Best of "Parsi Pukar"

This article appeared in the PARSI PUKAR, a magazine edited by Ervad Kaikhushro N. Dastoor. This magazine carries excellent religious articles on our religion and is published in Mumbai, India.

Ervad Dastoor is the very traditional and extremely knowledgable editor and publisher of this magazine, and also lectures extensively on traditional and esoteric aspects of our religion.

INTRODUCTION

A few decades back we had a joke that there were only two kinds of Parsis: those who work in Ponchkhananwalla's Central bank and those who do not. That work wise classification does not exist today. But there is another one, a religion-wise classification of Parsis : Those who are reincarnationists and those who are not. In the latter class there are some high brows, who go to the extent of saying that those Parsis who believe in reincarnation cannot be called Parsis or Zarthosthis, meaning thereby that they must be excommunicated or persecuted or if possible, executed. The last alternative, however, is highly hazardous; because a large part of the common Parsis, other than the scholarly high-brows are very much inclined to believe in reincarnation, and their execution in the French revolution style will make the already impending extinction of the Parsis community, an immediate reality.

It is observed that whenever a speaker on Parsi religion invites questions from the audience, one question is almost sure to be shot up many times the first question- " is there reincarnation in our religion? " or "Do you believe in reincarnation? " I have seen that the questioner is mostly a believer in reincarnation; the non-believer does not ask or care to ask or often dare to ask. The believer asks because he ( more often 'she ' than 'he' ) desires to have a personal satisfaction or justification for her belief, having arrived at it through the route of personal experiences in life rather than a high brand scholasticism.

Another funny observation is that the questioner often presumes that all the scholastic speakers are against reincarnation. He (here, more often 'he ' than 'she' ) does not even duly frame the question. He goes straight to a rude cross-examination: " How would you explain an innocent child suffering from fatal disease? How is it that the selfish, dishonest, cruel people are happy in life and good people suffer? If God is kind and just, why is there so much suffering in the world ? You scholars only know to quote scriptures and that too wrongly." Whenever I am the speaker I enjoy this cross- examination and duly try to remove the questioners presumption by saying I neither a scholar nor a scholastic speaker (may God forbid): I am a poor faithful student and seeker of truth: and that my personal experiences and researches, and the teachings from my highly erudite, knowledgable and mystical teachers, have left in me no doubt the FACT of reincarnation.

THAT is the crux . FACT of reincarnation, a phenomenon that exists; events which happen; observations which are made; experiments which are performed; the teachings from the teachers who are highly evolved spiritually; the Holy scriptures of all Religions. The question therefore should not be; "Is there reincarnation in our religion? " It should be " Is reincarnation a FACT , a phenomenon , in Nature? And what has our religion to say about it?"

Similarly the question: "Do YOU believe in reincarnation?", is also not quite to the point. Nature cares a two pence for the belief of an individual, be he a high-brow or a scholar. Truth does not depend on the belief of an individual; truth is not arrived at by show of hands or counting of votes. There are several Truths in Nature which a large majority of mankind do not believe in. They however do not cease to be truths. Still, one observation is worth pondering on; more and more people are believing in reincarnation, even in western countries, not through any scholastic route, but through personal experiences and common sense reasoning.

I seek my readers permission to present a series of articles on reincarnation from this issue. It is going to be a bit long series. I have only chalked out a plan for the presentation of the subject. I shall go on writing for the successive issues of this humble Parsi Pukar. I may take a break in between for a particular month, if need be. In this introduction, I give my truth-searching reader a general idea of the topic-wise treatment I propose to present.

In the beginning, the topic will be the mode and the way by which the subject should be examined and reasoned upon. The thrust will be: that when we are inquiring into an event or phenomenon, which lies beyond the barrier of our experience, we cannot be and should not be dogmatic. Reincarnation, if there, is a subject-matter relating to death. We do not have any experience or even idea about death and where "we" go after death; and what is this remaining "we", when the body falls and is disposed of in this our world itself? All that we can do is to observe those relevant events, which occur within the range of our experience, and try to reason put what should be happening beyond that range. I have seen west oriented scholars and Dastoors loosing their tempers when asked about reincarnation; as if to convey: you fool! Don't ask a question when the answer is so very obvious that there is no reincarnation in the Parsi Religion, That is the attitude not befitting neither a truth seeker nor a scholar or Dastoor. To stick to one's preconceived beliefs at any cost is not the way towards the truth. And when somebody looses his temper while answering a question, take it that he himself is confused on the subject, and the show of temper is an expression of his confusion. But our journey my dear reader , will not be that dogmatic and rigid.

