Being nature worshippers, we pray to the forces of nature and we learn from them. We worship fire, our sanctum sanctorum holds our beloved ‘Atash Padshah Saheb’. Fire teaches us purity, and related virtues like truth and goodness. We pray to numerous water bodies – oceans, seas, wells – symbolizing ‘Ava Yazad’. The oceans have a humbling effect on us and the wells endorse nurturing. Nature is the ultimate teacher.

Mother Nature takes it upon Herself to constantly help us learn and grow, mainly through her ‘seasonal’ communications. With the monsoons having bid adieu, maybe we could ponder the learning imbibed from them… Cleansing. Nourishing. Letting go. Maybe that is the need-of-the-hour that will help solve the madness taking place today in our world, which is at war on so many levels, beyond the Israel-Palestine or Russia-Ukraine catastrophe, and so many other equally strife-torn but less-known places, not receiving as much global media attention.

These incongruities extend on all levels – as individuals who hold on to pain, anger and grudges; as a community or society that unwittingly holds on to destructive ideologies at the cost of precious unity; as nations that hold on to policies costing lives and livelihoods of its innocent citizens; and even as a planet inhabited by individuals who hold on to the denial of various destructive phenomena like global warming and depletion of natural resources.

Just as the skies regain the bright sunlight after unburdening those dark clouds from its blue chest in the form of rains, we gain the most when we let go. Even as we indulge in the continued revelry of the Festival of Lights, ready to dive into the merriment and joy of the festive season upon us, let’s commit to be driven by learning and light, take a hint or two from Mother Nature’s passing showers of wisdom… let’s ‘cleanse’ our thoughts, words and deeds, ‘nourish’ the world which thirsts for compassion and kindness, and ‘let go’ of everything that doesn’t serve our purpose as the empowered Zoroastrians we were destined to be!

Have a good weekend!

Anahita