Monthly Archives: October 2009

Roj Asishvangh Mah Ardibehesht, 1379 Yz.

The change of century – from 1899 to 1900 brought far reaching changes all around the world. It was a time of great scientific and medical progress, ‘rationalism’, becoming ‘modern’ and throwing out all that was considered ‘old fashioned’. The English Raj was at its peak and India was being systematically bled by the British who used their divide and rule tactic to take over all of India. At the same time, a more sinister movement was afoot. Hordes of Christian missionaries of all kinds – Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterians, Irish and many more were descending in the cities and villages of India with a single purpose – to rid India of her ‘pagan’ religions, to ‘redeem’ Indian souls and send them to heaven by the only way possible – by making them Christian! In their unholy haste to convert India, the missionaries used many tricks and tools – education, literacy campaigns, medical help, welfare societies and good old ‘scholarly studies’. The Hindu scriptures were ‘studied’, faults found and then compared to the pristine Bible. How could anybody reach heaven without accepting that Christ was the only Saviour?

Within the Parsi community also, there were great changes happening. Always at the forefront to adopt anything from the British, the leading Parsi families of that time began aping the British at all levels. Fancy mansions, non-Parsi cooks and butlers, giving up the practice of segregation, abandoning the Parsi dress and wearing the British coat and tie – all these and more were being picked up by members of our community. The British, known for the shrewd behavior, encouraged this aping, heaping awards and titles of Rao Bahadur and Khan Bahadur on prominent Parsis, the walls of whose houses were adorned with the photographs of the King and Queen Victoria!

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Roj Dae-pa-Meher Mah Ardibehesht, 1379

Fasli Meherangan

After this debate, a Muslim gentleman who had a unique power came on to the stage. He had developed a relationship with a low level spiritual entity (Jin) which enabled him to get things from afar in an instant. He would ask people to put money on the table and ask for something, say from another city. As the money was put on the table, the man would pray something and the money would fly off. In a few seconds the item which had been asked for would appear on the table. Ustad Saheb went on watching this tamasha for some time and then made a sign to his friend Hakim Jalalshah. Now a person in the audience put a rupee on the table and asked for some sweets from a famous mithai shop of Delhi. Ustad Saheb concentrated his thoughts and began staring at the rupee coin. The magician started his prayers but nothing happened. The more he prayed, the more steady the rupee remained on the table! Soon he realized that there was a person more powerful than him in the audience. With his developed eyes, the magician saw Behramshah staring at the rupee and realized his game was up. He came up to Behramshah and requested him to lift the gaze. As soon as Behramshah looked away the rupee flew off the table and a few moments later, the famous sweets from the mithai shop of Delhi appeared on the table.

The assembled scholars were appreciative of this Parsi gentleman’s unique knowledge and power and at the end of the Jamaat, Ustad Saheb was presented with a walking stick with a silver head, which is considered a mark of great distinction in their scholarly circles. The presence of Behramshah in the Jamaat remained a topic of discussion for many years in the scholarly circles of Moradabad, because many years after this incident, a person seeking Behramshah came to Surat, asking everybody if they knew the “ilumdar Behramshah”.

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