Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class – Sunday June 2nd 2013

North American Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class  – Sunday June 2nd 2013 11 AM EDST

Zoroastrian Subjects

Ervad Soli P. Dastur

            A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on June 2nd 2013 by Jo Ann Dastur & Ervad Soli P. Dastur from their home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida.

There were about 38 callers with multiple people listening together in some homes by calling a Tele-meeting phone number. The people were from both Canada and USA, from NY to Chicago and Los Angeles, Montreal to Miami. The class material was a PowerPoint Presentation sent ahead of time to all participants in PDF format.

The three PDF documents were sent out to all of you as attachments to the last message giving details about this Tele Class.

They were:

1. 20130602 NA Tele Class Zoroastrian Subjects.pdf – PowerPoint slides for the Tele Class

2. Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda background.pdf – Background information why Dasturji Dhalla wrote his book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda

3. 20130602 NA Tele Class 14 Prayer Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda Prayer for Zarathushtra Birth.pdf – our cyber Hum Bandagi for this Tele Class on Zarathushtra Birth from Homage Unto Ahura Mazda book

Topic:

In this class, a few Zoroastrian Subjects of interest were discussed as follows:
1. Multi-Level Zoroastrian (Z) Atash Kadehs of ancient times
2. Evolution of our Afarganyu
3. Meaning of the bells struck during Atash Behram Boi Ceremony
4. Vakhshur-e-Vakhshuran Zarathushtra Spitaman, our Prophet, Mathematician, Astronomer
5. Birth Place of Zarathushtra
In November 2011, Rohinton Rivetna, one of the founders of the Society of Scholars of Zoroastrian Religion (SSZ) requested me to present some material from the 101 letters book of Dr. Ervad J. J. Modi’s 502 page tome: My Travels Outside Mumbai. He started his travels in a boat from Mumbai in 1925 and after 208 days he returned home visiting Africa, Europe, USSR, Iraq, Iran, Karachi, etc. He took meticulous notes during his travels, observing, discussing many subjects and comparing them, especially in Iran and Iraq, with our Parsi customs of that time. I have used items 1, 2, and 5 above from this presentation.
Soli started the class off by thanking all the participants (38 in all) especially FEZANA President Katayun Kapadia, Vice President Homi Gandhi, Kersi and Dolly Munshi, Tele Class coordinator, ZAF President Furrokh & Khushnam, etc. who took time of their busy schedule to attend and support our Tele Classes.

He also thanked Katayun and FEZANA UN NGO Committee Co-Chair Persons Homi, Behram, and Afreed Mistry for awarding Jo Ann and him a replica of the Cyrus Cylinder for all the FEZANA work performed by them, especially the Tele Classes. Soli assured all that this award will be prominently placed in their Hira Villa.

Due to the time constraint, we covered only items 1, 2, and 3 from above and postponed items 4 and 5 for the next Tele Class together with some other items.

Finally, as it is becoming our custom, 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:

The Birth of Zarathushtra,

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!

       

Soli and Jo Ann performing Hama Zor

Soli and Jo Ann performing Hama Zor

Agenda Slide with Discussed Topics

Agenda Slide with Discussed Topics

Artist’s Schematic of Baku Atash Kadeh

Artist’s Schematic of Baku Atash Kadeh

 The PowerPoint Presentation slides and two associated material documents are attached to this message. In most homes, families gathered in front of their computers following slides of this presentation as I spoke about them from my home. 

We also request all of you to suggest what topics we should cover in the next Tele Classes.

Many of the interested Humdins want us to place this one hour class as an Internet video. We have done that already and placed it in 5 segments on YouTube.

You can access them below :

May the Flame of Fellowship, Love, Charity and Tolerance burn ever eternal in our hearts so we can do HIS work with humility, diligence and eternal enthusiasm!
Atha Jamyaat, Yatha Aafrinaamahi! (May it be so as we wish?)

Love and Tandoorasti, Soli

 

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