“Mr. Ardeshir Edulji Reporter, who had been residing in Teheran for
nearly four decades as a representative from Bombay of the ‘Society
for the improvement of the condition of the poor Zoroastrians of
Iran’, informed me that the Zoroastrians of India are making a serious
mistake and their indifference is extremely harmful to the community.
Every year an increasing number of Zoroastrians is abandoning the
religion of their forefathers and [726] becoming Baha’is. Despite
repeated warnings the coreligionists of Bombay are not being alerted.
Even today Baha’is are organizing feasts on a grand scale and extending
a gracious invitation to our credulous Zoroastrians with the purpose
of attracting them to the Baha’i religion. With many such devices the
Zoroastrians are being converted. At this end the conversion of our
Iranian co-religionists is conducted chiefly in Bombay and Poona and
recently in Karachi. Destitute co-religionists coming from Iran are
immediately approached by converted Iranian-Zoroastrian Baha’is, are
employed in their shops, are helped in setting up separate shops of
their own, or are given employment in other ways and are later
converted to Baha’ism.
Due to our indifference and carelessness such Iranian Baha’is have, up
to date, blatantly and freely taken advantage of our communal schools,
hospitals, maternity homes, rest houses, sanatoriums, charitable
chawls, and innumerable such institutions and benefitted by our
various funds. Thousands of Iranian-Zoroastrians of Iran and India
have already been converted to Baha’ism and the number is ever on the
increase. The most distressing fact is that in our country it is not
the Muslim Baha’is who convert our co-religionists but our own one-time
Iranian-Zoroastrians themselves.
Since the last five years the community has become aware of this
calamity that is staring it in the face and the Trustees of the Parsi
Panchayat of Bombay and Karachi have published in the press that
henceforth the benefit of communal institutions and funds will not be
extended to these non-Zoroastrian Jooddin Baha’is.
In Karachi a recently converted Iranian youth repented his error and
honestly appealed to be taken back into the Zoroastrian religion. In
the [727] presence of an assembly of prominent people I performed the
Navjote ceremony of that youth. Similarly, constant efforts should be
made wherever possible to reinstate into their ancient faith converts
who have gone astray. “
Chapter LXVIII
THE NAVJOTE OF A CONVERTED ZOROASTRIAN Baha’i
With the downfall of the Sasanian Empire our vast population suffered
all kinds of attacks and has now dwindled to a mere hundred and twenty
five thousand. The major portion of the present Muslim population of
Iran comprises of converted Zoroastrians. Conversion into Islam has,
to a large extent, ceased since the last hundred years. Instead, since
about seventy-five years, a similar threat has arisen from an entirely
different direction. Every year, in Iran, as well as in India, an
increasing number of Iranian co-religionists are being converted into
the new Baha’i religion that was born in Iran in the last century.
Time and again, without request or reason, messengers claiming to
bring the latest and final message from divine sources, have been
narrating the same story that all the old religions have got entwined
in the web of superstition and have lost their pristine purity. The
new religion that they have brought is unadulterated. It is as clear
as crystal and as pure as nectar.
Astute Baha’is are saying the same thing today. They affirm that no
religion exists that can meet the demands of the twentieth century.
The unparalleled religion of Bahaullah alone is capable of fulfilling
mankind’s needs today and will remain so permanently. These good
people forget that followed and practised by educated and illiterate
adherents of diverse mentalities and passing through the vicissitude
of time, the plight of Baha’ism will be the same.
Heralds of all religions have always said that they are the last and
that no prophet will come [722] after them. But ere their bones mingle
with the dust, a new and even more powerful messenger arises and will
continue to come.
Bahaullah came and he has gone. Innumerable such Bahaullahs will come
and go, generation after generation.
The history of the religions of the world teaches the same lesson.
Alberuni and Mirkband write that the disciples of Mani, the prophet
that came into prominence in Sasanian Iran, declared him to be ‘the
very seal or the last messenger of God’. Yet newer messengers have
kept on coming.
