How Dasturji Meherji Rana broke the power of the evil magician in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar
A Zarathushtri lady writes:
"My grandfather had told me the story about the dastoorji who brought the sun down in the thali of water. I can't remember the whole thing."
The story is about Dasturjee Meherji Rana in the court of Akbar, the Mughal emperor of India hundreds of years ago. The legend goes that Akbar invited the priests of all religions to show him the efficacy of their religions.
The Muslims and the Christian Priests arrived, dressed in black but the Dasturjee arrived dressed in spotless white, and Akbar was impressed right from the start. The white dress signifies the spiritual and physical purity in our Zarathushtri religion.
A terrible magician was also present. He astounded Akbar with many magical feats, then he threw a large shining silver thali (plate) into the sky, where it stayed suspended high up, catching the rays of the sun and blinding the entire court. Everyone was panic-stricken.
The magician boasted he had raised a second sun with his magic and defied Akbar to bring the thali down. Akbar asked every religion to try, and all the priests came forward one by one to try and break the magician's spell. They tried, but every priest failed to break the magician's power. Finally, Akbar called Meherji and said:
"Dekh Meherji! Doosra Sooraj gagan me uda.
(Look Meherji! A Second sun is flying in the heavens.)"
Meherji had a look, then "Paydab Kusti karke, liya Khuda ka Nam" ie. he did the Paydab-Kusti (washing his hands and feet with Taro and wearng the Sudreh-Kusti) and took the name of God, praying the Mathravani (Avestan verses of prayer). The silver thali, the second sun fell down with a loud crash at the mere utterance of the ancient Avestan prayers.
The magic of the evil magician was broken and Akbar was highly impressed.
Dasturjees poured Molten metal onto their chests, to show the power of the faith
Did you know that great Dasturjees have actually poured boiling molten metal on their chests and have remained unharmed? This was done hundreds of years ago by Aderbad Maraspand, to show the spiritual power of the Zarathushtri faith. The Dasturjee would go through purifying rituals which would purify him, he would pray the Yashts, and then in a state of perfect physical and spiritual purity he would tolerate burning molten metal on his breast.
"Yes, my grandfather had told me this story. I'd like to see a dastoorji or anyone pour molten metal on his chest and not be burned."
By the Grace of God, you will see such a happening someday. Fire, or molten metal, can never harm the person who is in a state of spiritual and physical purity. The greatest chance for this is a dasturjee, because high dasturjees have to go through the Barashnum ceremony, which is physically and spiritually purifying. Of course, a Behdin (non-priest) can do this too.
The main reason a Dasturjee would do that is to show the power of the faith. Tell me, would you be impressed by the miraculous power of the religion if you saw something like that?
Blessed are those, who do not see, but yet believe, as Christ said.
The Purity of the Nirang
"I've heard about the purity of the nirang. Next time I'm in India, I'm going to get a bottle of sterile nirang and then culture it to see if I find anything there. There must not be much germs in there if we can drink it during the navjote and not die the next day :) I have a bottle of nirang at home, but I can't use that because it has already been open and the air has touched it, so I can't use that."
Yes, a famous High Priest of London (Dr. Kutar) once had nirang tested at a laboratory and the doctors certified it was free of cultures. However, we beleive it was wrong to get it tested in a lab where there are specimens of human urine, excreta, blood etc. This is spiritually damaging to the Nirang and is a great insult. In fact you should not even take the Nirang out from the Holy precinct of the Agiari/Atash Behram.
Some Agiaris are blessed with the presence of a sacred white bull, the Varasyaji (Guj.) - a spotless white bull with no dark hair, it is said there is only one such in 10,000. The urine of this special bull is called Taro and has special purificatory qualities as it is. Then, the urine is converted into sterile "Nirang" by the power of Avestan prayers. This conversion is a common occurence whenever the sacred Nirangdin ceremony is performed before fire by the Zoroastrian priests.
It seems that the ancient prayers (dating back to possibly more than 8000 BC in the language of Avestan which is older than Latin or Sanskrit) have a unique mystical vibration and purification power. When chanted by the physically and spiritually cleansed priests, the Mathras (chants) have tremendous power against all evil and after all, the bacteria and viruses are considered evil since they putrefy and destroy the good creation of God. The Nirang is used to purify Zoroastrian houses, exorcise evil spirits and bless marriages and spiritual initiations - indeed as the ancestors of all the European races, the Indo-Europeans (Aryans) were doing thousands of years ago.
The power of Mathravani and the story of "Parsi taro tharbariyo"
"Are you really thrilled to hear that a German man could cure people by praying certain Avestan passages and prayers?? You don't consider it sacreligious that this guy who was not a born Z was saying our prayers?? I personally think it's great, but I thought you would not be to happy to hear it. But I'm glad you are!!"
I am happy because it shows the power of our Mathravani. If an outsider can pray the Mathravani and get such amazing results because he has FAITH in it, how much luckier we are, born in such a great and powerful religion. How unlucky if we dont realize this and discard the religion and its scriptures and rituals, as a few "liberals" are doing today in the West!
There is also another story in India, a famous story. When the Parsis were enroute from Diu to Sanjan in a boat, there was a storm, and in all probability the boats would have capsized, drowning all the travellers in a murky death.
At that time, in the middle of the storm, the devout Parsis prayed the "Yatha Ahu Vairyo" (the most sacred Zarathushtri prayer, also known as the "Ahunavar") with full faith and the storm subsided. The watching Hindus, a few of whom were travelling with the Parsis, were amazed.
The boat put ashore safely, and the Parsis departed. Afterwards, the Hindus who had accompanied them on the boat were enroute on the sea again when another terrible storm hit.
The Hindus were panic-stricken. They suddenly remembered that the Parsis had prayed something, they couldnt recall it properly, so they started praying "Parsi taro tharbariyo, Parsi taro tharbariyo" because it sounded like the original "Yatha Ahu Vairyo". Such was their faith in the Mathra that the storm subsided for them too!
Also, such was the power of the Yatha Ahu Vairyo, that even a copy of it had the necessary effect!
About the Significance of the Zarathushtri Head-covering:
A Zarathushtri writes:
"Can anyone elaborate on the significance of the head-covering?"
My parents have told me that traditional religious Zarathushtris have always kept the head covered, throughout the day. There is a highly mystical reason for this. The spiritual power accumulated by praying the sacred words of the Avestan Mathravani (verses of prayer) is preserved only if the head is covered. For the ancient Zarathushtris, the Mazdayasni Zarathushtri religion was a part of their daily lives and thus they lived thir lives with their heads covered. How proud of their ancient religion were these glorious ancestors of ours, right upto the time of the brave, heroic Sassanians!
"Is there a connection between this and the caps worn by the Jews?"
Doubtless, the Jews observed our ancestors in Iran living life with their heads covered, during their sojourn in Iran after the defeat of Babylon by King Cyrus. Much impressed by the Zarathushtri religion, they took on many beliefs such as heaven and hell, the evil adversary, the final Judgement, the coming Saviour, the Millenium etc. This mystical practise of keeping the head covered must have been taken on by them at that point, although obviously they are loathe to admit it today. The irony is that they have continued this ancient practise whereas we, the Zarathushtris dont seem to want to keep our heads covered in "modern" life, but we should.