Shortage of Priests, forces Allahabad Parsis to rely on “temporary priests”
In an article published in The Times of India yesterday, the author writes of the challenges faced by our diminishing community in North India:
Even in this crucial juncture, the Atash Behram or the Holy fire at the Fire Temple is kept burning by the efforts of members of this community, just a dozen head counts in the city, who have either placed the wooden log in the fire by themselves or arranged for a ‘Para-Mobed’ (a ‘temporary’ priest who performs holy rituals along with daily routine).
And when there is just one priest in the entire state, that too quite elderly, technological avatar in form of audio cassettes or Parsi people conducting the rituals by their own come to fill the vacuum, especially in the last voyage of life.
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