Mirza Ali Mohomed, who was known as ‘Bab’ or the ‘Gateway of God’,
proclaimed his religion in Iran in 1854. At the age of thirty, by
order of the Shah, he was shot dead at Tabriz. His successor, Mirza
Husainalli, rekindled the religion and he became known as Bahaullah or
God’s manifested form, God’s aura or radiance, the fulfiller of God’s
will, the perfect man, God’s messenger, God’s voice, the Almighty’s
prophet of the modern age. It was announced that previous prophets had
spread the light in their own age but it was incomplete. Bahaullah is
the ‘sun’ of the age. He had come to complete and perfect the
unfinished work of all the prophets. He was ‘the Promised One of all
Prophets’. Every prophet had predicted his advent. As spring follows
winter, bringing with it freshness and new life, he had come in this
new age to elevate humanity to a higher level. Many a whimsical
pretext was professed about him.
A great deal of harm has been wrought by the teachings of the great
religions about the advent of a future Soshyosh, a Messiah or a
Mahadi. At least fifty faked and pretentious prophets and God’s [723]
messengers have beguiled mankind from time to time. Some have
succeeded in establishing new sects, but more have failed to do so.
Dreading the oppression of the Muslim Mullahs of Iran, the Baha’is
carried on their work clandestinely in the beginning. They could not
construct public places of worship. Practising of the faith and even
conversion when the occasion presented itself, were conducted behind
closed doors. For generations our community had been disgruntled by
the persecution of the mullahs. We had been rebuffed, repudiated and
rejected. At such a stage of existence the Baha’is welcomed us with
open arms. They invited us to dine with them. This was something to
gladden the hearts of our unfortunate co-religionists in their
homeland, Iran. They were naturally drawn towards the Baha’is. The
shrewd Baha’is played upon their religious sentiments and deluded the
ignorant Zoroastrians that the prophecy in their scriptures that Shah
Behram Varjavand would come one day has been fulfilled, for Bahaullah
himself was Shah Behram Varjavand.
In some of the unauthentic Pazand and Pahlavi books written after we
lost our kingdom, it has been foretold that Shah Behram Varjavand of
Kyanian lineage will come some day. At the age of thirty he will raise
an army of Hindus and Chinese and attack Iran and conquer it and will
reinstate a Zoroastrian regime in Iran.
It is understandable that uneducated Zoroastrians of Iran, fifty or
sixty years ago, believed these fictitious fairy tales; but for highly
qualified and cultured Parsis of India to gulp down such fantastic
stories today is truly regrettable. Certain gentlemen inform us that
Shah Behram Varjavand will be born between 1941 and 1950 and that 1940
to 1990 will be very bad years for the world. These people write that,
with his spiritual powers and the [724] strength of his prayers and
purity, he will perform universally renowned miracles by arresting
electricity in the atmosphere that suspends aero planes high up in the
air, will poison the planes engaged in warfare and bring them down!
What a miserable exhibition of the intellectual prowess of men who
have qualified and stepped out of the portals of the Bombay
University!
At first some Zoroastrians of Iran and later Iranian Zoroastrians
settled in India accepted Baha’ism. The secret movement of this new
religion had misled us in the past. We have been misguided by their
deceptions up to this day. The Baha’is have no churches, they have no
priests, they are free to marry non-Baha’is. The President or Secretary
of an association takes the place of a priest in their marriage
ceremonies. Some such prominent person recites a short prayer.
Thereafter the couple, their guardians and leading men of the assembly
sign the document. At the time of the wedding an ‘Alvaha’ chosen from
the Alvaha composed in Arabic by Bahaullah is recited. Under the
canopy of their faith it is permissible to retain the ‘sudre’ and
‘kusti’ when necessary, to pass as Zoroastrians when need arises, to
derive benefit from communal funds and its institutions. The corpse of
the deceased they bury in their own separate cemetery.
