Allegation:
6.
<<has stated that Shah Fareydoon to be a 'bhang drinker'.>> and
brands <<our sacred "Hom": "Wisdom-wasting
drink.">>
7.
<<has stated that the Ijashne ceremony is enacted to promote the use of
drugs.>>
Truth:
HAOMA
Its Original and Later Identity
Ali
A. Jafarey
Haoma/soma, as an instant intoxicating and
hallucinogenic plant, has made many think of various plants, from mushroom to hom
or hûm (ephedra). The Rig-Veda shows it to be a drink that prompted
gods, particularly Indra, to go on warpath and also that it was obtained from
far northern mountains. It is said to be highly stimulating.
Mushroom seems to be farfetched. Ephedra grows all over eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and
Pakistani Balochistan and is used by both Iranian Zoroastrian and Parsi priests
in their haoma ritual. Ephedra, void of all the qualities described in the
Avesta and the Vedas, is definitely a late substitute.
The author, a teetotaler, has drunk large glassfuls of hûm juice in Yazd
without feeling any side effects. Ephedra
supplies "ephedrine" medically used to treat low blood pressure.
Ephedrine is decongestant. It
does not push a person "high" but it does make one feel
"hyper"!
The description of the plant that it was greenish in color
(zairi/hari), grew on mountains well north of the Indus Valley and
was traded by outsiders, had a special ritual to prepare, was an instant
intoxicant prepared from pounding and extracting its juice, and that the Saka
tribes of eastern Central Asia are called "haumavarka" (haoma-gatherers)
by Achaemenians; all point, in my opinion, to what is now known as Indian hemp
(cannabis sativa). Originally
native to Central Asia, it has now spread all over Asia and here in the
Americas. The drug obtained from it has proven quite devastative.
Whatever the true identity of original haoma/soma,
the ceremony resembles much the present practice of solemnly pounding bhang
(Indian hemp, hashish, marijuana), extracting and straining its juice,
and mixing it with water, milk, poppy seeds, and almonds by sufîs, faqirs,
pirs, sadhus, and other Muslim and Hindu mystics of certain orders
and circles in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, particularly those
connected with shrines and holy places. It
still has a halo around it!
The drink, an instant psychoactive mixture, is greenish in
color. It is called "dûgh-e
vahdat" (unity milk) by Iranian mystics and "thâdal"
(cooling, refreshing) by Sindhi sufis. One
description says its addicts "never die," a far echo of "dûraosha"
for haoma. The ceremony is similar
and the identity is quite attractive but not absolutely convincing.
We may never know for sure the true identity of the original haoma.
Haoma/soma is lost to both wings of the
Indo-Iranians.
Whatever it was, hemp or some other intoxicant, we discover
in Haoma Yasht (Yasna 9-11) that a well-advanced Zarathushtra who had his Gathas
composed, did not know what "hoama" was!
One day, at the morning prayer time, when he was tending the fire and
chanting the Gathas, Haoma appeared to him. Zarathushtra asked the super
handsome youth as to who he was. "I
am Haoma, the righteous, the Dûraosha, O Spitama! Beseech me and squeeze me
into drink. Praise me the way future Saoshyants would do as well."
Then he relates to Zarathushtra how four fathers in the past had pressed
the haoma juice and were rewarded to beget worthy sons. Of them, Zarathushtra
was born to Pourushaspa.
The very story, narrated by an unnamed third person of the post-Gathic
period, clearly shows that Zarathushtra, the Mâñthran of the
Gathas, did not recite any "Yasna Liturgy" to perform the haoma ceremony. He only
sang his Gathas, the only liturgy,
before a fire-altar. It also shows the way the traditional priests brought in
their age-old haoma cult into the Good Religion. This time it was not "bhang" or another
strong intoxicant but a very mild substitute, ephedra.
The Yasht mentions this mildness: "Indeed all other intoxicants (maidhyâongho)
are accompanied by wrath of the bloody standard but the intoxicant (madho)
of Haoma has the right calm following it. Its intoxication gives
lightness." It is acknowledged as an intoxicating drink and is compared
with other intoxicants. The
substitute "ephedra" was soothing, indeed.
Haoma was re-introduced to
continue to be "central to the [expanded] Yasna liturgy"!