Proceeding further, I shall deal with our common-place observations on the human life surrounding us., which are relevant for considering the subject of reincarnation, like the age old question of Job in Testament : Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? Or why is this innocent child on wheel chair for its whole life? We shall try to understand the answers to such questions derived from various concepts, religious or otherwise.

I will then take you into the investigation of the observed cases of reincarnation made by renowned scientists, particularly of the west like Ian Stevenson. There will some very interesting stories and records. From the actual observations we will transmit to the induced observations of past-life memories, where psychiatrists and psycho-analysts have tried to explore the deeper levels of human mind and consciousness. I shall take you into the modern researches on hypnotic regressions, and on memories of past life induced by LSD or music, carried on by renowned scientists like Arnell Bloxham, Standslav Groff and others.

There will be a transition to paranormal phenomena and the observations on Extra Sensory Perception (ESP). This will include the 'readings' of Edgar Caycee, an American mystic, which throw light on the relation between the Law of Karma and the phenomenon of reincarnation, and also the intervention of the Law of Grace in the human suffering.

This will be our stepping stone to the Great Religions of the East, particularly the Hindu and the Buddha wherein reincarnation is taught as a common-place fact of life and its role in the evolution of the human soul is eloquently expressed.

I also propose to devote a chapter on reincarnation and Christianity. It is generally believed that Christianity does not teach, and is actually against , reincarnation. It is generally believed that Christianity does not teach, and is actually against reincarnation. It is as a result of this paradigm that the Western scholars of the Parsi Religion advocated the absence of reincarnation therein, and the Westaping Parsi scholars and Dastoors loose their temper. But this Christian paradigm has been seriously and effectively objected to, if not totally refuted. Look at the titles of these Books: "Why Jesus Taught Reincarnation" by Herbert Puriyar )New Paradigm Press, Scottdale, Arizona 1992); "Reincarnation on Christianity" by Geddes Macgregor (Quest - 1978-1986). In a monumental work, "The Gospel of Jesus; In search of His Original Teachings" John Davidson, has a 55 page chapter on "Did Jesus Really Teach Reincarnation?" (Element - 1995). We shall go a little into this.

Only after this long journey in the modern scientific researches and in other great Religions, I shall take my reader into the Religion of Zarathustra, where the Laws of Keshahs, Karma, and Grace (Meher) and the Laws of Tanasakh (Reincarnation) and Tanpasin (Final liberation from the physical body) are set out and elaborated I shall take you in our Holy scriptures particularly in Gatha, Vendidad, Atash Nyaish, Meher Yast, Hadokht-Nask, Patet Pashemani, Dhoop-Nirang, and several others.

Please note that Reincarnation is a subject from Religion and in the very nature of things Religion cannot be something simple, as we are often told by surface-scholars. Religion ranges from a speck of dust to the Almighty God. With a 500 years long fumblings, modern science has not understood a speck of dust. And God? Oh my God! Who understands Him? Therefore, Religion is not a matter of just an intellectual exercise. How far can the intellect lead us? All the intellectual exertions of modern science and modern thinking has dashed with a solid barrier of ignorance. There is something beyond the barrier, but we cannot penetrate it. That is now an established fact. Commonsense itself has declared after a long exploration that it has reached its limit. It has arrived at a tightly closed door; it tries to see through it to know what happens behind. All that it sees are some flashes of light in darkness. The flashes do indicate that something tremendous is going on there; but alas! The door is jammed. A renowned scientist John Wheeler said, " As the island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance." And another one Rosler, when asked whether we could alter our brains to gain more knowledge, replied, "there is no way. To become insane"!

It is 'Dharma', 'Daena', Religion that can declare what is behind; but not the Religion read in the books, but Religion lives in life can open the door and evolve us further towards Ahura Mazda.

In this state of affairs, we have to look to the subject of reincarnation with an ever vigilant thought that we are ignorant about a large part of God's world and therefore we will try to understand the subject with whatever data we are aware of. We cannot afford to be rigid and adamant. We cannot be obsessed by our own limited thinking power. We will go wherever our facts and thought lead us and when we are halted, we will try to be helped by the holy scriptures of the Religions of the world including our own.

So help us Oh Ahura and Asho Zarathustra.!!

- Ervad Kaikhushro N. Dastoor.

The above article was published in Parsi Pukar Vol. 4/3 - September 1998, Mumbai, India.

The PARSI PUKAR is a powerful Zarathushtri magazine edited by Ervad Kaikhushro N. Dastoor. This magazine carries excellent religious articles on our religion and is published in Mumbai, India. The subscription charge is 10 US Dollars, including airmail. Please write to: