Dinesh and Bawa

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

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  

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34 comments:

Ana said...

jgd bau!
great write ups
i can barely wait for tomorrow

hariharan said...

really waiting for the post

Vishal said...

wow .. cant wait to read what guruji said .. :)

nands said...

We are waiting to hear that !!!

atmarati avirodhena said...

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

Anonymous said...

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 ;)

parth said...

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

hrishikesh said...

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!!

vinay said...

Bau, I can't wait to read what guruji said.

hrishikesh 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:)

hrishikesh said...

bau

when we will have a post from ping mamu;) ha ha!

Unknown said...

Anticipate to know, pls say today only what did guruji said. pleeeeeeeeze..Roma

Faith Lasts said...

JGD bau, I think its time you posted your childhood pics..my imagination is running wild!!!
Dinesh Bhaiya toh still looks like a baby!

Unknown said...

Namaste,Bau!
You surely have me reading your blog tomorrow! :)

Sudha Pillai said...

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

Abhay Karnataki said...

oh there is 24 hours fire in fire temples, didn't know that.

Anonymous said...

...beautful posts!!..
...waiting for more!!!
jgd!

Unknown said...

nice write up again and so much like a daily soap...aage ki kahani agli episode mein :)

Anonymous said...

jaigurudev,
desparately......Waiting......For guruji,s reply bau.....
thanku so much for those special and wonderful post's...

Shruti Poojari said...

cant wait 4 tomo bau....pls post it by 2nite......
jus waiting 4 tomo....
jgd bau

Deepak said...

Bau
we want it today..
plz write i ill wait whole for this ...
plz send

Anonymous said...

jgd...
very interesting posts.. :))

Anonymous said...

16 more hours to go....

Anonymous said...

Bawa we dont know what we will do without you or Dinesh lots of love to you both.

Monica said...

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 :)

Anonymous said...

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

Monica said...

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 :)

Unknown said...

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.....

Anonymous said...

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

Vinod Raghavan said...

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!!!

Deep said...

I'm Waiting Bawa .................

Anonymous said...

wowww!!!! got to know so much abt history of parsis to India!!

thnx 4 all dat pretty good knowledge

Anonymous said...

Why have you stopped?

Anonymous said...

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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