Why continued migration abroad is not good for our religion
Religious Zarathustris are often of the view that continued migration overseas, from India/Pakistan, is not good for our religion. Why so?
First, let us realize that our Traditional religion exists only in India and Pakistan. All the 7 pillars of our religion exist there, such as our sanctified Agiaris and Atash Behrams, our higher ceremonies such as the NirangDin ceremony are performed only in India and Pakistan, and our most natural system of Dakhma-nashini exists only there, and no where else in the world - not even in our ancestral homeland Iran.
These are institutions which form the basis of the sacred religion that our forefathers left Iran for, to preserve with their lives.
These institutions need a certain *minimum* population of Zarathushtris in order to sustain themselves.
However, one eye-witness report from Mumbai puts at least ONE Zarathushtri family migrating overseas EVERY WEEK (in late 2003).
The plain and simple logical fact is, if too many Zarathushtris from India/Pakistan continue to go abroad, our sacred institutions in these countries would be forced to close (God forbid).
Our small community can ill afford this huge outflux. We have to think of who will look after our agiaries, institutions, etc, and then we will understand the potential damage that can be caused.
Looking at other minority communities, one example is the Jewish community in India. The Jews were a thriving and prosperous minority in Mumbai with many synagogues (Jewish temples).
But after continuous migration of many Jews from Mumbai to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s, many synagogues in Mumbai were forced to close due to lack of population.
While this is okay in their case, since they have more synagogues in Israel, in our case this is not so, we do not have any sanctified Agiaris and Atash Behrams anywhere abroad, nor do we have higher ceremonies or Dakhmas anywhere abroad.
Thus, continued migration abroad is a real *danger* for the continued existance of our ancestral religion in India and Pakistan. Therefore we are raising the alarm.
We pray that this will save a lot of Zarathushti souls from plunging into countries aborad, and later regretting it.
Mystical Zoroastrianism (the Kshnoom school) also holds that India and Pakistan are the best lands spiritually to sustain our religion, and all religious Zarathushtris should practice their religion in these lands, in anticipation of the arrival of the future Rainidar Shah Behram Varzavand, who is expected in the next decade.
For information on the mystical teaching that India is the best land for our religion, please also see Why our religion cant be practised in other countries: By Firdosh K. Sukhia
The curent article is placed on the Traditional Home page at http://ParsiZoroastrianism.com for the reference of the entire Zarathushtri community.
Canadian winter is terrible, people who live there describe it so. However, life is always rosier on the other side of the fence. Most migrants, whether in the very cold Canada/ New Zealand/England/America or in the very hot Australia, remember their homeland with sadness and something is lacking in their lives, have you seen the movie "Swades"?
We should not encourage the modern idea of economic migration, ie. not migrating for the sake of preserving the religion, as our brave forefathers did, but for economic reasons alone, which ancient peoples never did. This kind of migration, a mass drain of people which has happened since very recently (the last 300 years only), is very dangerous for a small community such as ours, and is not good for the continuation of our ancient Zarathushtri religion in India.
The lesser people there are in India, the weaker (God Forbid) our religion will be there. The continued migration and the decrease in numbers in India is already an excuse seized on by the awful enemies of our religion, the liberals and the "pragmatists", to say that the remaining Indian Zarathushtris should open their doors to the non-zoroastrian evils of intermarriage and conversion. Never so.
At this point of time the ancient religion of our forefathers exists in its entirety only on the Indian subcontinent (India and Pakistan). It is only there that the ancient powerful rituals of the Nirangdin and the Dakhma exist. It is only there that our Atash Behrams thrive in their sanctified glory. This is so nowhere in the world. Even in Iran, the fatherland of our religion, our religion has been degraded to a liberal and modern emptiness, goaded on by the ugly Californian cult of the Muslim ali. There are no Dakhmas in Iran and rituals have totally collasped. It is only in India and Pakistan that we continue the sacred ancient wisdom of our ancestors, and nowhere else in the world.
Thus, the need of the hour is to make the community in India/Pakistan stronger, rather than encourage a further decrease in their numbers via the modern idea of migration, which has resulted in "melting pots" in the countries which are the destinations. These melting pots are the true breeding grounds of inter-marriage and anti-Traditional liberalism, which are in turn the destructors of religion, culture, and ancient wisdom.