As a Zoroastrian-Parsi American who grew up in a very secular family, I now am beginning to appreciate more some aspects of my religion and how they relate to other modern religions and to society as a whole. On this Persian new year, originally celebrated by the Zoroastrians of Persia, I would hope that some who read this will be enlightened to delve a little deeper and read more about the peaceful philosophy of life that all Zoroastrians try to live by. With a passion for living a life of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, I will constantly try to live up to this ideal and I'm glad that President Obama can express this belief through this good gesture he bestowed upon the Persian people, especially those living within the confines of the reactionary Iranian government. Given that I'm not very religious, this diary is not meant as a means to prostelitize....please don't take offense.
One of my earliest memories stems from a time when my father was influenced by my grandmother to enroll my older brother and I into a Saturday Zoroastrian school, at the young age of 5 so that I may learn about the ways of Zoroastrianism from an early age. My father, ever the skeptic about overzealous religion given his ironically religious upbringing, figured it would not hurt to see what this school had to teach and he did not want to displease his mother.
My brother and I arrived one morning to our Fire Temple, accompanied by our father whose self-fulfilling role was to defend us against indoctrination from overzealous Zorastrians. Now I don't remember what was said in the first 15 minutes of the class, but all I remember was watching my father as he was listening to this teacher with his face getting progressively redder with anger to the point where he burst out of his seat and immediately took my brother and I away from the class forever. Ever the intelligent man, my father always held education, science and rational-thinking as what should guide one through life with religion just as a means for spiritual health as everyone needs to have a belief system. As a young child and adolescent, despite having gone through the Zoroastrian rite of Navjot (basically the Zoroastrian version of Bar Mitzvah), religion never held much sway in terms of what guided me as a developing young man.
Now I'm almost 30 and of late, I've started to wonder more about the basics of Zoroastrianism other than the fact that I was born into it (to be honest: I'm half Parsi-Zoroastrian and half Hindu; Indian custom is that you take after the religion of your father). I was amazed to learn that many tenets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all are based on Zoroastrian beliefs, given that it was the first monotheistic religion of the world. The concepts of good vs. evil and the constant struggle between the two is based on a Zoroastrian concept. A day of judgement, the idea of heaven and hell, etc., all have Zoroastrian beginnings.
At the peak of Zoroastrianism during the Persian Empire, the civilization was the first to involve religious tolerance and allow persons of other religions to practice their different faiths. Zoroastrians of the great Persian Empire built a society that strived to enrich all Persians with good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Not to say that everything was wonderful in terms of a peaceful society (after all we all know about the Persian wars and Persian expansion), but it is impressive that the Zoroastrian ruling class of ancient Persia really tried to apply the guiding principle of Zoroastrianism: good thoughts, good words and good deeds, to its own society resulting in its flourishment until the time of the destructive Alexander.
When Islam took root in the middle east, it spread eastward to Persia and eventually overtook the Persian population which was predominantly Zoroastrian in faith. Those Persians were forced to either convert to Islam, leave Persia and practice the religion somewhere else (like my ancestors who emigrated to India) or be killed. As Zoroastrian culture was so strong for centuries, the first Islamic rulers of Iran/Persia were never able to stamp out all Zoroastrian customs and old Persian customs. To this day, Iranians are culturally separate from other middle eastern peoples such as the Arabs. Iranians still hold the Zoroastrian New Year, Nowruz, as its day of celebration....it has been adopted as the Persian New Year for all Iranians and is a way to celebrate the past with the bringing of optimism for the future.
Which brings me to today, regarding the message President Obama sent to the Iranian people. I feel that this gesture really shows a sincere new approach towards Iran from the United States. This message was sent in good faith and represents an homage towards the Zoroastrian ideal of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Obama sought to praise the rich cultural heritage of the Persian people, instilling within them a sense of pride for the culture, through his good words. He spoke eloquently of future possibilities towards mutual progress for both peoples: Americans and Iranians alike. He related that good deeds from Iran will set the stage for future cooperation between our nations possibly to the point where we can start rebuilding our relationship and get working on common problems between us.
Obama has intelligently issued a positive gesture towards the Persians, who will hopefully recognize that it is an olive branch of sorts. As Zoroastrians believe that good deeds will lead to mutual cooperation with others whom you did good deeds for. President Obama is banking that his good deed will be reciprocated and will set the stage for future cooperation ultimately leading to increased stability between our two nations and hopefully within the middle east as a whole.