Zoroastrian Ecology: The Cosmology and Practicality
Zoroastrian beliefs mandate greening the land and keeping the waters pure. How does that translate into practical living and Climate Action? Two lecturers enlightened us in the final week.
In the final week of the Zoroastrian Orality, Customs, and Ecology course, we had two excellent lecturers talking about water and ways to address the Climate Crisis. I have to say I wasn’t expecting either; their passion and knowledge inspired me. Given the global crisis we’re in — and especially how India is being battered by the planet’s warming — Bangalore experienced hailstones first time ever! — I’m surprised TISS-PARZOR didn’t devote 2 weeks to this urgent topic. In terms of Zoroastrian cosmology and the thriving of our species, ecology is the most important aspect to learn about, understand, and put into practice. To my mind, anyway. I mean, I didn’t go through the extremely stressful process of getting government help to install solar panels, heat pumps, and other measures because I was lukewarm on the subject.
If you haven’t read yet my post on Firoza Mistree’s lecture on water, check it out first.
Zoroastrian Ecology Begins with Terminology
Reflecting on the classes as I write this post is helping me see how they tie together. Dr. Jenny Rose built on Firoza Mistree’s lecture on water. Zoroastrianism’s mandate is to green the land. Yet that’s not what humanity is doing. The Aral Sea drying up in order to grow cotton is an extreme yet illustrative example of how we are collectively ignoring that mandate. After that factoid, Dr. Jenny talked about the words “Spenta” and “Angra.” Understanding the Zoroastrian attitude toward Earth starts with these two core words and understanding their meanings and interpretations.
Spenta
Various translators have interpreted “Spenta” to mean hale, healthy, full of life, bounteous, beneficent, life-giving, and virtuous. If we apply this to the Amesha Spentas who are each connected to one of Ahura Mazda’s creations, we can see, for example, that Ahura Mazda meant for water, which is connected to the Amesha Spenta Haurvatāt or Hordād, to be bountiful, life-giving, beneficent, hale, healthy, and virtuous. Others have interpreted water as having the qualities of wholeness, completeness, health, and perfection. Can we say these things about any of our water bodies today?
Angra
Angra is the antonym of Spenta. That means lack of survival, evil, death. As I compare it to Spenta, Angra Mainyu’s effect on water would thus be pollution, drought, loss, poisonous to life, riven, incomplete, and not how it was created.
What Have Humans Done to Water?
Ancient Zoroastrians took the mandate to bring life out of the desert as an edict to keep water free from death and excrement. No bathing or urinating in it. No washing corpses or yourself in it. Death and excrement were synonymous with pollution. Today, we face worse pollution. There’s a movement on to expand the Zoroastrian concept of pollution to encompass the Pacific garbage patch, heavy metals in our water supply, raw sewage spewing into seas, plastics on beaches, and so on.
I certainly think the meanings of Angra as an antonym of Spenta, and Spenta’s meanings, connote that humanity ought to keep all waters clean from anything that makes it hazardous to drink. Since water is life-giving, and all of us require water to drink to live, and we can die or sicken from water polluted by agricultural runoff, raw sewage, heavy metal contamination, microplastics, and other trash we chuck in our oceans and freshwater, I think the Zoroastrian cosmology to keep water pure means cleaning up our water of all kinds of pollution and keeping our waters safe from future killing incursions.
God’s Helpers Are Each Connected to the Creations
Zoroastrianism is a practical religion. Thoughts, that is, spirit intersect with the physical world, and humanity’s purpose is to further life in thought and in the physical world. The Amesha Spentas are Ahura Mazda’s helpers. When we do good to their connected creations, they flourish; when we harm their associated creations, we harm them and, through them, Ahura Mazda. Weakening them weakens Ahura Mazda.
When we keep their associated creations clean and healthy physically, we’re assisting the spiritual realm as well by helping the Amesha Spentas and, through them, Ahura Mazda. Zarathushtra also gave the mandate to walk hand in hand with God. We don’t just help Ahura Mazda progress the world to the good through helping the Amesha Spentas, but also directly through our own good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
We decide whether to support Ahura Mazda or go to Angra Mainyu’s side.
As a species, we’ve sided with Angra Mainyu.
Climate Change and the trash that infests our oceans and lakes, the dried-up rivers, and the human-caused floods attest to that.
We’ve arrived at a tipping point, though. We have to decide collectively and individually whether to continue pretending Earth is ours to exploit or to work with Ahura Mazda in perfecting the world, free of evil.
