C

AN faith be expressed in a way that doesn’t intrude on the business at hand and on the people whose primary job is to work?  What may surprise you is that the spiritual needs of employees are becoming the focus of more and more employers.  Giant corporations such as Ford Motor Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp, and smaller businesses too -- are providing opportunities for faith-based activities on the job, according to an article in the September edition of St. Anthony Messenger magazine. 

      Luncheon presentations on different religions and an annual “day of prayer” help promote understanding among different religious groups and offer a spiritual respite at Ford, said a leader of the company’s Inter-Faith Network.  At Grumman, a defense contractor in California, classes in the Quran are available for interested employees.  Other businesses have Torah classes, prayer groups, full-time chaplains (more than 250 companies in 37 states have them on staff) and Bible study lunches that are usually started because of employee interest. 

      Even those businesses that aren’t providing spiritual opportunities are increasingly aware of the need to strengthen their ethical standards, especially in the wake of corporate scandals.  Religion and ethics, it seems are bottom-line related issues.  Yet, faith in the workplace is more than a matter of abiding by a company’s mission statement or agreeing to the policies in its ethic handbook.  For those whose beliefs are central to their lives, faith isn’t like a hat that you’d check at your workplace entrance, any more than you would at your home’s front door.  But how you “wear” it on the job can make all the difference in how it’s perceived and received.  Some faith-on-the-job axioms are: 

      ■ Faith is not proselytizing a vulnerable co-worker or touting the “superiority” of your faith.

      To be clear, faith shouldn’t be checked at the door, especially in the place where you spend most of your waking hours.  Instead, it should be seen in caring acts and kind words that don’t distort its inviting and engaging image. ■ [Source: Faith & Values – The Wichita Eagle] 

KĒM NĀ MAZDĀ

[Praying when in trouble] 

“Who will O Wise One, give me protection, when the wrongful threatens to offend

me, other than Your Fire and Mind?  It is through the working of these two that,

O God, righteousness thrives.  Do enlighten my inner-self with this doctrine.

[USHTAVAITI 4.7] 

      When a person is faced with any adversity, he or she, often in desperation turns to God or a favorite divinity for help.  This is quite natural.  But a desperate move makes one lose one’s balance of mind and allow the adversity to have its own way.  Asho Zarathushtra gives a manthra, a thought-provoking advice: 

      Turn to God but remember that God has already granted us two acquisitions – Divine Fire, which gives light, warmth, and strength to our spirit, and Good Mind, which makes us think clearly.  One lights the way and the other leads to safety.  The two make us feel cool, calm, conscious, considerate, and confident. The manthra gives us a further lasting touch to his advice.  One should not turn to Fire and Faculty only at difficult times.  Let us understand enlightenment that helps us in performing good acts that serve God and the creation.  Kēm nā Mazdā teaches us to believe in God, have faith, keep cool stay warm, think bright, feel light and steer clear.  GOD helps those who help themselves.

[Courtesy: THE ZARATHUSHTRIAN ASSEMBLY] 
 

Published for Informal Religious Meetings Trust Find, Karachi

By

Virasp Mehta

4235 Saint James Place, Wichita, KS 67226 U.S.A.

E-mail: viraspm@yahoo.com