Chapter II
LIFE ON EARTH GOONAH, KERFEH, KARMA
The wonder of all wonder is our life. What are we doing on this speck of dust, the earth, a whirling, spiraling, dancing globe? We arrived; our parents rejoiced but we cried; we breathe; we live, do all kinds of things under the sun, moon and stars. And one day we are sure to go, disappear, disintegrate as if we were just not there. This time it is our dear ones' turn to cry and then after a while to be used to our disappearance. What is this? Is life an empty dream? From where? How? Why?....
It is crystal clear that our non-saintly mind and consciousness are just unable to fathom the mystery of life…. and death. Philosophers and scientists have tried frantically to find the answers and solutions, through their observations, thinking, imagination, and mind tools like logic and mathematics, but to no avail. Since last 500 years the humans were swept away by a poisonous and fatal fad that the human mind was capable of understanding all nature. That myth is shattered and exploded, and the splinters from the explosion have brought all humans to the brink of extinction. The hatred and the wars and strikes and the calamities and greed and ego and carnal desires are those splinters.
Our theories and conjectures and speculations have not the faintest idea since how long this life drama is going on, on this stage, the earth, the only one earth, the tiniest of the tiny particle. The amazing part of the situation is that the answer to the riddle of life and death is staring at us; but we close our eyes. God sent His Prophets, Avatars, Saints, Sages and Seers in answer to the riddle. They proclaimed that the answer can be arrived only through experience and not by the highly limited three dimensional consciousness of man. To have that experience step by step is our march towards God. To meet Him, to be attuned to Him, to be one with Him is our final goal. And He declared through His divine Messengers that to reach the goal, follow the Path of Dharma prescribed for you.
Dharma - loosely called Religion - is thus the path leading to God; and one of the stations of our journey on the Path is the life on earth. Earth is our "Dharma-Shala" - the School of Dharma. We have come to this school to learn Dharma, and we cannot learn Dharma without living it. A science degree requires practical work in the laboratory. This school of life requires certain rules to be obeyed, certain disciplines to be self-enforced, certain code to be complied with.
The analogy of Dharmashala is very apt; because dharmashala also means a temporary abode, a motel, where we arrive from our original home to do some work and collect some goods; and then depart to go back. All dharamshalas have certain rules to be observed, so also here.
Whether it is a motel or a school, the code and the rules are to be strictly observed. Do's and don'ts are prescribed. Thou shalt do this and thou shalt not do this, proclaims the Head Master through his deputy-Teachers.
In the Zarthoshti Din, the human thoughts words and deeds are classified in two broad divisions : "Goonah" and Kerfeh", meaning: vice and virtue; sin and righteousness; immorality and morality; good and evil. The most fundamental and essential truth to be absorbed is that the definitions of Goonah and Kerfeh, good and evil, moral and immoral are determined by Ahuramazda and not by the mortal non-saintly human. Man's own definitions of good and evil are most likely to go wrong, because his mind is capable of being drifted away towards 'goonah'.
Another truth taught by all 'Dharma's is that Goonah and Kerfeh give rise to Karmic reactions. What is defined as a sin germinates bad karma that is, it causes a bad reaction in nature which then falls on the doer. Every Dharma has taught this in most emphatic terms. Some call it punishment; some, Karmic reaction. Similarly every thought, word and deed defined by Ahuramazda as Kerfeh or good, gives rise to good reaction. This 'good' does not mean worldly good; it means: march towards Ahura. Do good, and you have taken a step towards Him; do bad, and you have gone away from Him.
Now how is a sin or righteousness defined? All 'dharma's have described sin or vice by naming them. They are called man's internal enemies. The following table sets out the names as given by the Hindu and Zarthoshti Dins
Hindu "Kaam" "Krodh" "Lobh" "Moh" "Med" "Matsar - - - -
Zarthoshti: Varuni Aesham Aaj Niyaz Goomani Areshka Aashmogi Kin Sazgi Nang
Meaning: Carnal Anger Greed Attachment Pride Envy Faithless- Fraud Blasp- Shame
Passion to worldly to think ness hemy less-
things high Enmity ness
about to
oneself Din
(We Parsis claiming to be superior have ten enemies as against six of Hindus). This is a broad classification. Patet Pasheymani gives a long list of sins - more than one hundred! It is possible to fit them in the main ten.