Humanity Isn’t Automatically God’s Helper
Each person must choose that role or reject it. Each person must get real with themself as to who they’re siding with. Who is God? What is our role? What will happen to us if we side with Angra Mainyu, even inadvertently? What time do we live in? Click below to read about Khojeste Mistree had to say.
As we discussed in earlier classes, consequences flow when we die. That’s when our good words and deeds are weighed against our bad words and deeds. Whichever balances heavier decides where we go. And at the time of the resurrection, it decides how easily or how torturously our transit through the river of molten metal will be. The more purification required to rid us of residual evil, the more painful. Being made clean hurts! But only those cleansed of all nanotraces can live on the renewed Earth. The river of molten metal cleanses everyone so that no human is left behind.
Yasna Speaks for Juicy
Dr. Jenny went through various scriptures to show how consistently they teach Zoroastrians to choose life-giving. Yasna 30.9 translates as to make life excellent, make existence juicy, progress towards perfection, heal this world. There’s something compelling when the God you believe created you entreats you to heal the world God created. Which means also healing yourself as humanity is one of Ahura Mazda’s creations. (Genesis also states humankind is one of God’s creations and is part of the whole Creation.)
It isn’t only an edict to produce abundance but also to share it.
Traditional gāhānbār festivals in Iran’s Zoroastrian rural communities model this attitude. They harvest the produce, fruits, and nuts. They slice up the fruit, make festival-specific dishes, and share it with the whole community including non-Zoroastrians. It’s a happy time. No surprise since human brains give us a happy hit when we share the fruit of our efforts with others. It’s interesting that Jesus says that we shall be known by our fruit, which implies others share in it. Our societies work against our social-sharing biology; it’s no wonder we’re all sick from loneliness and heart disease and pollute our world.
Dr. Jenny liked the term “rejuicification” to describe the frashokereti, that is, the renewal of the material world.
Frašōkereti or frashokereti is an “eschatological term referring to the final renovation and transfiguration of Ahura Mazdā’s creation after evil has been utterly defeated and driven away.” Encyclopedia Iranica
In the beginning, Ahura Mazda created the spiritual form of Creation. Then Angra Mainyu appeared. Since Ahura Mazda is omniscient and Angra Mainyu is not, God realized that a material world would be the way to defeat Angra Mainyu. And so our physical universe came into being. The final renovation of our material world will happen when evil is separated out from the good. Christianity teaches the same. In the Resurrection, evil is vanquished, and we will live in a new Earth. Like with Zoroastrianism, our spirit and material bodies will be reunited and made perfect.
The Mixed Time We’re In
Meanwhile, we live in a mixed world of evil and good. In this mixed world, each and every daily activity is where we choose the good or the bad, spiritually and physically. Every time we choose a good thought, word, and deed in a daily activity, we inch closer to reaching the final renovation (resurrection) of our material world. I was taught that every moment of every day matters. Growing up, I went to church, but unlike my fellow Christians, Sunday wasn’t my family’s only day of worship and following Jesus. Zoroastrianism taught me that God mattered in every aspect of my life.
Although Dr. Jenny talked much more on this theme with examples, including what the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario did a year or two ago to reflect the mandate to green the land, I’ll skip that and segue right into the final ecology class. That class spoke about the practical application of Dr. Jenny’s lecture on Zoroastrian ecology.
Trees, Sunlight, and Harvesting the Rain
Dr. Rashneh N. Pardiwala, founder and director of the not-for-profit Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CERE) in India, talked on Zoroastrian Harbingers of Change: A Community Practicing Environmental Sustainability. Up to now, I hadn’t seen any indications that Zoroastrians are leading in climate action. But what Dr. Rashneh is doing is impressive and is the kind of inspiration that makes you feel less alone and reminds you why you put in all the effort you have, despite the at-times crushing stress. Never expect doing the right thing is easy, I say! It’s always harder than coming up with excuses not to because you get so much pushback and diminishing support. You need health and energy and a social network to keep going. Or just persistent Zoroastrian bloody-mindedness.
Urban Afforestation
Canada is mostly wilderness. Everywhere you look, there are trees. As Dr. Rashneh said, Nature knows how to flourish, but our urban forests need help. A glaring example is despite Toronto’s love affair with trees, none of us could stop Metrolinx’s and Ontario Place’s destruction of mature trees in downtown Toronto and on our waterfront, both fuelled by a province run by a Premier who wants the 1950s back.
