Mithra’s daylight breaks across high Alburz and rends the veil of the bleak winter’s night. The dark and cold night is dead and the morn has dawned upon the earth with light and warmth. The snow will now melt on the mountains and life-giving waters of the rivers and brooks will flow. Everything everywhere is […]
Category: Religion
Religious Queries Answered By Vada Dasturji Dr. Firoze Kotwal
Query: Is it mandatory for a priest to always wear white-coloured clothes? Vada Dasturji Kotwal: When an Athornan is ordained as a priest, he should wear white attire and the white Pagdi, which is ‘Athornan nu safed Taj’, the white crown of the priests, at all times. He must perform all the rituals and always […]
A Unique Zoroastrian Insight: ‘Vighnaharta’ And ‘Verethragna’ As Remover Of Obstacles
Lord Ganesha is invoked before commencing anything significant and it is for this reason that he is called the ‘Lord of Beginnings’. He is also known as Vighnaharta or remover of obstacles. The concept of Vighnaharta or remover of obstacles resonates with the Zoroastrian concept of Verethragna or victorious (in overcoming difficulties, foes or enemies). What Vighnaharta Ganesha is to devout Hindus, Verethragna Bahram […]
The Priceless Boon Of Peace
Peace is what man prays for by day and by night. Peace he seeks for himself on earth during life and peace for his soul in heaven when dead. Life of avarice and envy destroys peace in this world, life of vice and sin in the next world. Peace nurtures cultures and civilizations. All law […]
War Is Mass Insanity
Life is struggle. Thou, Ahura Mazda, has ordained that man shall always fight ignorance, destitution, disease and vice. Man, in his madness, fights man instead. Man is all men’s brother, as woman is all women’s sister. Yet every man is against his fellow-men and a neighbour gnashes his teeth on his neighbour. Man has organized […]
Popular Parsi Myths (X)
Myth: Mount Damavand in Iran is a mountain in Northern Iran where a demon is enchained. Therefore, it would be improper to call it holy or to revere it! It is a beautiful mountain. It is the tallest mountain in Iran, but, there is nothing holy about it! Fact: Mount Damavand is indeed the highest […]
Joyous Welcome Awaits The Righteous In Heaven
Heaven is the best and the shining and the all happy abode of the righteous. So bright is its light that words can describe it not, nor tongue can tell. Beyond compare is the bliss that the denizens of heaven enjoy. It is the place of eternal peace and rest and joy. Ahura Mazda, the […]
Daena, Conscience Escorts The Soul To The World Of The Dead
Daena, the moral and religious conscience of man, accompanies the soul, after his bodily death, to the next world. It leads the soul to the abode of weal or woe, according to the righteous or wicked life led by the soul upon earth. On the dawn of the fourth day after death, the soul of […]
Celebrate Khordad Sal And Aspire For Perfection
Zoroastrians observe Khordad Roj (day) of Fravardin Mah (month) as Khordad Saal. This is the sixth day of the first month of the Zoroastrian calendar. Each of the 30 days of the month, as also each of the 12 months of the Zoroastrian calendar, is dedicated to an Amesha Spenta (Bounteous Immortal) or a Yazata […]
Our Relationship With Ahura Mazda And The Religion Of Zarathushtra
In certain religious traditions, God is perceived as a fearsome divinity (the adjective – ‘God-fearing’ is quite common in the English lexicon) or as the Lord or as Malik (Master). However, in our Zoroastrian tradition Ahura Mazda is neither to be feared nor a master to be pleased. The relationship that a Zoroastrian has with […]
The Belief In Immortality
Death is the final doom, says the sceptic and there is no beyond. Life is but the beginning of death and death is everything. From oblivion we come and to oblivion we return. We play our part and are away forever. All joy and sorrow, success and failure, love and hate, fame and shame, peace […]