Now another question: From where does these sins originate? And why? Why are people sinful? Why are they attracted to evil thoughts, words and deeds? Why was Hitler so bad and Mother Theresa so good? To put it in a philosophical grab, what is the origin of evil?
No idea! We know that evil exists: in the human mind and outside (say as HIV). But why and how, is beyond us. Any attempt to fit in evil in the three dimensional thinking of man may result in a brain crack. (It actually has, in some cases). All that we can do is to believe in what the authentic Zarthoshti Saints and Gurus have informed us. If some point sounds to you not logical, remember Godel's Theorem which says that any statement made in a human language has an unprovable component.
It is taught that in the beginning of the creation "Ruvan" came into existence, and immersed itself into ego. "There is one Ahoo "above" all right but I am also I", the Ruvaan said. This ego generated evil. The evil fastened itself to the Ruvaan. At a point, Ruvaan realised its mistake and repented. It was then asked to dissolve and alchemise the evil by having a long journey in Creation, and come back to Ahura with all the evil converted to good. The Ruvaan started its journey. A process of division based on certain decimal formulae was applied to it. Most of its evil is already alchemised. The last part with its attached evil has to travel through earth and here we are. The attached evil is woven into the physical body. The strings of Anaasar (pages 1, 2) is a weaved carpet of good and evil. Our non-physical body, the Keherpa, has almost all its evil alchemised. The Ruvaan as the divine essence of Ahura is imprisoned in the physical body. Our duty during our life on earth is to endeavor every moment to alchemise the evil within. Dharma prescribes the rules of conduct for such alchemy, and defines 'goonah' ('don't') and 'kerfeh' ('do').
We have thus a good element and an evil element within us. In the present times, evil has surfaced up and that is why sin is so rampant. The good element has the name: "Gava"; the evil: "Druja". This is picturesquely described by saying that we have a cow and a wolf within us. The cow is serene love and selflessness; the wolf is ferocious hatred and selfishness. The cow desires to give its milk to the wolf. The wolf desires to devour the cow.
During our life on earth, although our mind is inclined to evil, we do alchemise some part of our 'druj' to 'gava'. The most wicked man has and does some good in life. We may have to come back again and again on earth until all the druj is alchemised. Then the last part of our journey to Ahura begins. Coming back is called "Tanaasakh"; going ahead is called "Tan-pasin".
This takes us to : what happens when a human dies and what is the role of Dokhm-e-nashini in the Ruvaan's journey in the next world.
On page 1 and 2, we have seen that a human is made up of three main components - (i) physical (matter) (ii) non-physical (Keherp) and (iii) divine (Ruvaan - Ahura's Light). We have also seen that each of the three has its own consciousness. In non-saintly people like us, only the consciousness of the physical body is awake and works throughout our life. The other two are "asleep" i.e., unconscious of what the body is doing.
When a human dies, the consciousness of the body working through our brain is switched off and the other two wake up. This happens at the moment of death.
Ruvaan and Keherpa get out of the world and flyaway on the Cheharoom morning to the next world. The fallen body appears to be a heap of dead matter: but actually it has still woven into it the subtle energy strings the 'Anaasar's, which are required to be separated from the body and to be sent to the Ruvaan and Keherp in the next world. One of the functions of Dokhm-e-nashini is to snatch out the Anaasars from the decaying body at the earliest. The ideal condition is that the Annasars should reach the other world on the fourth day. This is the reason why the vultures and sun's natural are an essential requirement of the Dokhma. We now delve a little in life after death.
(Parsi Pukar August-September 2000 - Vol. 6; No. 1)
