From Iran, Mobedyar Sarvar Taraporewala, a post-graduate student in ancient religions and cultures, and researcher in culture and religion, gave a speech in the World Webinar “Ba-Humata”, on May 1, 2022, on the topic: “Zoroastrians and the future”. The speech was accompanies by recitation of part of the Atash Niyayesh prayer.
Dr. Krishma Koka, Professor of Neurology at the University of Cambridge, UK, is the founder and coordinator of the webinar Ba-Humata. The purpose of these programs is to bring together Zoroastrians from all over the world and to have a joint conversation about religious teachings, to achieve harmony and public understanding of humanity, love, peace, righteousness, and truth. Experts give their lectures in English.
Thanks to the wise guidance of our revered Mobed Mehraban Firoozgari, Mobedyar Sarvar Taraporewala provided the text of her speech to Amordad. What follows is a translation of the lecture:
The world is changing. Every day something or the other new is added to our life, our knowledge and our awareness. Human relationships are becoming more and more complex and the needs of individuals in society are changing rapidly . In this commotion of changes, cultures also change; Cultures die and cultures are born. Zoroastrian culture has been advancing for centuries, together with world advances, and still retains and maintains its golden characteristics; and after these many centuries many of Zoroastrian teachings are still new to the world. Zoroastrians have known for centuries, with their worldview, that their culture will die if they do not change according to the times, and therefore the changes have mostly been correct and appropriate. In the hope that we will strive to preserve our Zoroastrian culture and move forward for a firm future, and one of the ways to preserve Zoroastrian culture is through education.
Today we will talk a little about fire. Fire in the Zoroastrian culture is very important because fire in Avesta guides us towards asha and the truth; fire has direct relation to asha (asha is the law and order of the cosmos). Man is in harmony with Ahuramazda by being in harmony with the order of the world. According to what we read in Yashts, we consider fire as a medium that leads our prayers to Ahuramazda. Light also means awareness and knowledge for us, and we want to illuminate everywhere like fire So fire(atash) for us means Asha, truth and knowledge, and it’s very good for our children to learn why fire(atash) and light are important to us, why we go to the fire temple(agiyari) and why we pray atarsh niayesh. With these teachings to the next generation, we can keep the Zoroastrian religion alive forever.