In 1905 when I commenced my studies at Columbia University in New
York, the Mazdaznan, Vedant and Baha’i movements were active. The
Mazdaznan movement had just begun. The Vedant movement had started in
1893 when Swami Vivekananda had made a memorable debut at the
Conference on World Religions at Chicago. The spread of Baha’ism had
started in 1892 by a Syrian Muslim, Ibrahim George Khairullah, who had
been [725] converted to Baha’ism. While the expansion of the Mazdaznan
sect was still in its infancy, the Vedantists and Baha’is were already
well-established.
During my stay in New York from 1905 to 1908 I saw that the Christians
who were converted to the Baha’i religion ceased to be considered
Christians and were known as Baha’is only. On returning from America in
1907 I drew the attention of leaders in Bombay to this fact, but
scholars and eminent people alike refused to countenance the Baha’i
Movement as anything more than an innocent institution, or a
Brotherhood, like the Theosophical Society. The Baha’i religion had not
found a footing amongst the co-religionists of Karachi at that time.
In 1914 when I went to America a second time with my wife, the Baha’i
movement appeared to have gained a firmer foothold. This was the
result of a wide-spread propaganda in Europe and America from 1911 to
1913 by Abbas Effendi who had adopted the name of Abdul Baha.
Our visit to Iran in 1920 brought us in contact with Baha’is at various
places. In Kazvin we found that all Iranians credited as Zoroastrians
had already become Baha’is. They had called an assembly of all the
Muslim and other Baha’is residing in the city in my honour. As a priest
or a mullah is intent upon making people believe that theirs is the
one and only true faith, I found their leader debating with me during
our discussions.
Mr. Ardeshir Edulji Reporter, who had been residing in Teheran for
nearly four decades as a representative from Bombay of the ‘Society
for the improvement of the condition of the poor Zoroastrians of
Iran’, informed me that the Zoroastrians of India are making a serious
mistake and their indifference is extremely harmful to the community.
Every year an increasing number of Zoroastrians is abandoning the
religion of their forefathers and [726] becoming Baha’is. Despite
repeated warnings the coreligionists of Bombay are not being alerted.
Even today Baha’is are organizing feasts on a grand scale and extending
a gracious invitation to our credulous Zoroastrians with the purpose
of attracting them to the Baha’i religion. With many such devices the
Zoroastrians are being converted. At this end the conversion of our
Iranian co-religionists is conducted chiefly in Bombay and Poona and
recently in Karachi. Destitute co-religionists coming from Iran are
immediately approached by converted Iranian-Zoroastrian Baha’is, are
employed in their shops, are helped in setting up separate shops of
their own, or are given employment in other ways and are later
converted to Baha’ism.
Due to our indifference and carelessness such Iranian Baha’is have, up
to date, blatantly and freely taken advantage of our communal schools,
hospitals, maternity homes, rest houses, sanatoriums, charitable
chawls, and innumerable such institutions and benefitted by our
various funds. Thousands of Iranian-Zoroastrians of Iran and India
have already been converted to Baha’ism and the number is ever on the
increase. The most distressing fact is that in our country it is not
the Muslim Baha’is who convert our co-religionists but our own one-time
Iranian-Zoroastrians themselves.
Since the last five years the community has become aware of this
calamity that is staring it in the face and the Trustees of the Parsi
Panchayat of Bombay and Karachi have published in the press that
henceforth the benefit of communal institutions and funds will not be
extended to these non-Zoroastrian Jooddin Baha’is.
In Karachi a recently converted Iranian youth repented his error and
honestly appealed to be taken back into the Zoroastrian religion. In
the [727] presence of an assembly of prominent people I performed the
Navjote ceremony of that youth. Similarly, constant efforts should be
made wherever possible to reinstate into their ancient faith converts
who have gone astray
