91热爆

From Lord Karan Bilimoria of Chelsea, crossbench peer:

On Saturday, my family and I returned from Hyderabad in India 鈥� where we held the Navjote ceremony of our younger two children.聽 This was their initiation into the Zoroastrian Faith.

Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion 鈥� indeed, the first monotheistic religion 鈥� introduced by the Prophet Zoroaster around 1500BC.

When he was born, unlike many babies, the Prophet Zoroaster was born laughing! 聽

Today 鈥� the Zoroastrian Parsis (the refugees who came to India from Iran when they were expelled around one thousand years ago) number around 69,000 out of India鈥檚 total population of 1.25 billion. As Mahatma Ghandi noted, "in numbers, Parsis are beneath contempt, but in contribution, beyond compare."

Zoroastrianism is a religion based on righteousness, good thoughts, good deeds and doing good in this life 鈥� and the Parsis have always been renowned for the charitable nature.

I am proud to say that it is a community that has excelled itself in basically every field - from business to the law, to the professions, to music!

The famous composer Zubin Mehta is a Zoroastrian Parsi, [and as we鈥檝e heard] so was Queen鈥檚 Freddie Mercury!

The theme for Faith in the World Week is the healing power of music.聽 And Parsi prayers have their own sort of music 鈥� chanted in the ancient Persian languages.

Whenever I hear the priests give the prayers in such a beautiful and harmonious way, it not only makes me feel nostalgic, but it also gives me a powerful impact via the incantations and constant changes of tone and manner in which they are virtually sung. Not for nothing are the scriptures of Zoroastrianism 鈥� the Gathas 鈥� also called the 鈥楬ymns of Zarathustra.鈥�

This was more apparent than ever at our children鈥檚 Navjote, where six priests were on stage with the youngsters, chanting the prayers and watched by hundreds of family, friends and guests.

My children are usually used to singing in English 鈥� but having trained and practiced for weeks in advance, they were able to perfectly pronounce these ancient words and prayers 鈥� reciting them along with the priests. I thought back to when I had to read the complicated ancient names in Verse 12 of Book of Nehemiah at a church service 鈥� but I would have to multiply that by ten to reach the complexity of the names of the Ancient Zoroastrian Persian Prayers!聽 I felt so emotional and proud of my children.

The Navjote represents their entry into the faith - and I know they will see themselves as the latest link in an unbroken chain of achievement stretching back through the centuries to the times of the Prophet Zoroaster.