Fifth NAZ Religion Seminar – videos – Z Places of Worship

North American Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class  - Sunday December 11 11 AM (SST) Ervad Soli P. Dastur

A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on December 11^th by Ervad Soli P. Dastur from his home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida.

About 60+ people joined in by calling a Tele-meeting phone number. The people were from both Canada and USA, from NY to Dallas, Montreal to Miami.

The class material was a PowerPoint Presentation on The Zoroastrian Places of Worship (ZPOW). It covered the consecration ceremonies of Atash Behrams,

Adarians and Dadgahs. It presented Marzban Giara’s excellent book on our Global ZPOW as well as Homi & Diane Limbuwalla’s website of ZPOW with Google maps.

Photos of some ZPOWs all over the world were presented. A short account of the Proper Etiquette for presenting oneself to this ZPOWs was given. A historical evolution of our ZPOWs from Iran to India was discussed. Finally, the permanent question: “We do not understand what we are praying in our daily prayers” was answered by suggesting some alternatives. The final prayer in English, from Dr. Dhalla’s book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda: “May thy Fire burn forever in my house, Ahura Mazda”, was recited by all together ending with our signature Zoroastrian greeting of: “Hamaa Zor, Hamaa Asho Bade” (May we be united in righteousness) performed by all attending the Class, a cyber Hamaa Zor all over North America!

The PowerPoint Presentation slides and 1 explanatory file for the daily prayers were sent out to all participants ahead of time. In most homes, families gathered in front of their computers following slides of this presentation as I spoke about them from my home. In Orlando, a group of 20+ of our Central Florida Group members came together in a conference room, thanks to our own Dinyar Mehta and Perzid Ichaporia, and the slides were projected on the screen for all to see. These files are attached to this message. Many of the interested Humdins wanted us to place this one hour class as an Internet video. Last one was done by Yazdi Tantra and his associates in Mumbai on his excellent website from the one hour video Jo Ann recorded in our home. Our FEZANA President Bomi Patel referred me to Rumi Jasavala, OZCF, Toronto, Canada who has done quite a bit of work on Video Conferencing. Rumi helped me to put this recent Tele Class video Jo Ann recorded on YouTube. In order to meet the YouTube restrictions of length, I had to create 8 segments of these one hour Tele Class video and have successfully uploaded them in YouTube and we are pleased to inform you that all you Hafta Keshwar Zamin Humdins can access them at the YouTube:

Please let me know what you think of it.

Please note that I am not yet an expert in YouTube. This is my first encounter with it and I will be improving these segments to make them better in future. Hope you all enjoy seeing them. Once again, thank you Rumi for all your help.

May the Flame of Fellowship, Love, Charity, Tolerance burn ever eternal in our hearts so we can do HIS work with humility, diligence and eternal enthusiasm!

 Atha Jamyaat, Yatha Aafrinaami! (May it be so as I wish!)

How would you like to wake up to the recital of  Doa-e-Tandarosti from your  computer or tablet.

Or the prayer to be recited for you as you get ready for the  day?

Please watch the  link below and hear the serene voice of our Kobad sing out the prayers in his rich voice, whom I address as Appra Vada Dasturji, has done a good job.

Turn your speakers on for a virtual “Dar-E-Meher kind of experience”, imagine yourself standing there.

It is on YouTube but not listed, only those who get the link can see it.

So if you give out the link, request the person to maintain reasonable  safeguards.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoJctD4dVXc

Your comments  and feedback appreciated.

Tandarosti to you

Rusi Sorabji

A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on September 18^th by Ervad Soli P. Dastur from his home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida. About 50+ people joined in by calling a Tele-meeting phone number. The people were from both Canada and USA, from NY to Dallas, Montreal to Miami. The class material was a PowerPoint Presentation on The Religious Scriptures of the Zoroastrian Religion, side by side with the Zoroastrian Religion History from Antiquity to current times. In the end, the relevance of all the scriptures in our daily lives were discussed by comparing a Zoroastrian daily life in Mumbai and comparing that with the daily life of a Zoroastrian in the diaspora especially in North America. In the end, the permanent question: “We do not understand what we are praying in our daily prayers” was answered by suggesting some alternatives. The final prayer in English, from Dr. Dhalla’s book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda”, was recited by all together ending with our signature Zoroastrian greeting of: “Hamaa Zor, Hamaa Asho Bade” (May we be united in righteousness) performed by all attending the Class, a cyber Hamaa Zor all over North America!

The PowerPoint Presentation slides and 2 explanatory files for our Scriptures and daily prayers were sent out to all participants one week ahead of time. In most homes, families gathered in front of their computers seeing slides of this presentation as I spoke about them from my home. In Orlando, a group of 20+ of our Central Florida Group members came together in a conference room and the slides were projected on the screen for all to see. These three files are attached to this message.

Yazdi Tantra and his associates in Mumbai volunteered to place the one hour video I recorded in my home on his excellent website and so I sent him by FedEx a flash drive with the video and other files. He was kind enough to place this video on YouTube and it is available on: http://zoroastrians.net/2011/10/18/fourth-all-florida-z-religion-seminar-videos/

We want to thank all who participated in this learning experience and especially Yazdi for taking pains to make it available to all!

Here is the entire full-length video series of the Fourth All Florida Z-Religion Seminar, conducted by Soli P. Dastur which was held on Sunday, September 18, 2011. For the benefit of viewers, we are also enclosing the pdf and other files of the slide show that was presented thereat. Our grateful thanks to Soli for graciously sharing this online for the benefit of the community.

Click Here for the entire presentation in PDF format

Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda background

FEZANA Journal Zoroastrian Scriptures

Courtesy :  Soli P. Dastur