Maneck Bhujwala replies to the Muslim Jafarey
Friends,
Mr. Jafarey wonders why his second posting (on one alias) was not posted by me on the Mainstream alias.
My answer to that is, that Mr. Jafarey's first posting was copied to the Mainstream alias by one of his friends, Mashalah Khosraviani, and that is why I had replied to that email on the Mainstream alias in addition to posting on the zoroastrian alias. Mr. Jafarey has several friends including Ron De La Vega on the Mainstream alias who can post on his behalf besides informing him of what is being posted by others on the Mainstream alias.
Mr. Jafarey also says that he does not want comments from non-experts. Well, he should realize that non-experts often provide a valuable service to readers by quoting from the writings of experts. For example, Mr. Jafarey was not aware about Ervad Kavasji Kanga's footnote (in which he writes the Sanskrit word "Aaramati" with the long "Aa") until I pointed it out in my posting in response to his claim that there was no long "Aa" for that word in Sanskrit. Also, Mr. Jafarey claimed that Ervad Kanga was an exception among scholars for using several meanings for the word "Aarmaiti" and that all others consistently used one meaning for that word. Only after I pointed out that Dr. Irach J.S. Taraporewala also gives several meanings for the word "Aarmaiti" that he became aware of it.
Mr. Jafarey claims that the Sanskrit dictionaries he references do not have the word "Aaramati" that Ervad Kavasji Kanga references in his book as a Sanskrit word. Knowing the detail-minded scholarship of Ervad Kanga who specifically acknowledges whenever he is not sure of certain translations of Avesta passages, I would be very surprised if he made a mistake or allowed a typo error to escape proof reading of his book.
On the other hand it is possible that this word is in Vedic Sanskrit and the dictionaries that Mr. Jafarey references are not covering Vedic Sanskrit words.
Also, one would expect more credibility in what Dr. Irach Taraporewala writes, whether or not he has given detail explanation of how he concludes it, because Dr. Taraporewala was an expert scholar of Sanskrit, whereas those who question him are not experts or scholars of Sanskrit.
Regards,
Maneck Bhujwala
Dear Mr. Bhujwala,
You have given a very befitting rebuttal to Mr. Jafarey who is certainly not a "scholar" of Avesta or Pahlavi. His doctorate degrees in these languages are proven to be fake. There is no degree in "Religion". No University teaches wisdom, leave aside spiritual wisdom! Mr. Jafarey being a Muslim, cannot claim any scholarship in our religion. He has been proven to be wrong and misleading the gullible once too often.
Best wishes,
Pervin
Thank you Pervin and friends,
For your information I had given detailed responses to the original posting by Ali Jafarey on Spenta Aarmaiti (in which he proposed new meanings such as Serenity based on his understanding that there is no equivalent word in Sanskrit with the same meaning as in Avesta).
In my replies I had pointed out that Avesta words often have different meanings depending on the context in which the same word in used.
I also gave translations of several reference passages from the Gathas in which Ervad Kavasji Edulji Kanga and Dr. Irach J.S. Taraporewala (both of whom were real scholars who had studied Avesta, Pahalvi and Sanskrit) have given somewhat different meanings such as Sampurna Manashni (Perfect thinking), Namrataa (Humility), etc.
And, I pointed out the footnote on Page 69 of Ervad Kanga's Gujarati book "Gatha ba Maini" (that is available from Mumbai Parsi Panchayet office), in which the author points out that there is a a Sanskrit equivalent of the Avesta word "Aarmaiti" that is "Aaramati" (which is reprinted in the Devnagari script in the footnote, thus making it less likely to have a typo error). And, of course Dr. Taraporewala mentions in his book "The Religion of Zarathushtra" that the word Aarmaiti has the same meaning in Avesta and in the Veda. This counters Mr. Jafarey's claim that there is no Sanskrit equivalent word with the same meaning for the Avesta "Aarmaiti" which uses the long "Aa".
I expressed my personal opinion that Ervad Kanga's meanings, especially Namrataa (Humility) made more sense to me in the context of understanding our religious teachings, and that Serenity (proposed by Mr. Jafarey) would be one of the resulting states of mind that would come from having Humility and Perfect thinking.
Only when you have Humility can you keep a relatively open mind to reading information from different sources and thinking on your own about what makes more sense in the specific context, allowing for limitations of philological scholars, respecting the deep insight of spiritually advanced people (whether they have degrees in Avesta or not), respecting the rights of others (scholars and non-scholars) to have their own opinions as long as they do not impose them on others or ridicule others, disagreeing with others without personal attacks or bad words, not using certain meanings of Avesta or Pahalvi words and passages to commit injustice or unkindness towards others, etc.
Each one of us has a somewhat unique personality (more or less artistic, more or less scientific, more or less emotional, etc.) and that also makes us lean more towards one interpretation as compared to another interpretation. So, again we must allow some leeway to others and learn to respect each one's somewhat different preferences. This attitude would help us to remain in united in our goal to preserve our traditions and culture, whether we are Shahenshahi, Kadmi, followers of Behramshah Shroff, Pundolji, etc.
Regards,
Maneck Bhujwala