A last comment before the concluding paragraph.
No one is <<attacking the ritual use of Haoma.>> It has
already been attacked and well attacked. Zarathushtra
was/is the first, foremost, and best to attack
the ritual and/or any other use of the haoma
dûraosha, the wisdom wasting drink. I
am, like many others, lovingly and loyally following my Ahu, lord, my Ratu,
leader, my Mâñthran,
thought-provoker divine - and not the Karapans
and their imitating successors.
It is true that haoma was an integral part of the Daevayasna rituals. It is true that since the composition of the Later Avesta, particularly the Haoma Yasht (Yasna 9-11), haoma (the substitute) has been <<central to the Yasna liturgy.>> It is true that in the Gathas, the original Haoma, bhang or any other instant intoxicant, stands rejected and condemned. It is equally true that the Sublime Songs, with their simple and sublime rituals, cannot accommodate the elaborate Haoma ceremony in any form. [End of the essay]
* * * * * * *
I leave it to the reader to judge what I have written about
the original pre-Gathic Haoma and its SUBSTITUTE
in the post-Gathic period. It is a research article and not directed against any
present or past ceremony performed by the Parsi priests in the Indian
Sub-continent.
Note how Ervad Birdy cuts the head of the essay off to
blank the true purpose of the posting and then abruptly finishes the quote by
cutting the conclusion: <<This time it was not "BHANG" or
another strong intoxicant
....>> This is obviously and cleverly
done to censor my conclusion of the essay that the present day Haoma is the substitute
and not the original pre-Zarathushtrian plant and its juice. In my essay
there is no mention of "the Izashne for the soul for the departed" and
the essay does not imply <<that it was concocted by mobeds for their own
benefit.>>
By confining the Izashne to the departed souls, Ervad Birdy,
with his over 38 years of priestly services, omits that the Yasna (Parsi
Gujarati Ijashne) ceremony is an independent long ceremony performed by the
Yaozhdathragar (one qualified to give or spread purity) priests only in
fire-temples -- a ceremony impossible to perform in the Western part of the
world. Those that can afford it, have it performed also in honor of the departed
souls. Is the connection by the Ervad of Haoma with the departed souls aimed at
arousing more emotions against me or his lack of knowledge? To the best of my
information, he does not know Avesta, Pahlavi, Pazend, and Persian that would
have helped him and his audience understand as to what he recites and performs
in his short and long prayers, and that all his performances are by rote. Yet he
has been elected to top the Parsi Priests of North America.
Who is the real attacker of the Good Religion and the customs and traditions of the institutionalized Zoroastrian -- Jafarey or the person/s who distort his writings to attribute false and foul words in his name? Judge it for yourself!
P.S. Ervad Birdy has appeared once again on the Internet
page with his response of 5 pages of 46 paragraphs and 2,734 words. Those who
feel anxious to know what he has written may ask him for a copy or e-mail me to
send it to them. All I see in it is distortion, mocking words, and harping on
the same old subject of that Zarathushtra praises Haoma and performs the ritual as given in the Hom Yasht. He does not
comment on what Dasturji Dhalla and Ervad Dr. Jehan Bagli have written on it.
(The two articles were posted on the Zoroastrian Internet Alias.) His lack of
knowledge of Avesta does not permit him to criticize Dr. Taraporewala, Mr.
Khabardar and other Parsi, Iranian and Western scholars who state that it is Haoma,
which is condemned in the Gathas. He takes the usual esoteric and occult
shelter behind the claim that the Avesta, particularly the Gathas, is beyond
translation. His is an obstinate stand that would never accept the truth. Why,
because, he cannot afford it. Any real reform in the Traditionalist Parsi
community, and he will be out of his priestly position. Only the proficient in
the profound knowledge of the Good Religion will survive.
* * * * * *
LINKS:
To Return to the Relevant Original
Allegations, CLICK
Introduction
to The Plain Reality Behind The Intricate Falsity
(Allegations Nos. 6 &7)
also see
HAOMA by Dasturji Dhalla
TABLE OF CONTENTS and Their Links
Introduction & the Gist of "The Plain Reality Behind The Intricate Falsity"
Analysis of the 26-page "Global Protest"