Homyar G. Nasirabadwala is praying in the prayer hall of the Zoroastrian building, Hong Kong. (Photo by Benita Zhang)
When the first light appeared in the sky, Ervad Homyar G. Nasirabadwala woke up, cleansed himself physically and spiritually after a shower, and walked from his bedroom to the prayer hall. After adding pieces of sandalwood to the brazier, he stood in front of the burning fire with palms together, reciting prayers with God in mind.
Five times a day, to welcome every dawn, noon, afternoon, evening and night, he does this as a routine of life, keeping the fire without quenching.
He has been doing this since his early teens, and now he is 60. “Our God told us fire is the son of God,” said Nasirabadwala, the only priest of Zoroastrian Community in Hong Kong.
Fire is the most holy symbol in Zoroastrian faith. (Photo by Benita Zhang)
Coming from India five years ago, Nasirabadwala became the Zoroastrian priest in Hong Kong. Following the original blood line, he was born to be a priest because of his priest father, who started to teach him how to behave as a priest when he was only 10. “He was a good father, and he was a good teacher,” said Nasirabadwala.
After being a priest for more than 40 years, Nasirabadwala has grey hairs under a white cap. However, he is still energetic and enthusiastic like a strong young man. “My fire gives me lots of strengths,” he said with a smile.
Fire plays an essential role in the faith of Zoroastrianism, the world’s oldest monotheistic religion originating from Persia, now Iran. Believing fire brings light and represents purity, Zoroastrians always turn towards to a flame or a source of light when they worship.
There are few restrictions in the religion, but the only exception is smoking can never be allowed, considering stubbing out a cigarette means defiling the fire, the most sacred symbol in their belief, according to Nasirabadwala.
The holy fire shall never go out, and keeping the fire makes up one of the main parts of Nasirabadwala’s job. “It’s such a spiritual feeling when I go to the prayer hall, build the fire and stand there,” Nasirabadwala added, “I cannot explain how nice, exalted, peaceful and contented I feel.”
Believing igniting fire is to produce light, Zoroastrians always do decent things to pursue light, not only for themselves, but also for the community and the world as a whole. Therefore, “Good thoughts”, “good words” and “good deeds” become the major point of the religion’s teaching, according to Nasirabadwala. “My religion teaches me to be a good person and to be helpful to everybody.”
One evening in November last year, Nasirabadwala went to McDonald’s for dinner, and a poor old man sat beside him with a glass of water. Nasirabadwala noticed the man kept looking at his food, so he talked to the man, but it turned out the man could not understand what Nasirabadwala was saying. “It seems that he was not mentally OK,” Nasirabadwala said with a frown.
When Nasirabadwala asked the man if he would like something to eat, the man nodded, so Nasirabadwala took him to the counter. However, the waiter got angry with the man who was in tattered and dirty clothes, shouting at him, and told him to go away. Nasirabadwala said to the waiter behind the counter, “No, let him order what he wants, I’ll pay for him.” After paying, Nasirabadwala turned to the man and said, “Please sit with me and eat.” The man was happy and ate quickly.
“He didn’t know how to thank me, probably he didn’t know how to say, but the look on his eyes and the look on his face told me he was very happy, so I’d done my good deeds,” Nasirabadwala continued, “My religion told me to make sure the person has a decent meal and smile on his face.”
This is a mirror of what Zoroastrians believe in. Moreover, a milk and sugar episode can explain further.
Nearly 1300 years ago, to escape from Muslim religious persecution, a small number of Zoroastrians left a place called Pars in Persia, their motherland, to Gujarat, the westernmost state in India. Unfortunately, King Jadi Rana was unwilling to accept them at the beginning. He showed them a vessel full of milk, saying his country already had too many people and could impossibly take in more.
Surprisingly, the Zoroastrian priest added a spoonful of sugar into the milk and said his people could never cause a population problem but would enrich the kingdom instead. Soon, the king changed his mind, and India became Zoroastrians’ hometown where most modern Zoroastrians live at present.
Though Zoroastrianism is one of the smallest religions in the world, around 120,000 people globally and 246 in Hong Kong, Zoroastrians always pay back to the community and the society, according to Nasirabadwala. The same thing happened in Hong Kong as well, with the donation to the founding of Star Ferry, Ruttonjee Hospital and the University of Hong Kong.
The 12th of October is the birthday of Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, a successful Zoroastrian businessman in Hong Kong as well as the major donor of the University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong now has a road called Mody Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, in honor of Hormusjee’s contribution.
During the building of the University of Hong Kong, Hormusjee said, “Life is incomplete when man lives for his own self; life is best lived when it is lived for others,” taken from Zarathustra, the prophet of Zoroastrianism.
After the memorial ceremony this year, the University of Hong Kong wrote their thanks to Hormusjee on the website by saying, “Without his generosity, the University’s existence may not have been realized.”
Because of Zoroastrians’ insisting on “good thoughts”, “good words” and “good deeds”, the fire inside the religion brings the light to the world outside together.
Every morning, when the sun rises slowly from the horizon, a 60-year-old man standing in front of a holy fire, pray for the goodness of its people, also for the fortune of the world.
“If everybody on the road has a big smile on their face, it would be so nice, wouldn’t it?” Nasirabadwala said, with a big warming smile on his face.
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Benita Zhang 