The Holy Fire
Parsis worship Ahura Mazda (our name of God) through revering and worshiping nature. And our symbol is Fire. Each Fire Temple has a consecrated holy fire that is kept (smoldering) burning night and day. Each fire is lit with a spark of the original Atash Badshah (now housed in Udvada in Gujarat), and so it is quite difficult to start a new Fire Temple. The Fire is fed ONLY with Sandal wood. 5 times in 24 hours special prayers are chanted and the Fire is restoked with the offerings of devotees.
I was born and grew up in Bombay in a very loving and a very Parsi family. Now, most people don’t believe this but right from the beginning i hated heat. Even though i was born in Bombay which can get very hot during the year... and so going to the Fire Temple during the blistering heat of Bombay (especially in summers) was not something i looked forward to :)
As a small child i often asked mom why we worshiped the Fire. Why could we not worship ice! :) She would reply by saying that Fire burns away all the negativity, all things bad, and so we worship Fire. This was an acceptable answer until i started questioning it further...
One Diwali, i burned myself lightly and went to mom and said why did Fire burn me?
Fire is our friend, our God and supposed to burn away negative things! Did that mean i was negative or bad?!
We worship the Fire because we worship the Fire. Stop asking silly questions. Shut up and Pray!
And so, by the time i was 18 years old, Religion and Fire worship was a waste of time as far as i was concerned... until i did the Art of Living course and met Guruji... and my entire view of the Parsi faith changed!
One day I asked Guruji, why do Parsis worship the Fire... What He said, you will read tomorrow! :)
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa
34 comments:
jgd bau!
great write ups
i can barely wait for tomorrow
really waiting for the post
wow .. cant wait to read what guruji said .. :)
We are waiting to hear that !!!
woww bawa that was fantastic .. esp your reasoning :)
waiting for tomorrow's post :):)
can you pleeeeaase increase the frequency of the humour posts ..they are fabulous !!
barrelfulls of love
tanu
Wow!! Thats amazing..i never thought of studying about any religion other than Hinduism. you write so well, that i look forward to learning more from you. Also, whenever i read your blogs everything appears as a picture in front of my eyes. Guess what!! I even imagined how you would have looked in ur kidhood ;)
Bau this is not fare....!
You should complete today it self, you narrated so finely but now kept us wait for the GURUJI wala portion... ;(
JGD
Parth
the pic of the temple is beautiful!!!
and what is the symbolism of a pool in front of a fire temple it would not hav been made just like that:)
jai gurudev!!
Bau, I can't wait to read what guruji said.
today when i opened the blog the caption came up THE HOLY FIRE . it was still loading . i thought oo i dont know anything about parsis(religion) and after a few moments every thing became clear.:)thank u:)
bau
when we will have a post from ping mamu;) ha ha!
Anticipate to know, pls say today only what did guruji said. pleeeeeeeeze..Roma
JGD bau, I think its time you posted your childhood pics..my imagination is running wild!!!
Dinesh Bhaiya toh still looks like a baby!
Namaste,Bau!
You surely have me reading your blog tomorrow! :)
Oh God! This is torture..I want to know what Guruji said...NOW!
We-ll...another 24 hours to go..
But...how fascinating to read all this stuff.
Take care . Jgd.
Sudha
oh there is 24 hours fire in fire temples, didn't know that.
...beautful posts!!..
...waiting for more!!!
jgd!
nice write up again and so much like a daily soap...aage ki kahani agli episode mein :)
jaigurudev,
desparately......Waiting......For guruji,s reply bau.....
thanku so much for those special and wonderful post's...
cant wait 4 tomo bau....pls post it by 2nite......
jus waiting 4 tomo....
jgd bau
Bau
we want it today..
plz write i ill wait whole for this ...
plz send
jgd...
very interesting posts.. :))
16 more hours to go....
Bawa we dont know what we will do without you or Dinesh lots of love to you both.
Khurshed was such a clever child !! Bawa is a new improved version (Thanks to Guruji !!)
and you've got us HanGInG here !! lol. till tomorrow then :)
though you have mentioned this in some courses before, when I read it now it seems like I'm hearing for the first time bau...HOW DO YOU MANAGE THAT??!!??....ohoooooooo!! waiting to hear what He said...again
Bawa, you said you won't be posting much 'cause of the TRM.
and funnily, the frequency of posts has increased !!
looks like you're also getting addicted to this blog ike all of us, readers!! yahoooo. haha.
love :)
Bau you must write a book.....on anything....you have the knack to keep the reader tuned and on his toes.... EVERYBODY is waiting for tomorrow.....
Waiting for tommorrows post........well i knw little what Guruji had said .....u had shared during YES+ in 2006 at bombay.....cannot remember much.....eagerly waiting
Love
Mamta
Happy New Parsi Year Bawu...I love to read about all cultures...waiting for the day when I can explore them personally...Great going Bawu!!!
I'm Waiting Bawa .................
wowww!!!! got to know so much abt history of parsis to India!!
thnx 4 all dat pretty good knowledge
Why have you stopped?
When I first saw you at bangalore ashram in june, my friend told me - he is Bawa. I told him that you have such a rare persona. You were simply shining:) He said that you are Parsi and there are not many Parsis on earth today. I knew nothing about Parsis and thought to myself that I should later find out a bit about what it is all about. Little did I know that I would get to know so much about Parsis. And that too narrated by the most happening Parsi ;) All related posts are astounding. There's one thing I loved most - when the High Priest blended sugar with the milk ... Beautiful. Thanks to Srivi for having asked you to post Parsi stories.
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