Zoroastrian Subjects Series II

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North American Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class  

Sunday June 30th 2013 11 AM EDST

Zoroastrian Subjects Series II

Ervad Soli P. Dastur

          A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on June 30th 2013 by Jo Ann Dastur & Ervad Soli P. Dastur from their home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida.

There were about 31 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 two PDF documents are enclosed here :

1. 20130630 NA Tele Class 15 Zoroastrian Subjects II.pdf – PowerPoint slides for the Tele Class

2. 20130630 NA Tele Class 15 Prayer Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda Zarathushtra is Lord of Mankind.pdf – our cyber Hum Bandagi for this Tele Class from Homage Unto Ahura Mazda book

Topic:

In this class, a few Zoroastrian Subjects of interest were discussed as follows:
Tele Class #15 – Zoroastrian Subjects Series II Topics:
1. Why do we take the Sukhad/Kaathi for Atash Padshah when we visit an Atash Behram/Agiyari.
2. Significance of placing Rakhiyaa on our Foreheads.
3. Vakhshur-e-Vakhshuraan Zarathushtra Spitaman, our Prophet, Mathematician, Astronomer
4.Zarathushtra’s Birth Place
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 item 4 above from this presentation.
Soli started the class off by thanking all the participants (31 callers in all) especially 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 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.
He then described Jo Ann and his visit to Manhattan for performing a wedding and then staying over to visit the Cyrus Cylinder Exhibit at the NY MET starting June 20th. He presented some photos of the exhibit.
After covering the above 4 subjects, we performed our customary cyber Hum Bandagi in English,from Dr. Dhalla’s book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda:

“Zarathushtra is Lord of Mankind”,

by reciting 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!

DSC06327.JPG_s[2]Agenda Slide with Discussed Topics 

DSC00860.JPG_s[2]A young Zarathushtri at the Sanctum

DSC06332.JPG_s[2]Sistan as the Prime Meridian in Zarathushtra’s Time

 

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 here :

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

20130630 NA Tele Class 15 Prayer Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda Zarathushtra is Lord of Mankind

20130630 NA Tele Class 15 Zoroastrian Subjects II

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