Torontonians are proud of our tree canopy and have grown bylaws to protect them. After the 2013 ice storm took out a substantial percentage of them, the city began an intensive reforestation program. In addition, urban trees on private properties must have tree protection zone fencing during any renovation or construction; and the city recently tightened its prohibition against which trees we’re allowed to cut down. Even when you receive permission to chop down a tree due to disease or rot, you either pay a fee to plant a replacement tree elsewhere or have one planted in your own yard. And recently, Toronto has adopted a Japanese custom of planting a tiny forest, and the local neighbourhood is nurturing it in a local park.
So it was strange to hear how hard it is to revive urban forests in India, never mind plant trees in Mumbai and other Indian cities. Indians like trees; they just don’t want them in their parking spot or backyard or blocking their view or attracting crows or, or, or. NIMBYism for trees!
Dr. Rashneh showed us a video on CERE’s significant urban afforestation project, reviving the Doongerwadi forest in the Parsi Tower of Silence’s 55 acres, starting with a walled-off 4.5-acre remote corner taken over by two invasive species, weeds taller than Dr. Rashneh, and mosquitoes who chew up humans within 10 minutes. Dr. Rashneh met this daunting challenge so well that the Board asked her to do the same for the rest of the forest.
Like what we do here, she replaced two invasive species with 52 native species. She introduced biodiversity and nurtured the saplings until they could maintain themselves without drip irrigation. It’s truly heartening to see the same principles applied in Toronto applied in Mumbai. I hear terms like “global movement,” but talking with someone who’s doing the same half a world away makes it real.
Her efforts include educational awareness. Teaching the surrounding non-Zoroastrian community that these 55 acres benefit them and the whole city as well, is essential to stop the calls for concretizing this revived forest. It’s a carbon sink. It reduces the increasing heat dome. It absorbs pollution. Bombay is in the top 10 most polluted cities on the planet, and five Indian cities are in the top 10.
As an aside, I notice in Asian shows on Netflix the sky-obscuring air pollution over cities and can’t understand how people can stand it. But then change is hard. Even trying to keep Toronto’s air clean is an uphill battle against the province reversing gains made in cleaning the air.
Rainwater Harvesting
It’s sad really that Mumbai is using its economic growth and prosperity to justify concretizing “every green spot” — paving over wherever trees grow — when that very action is leading to increased flooding, polluting their wells, dropping their water table, increasing the heat dome effect, and putting them at risk for a dry monsoon season and killing humid heat. Some researchers are looking at how Canadian wildfire smoke is also drying up Mumbai’s monsoons. Everyone wants to blame our burning forests for their local climate crises! George Monbiot wrote in Regenesis about how monsoon changes in India affect agricultural output in other countries. Funny how Climate Change affects everyone globally and locally.
As an aside, Toronto learnt from Hurricane Hazel not to build on flood plains, and bylaws have protected unsuspecting home buyers by preventing developers from doing that. However, our current “I want pre-Hurricane Hazel laws back” Premier Ford is destroying institutions that served children so as to give developers flood-prone and mudslide-prone land to build on. Dr. Rashneh calls it “monetizing the land.” The public pushed back when he tried to sequester parts of the city’s Greenbelt for developer profits. We saved it, but so far, he’s winning with his attempt to pave over forested areas on Toronto’s waterfront (Ontario Place) and on the side of a ravine (that one to take down the Ontario Science Centre and replace with buildings is truly idiotic).
Until recently, I hadn’t known that Bombay’s water comes from wells that access aquifers and deeper groundwater. Because heavy metals are accumulating in (some) wells and the water table has dropped by three times or more, they’re building canals to bring in water over a 100 km away instead of harvesting rainwater to replenish the aquifers and groundwater and to purify their well water. Monsoons are already bringing less water. India apparently has poor disaster management plans. So when the monsoon rains of July to September replenish their diminishing water supply and that replenishment dries up by December, they’ll be in a boatload of trouble if the monsoon doesn’t come. Even here in Toronto, where we sit on a Great Lake and the city is aggressively upgrading our water and sewer infrastructure, we’re suffering from more flooding and have very occasionally had water-conservation edicts. These are global problems caused by the anthropogenic effect of too much carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere.
Dr. Rashneh and CERE are on a mission to harvest rainwater. Undo concretization so that water can percolate through the soil into the aquifers and groundwater. Dig trenches and pits to collect the monsoon rains. Direct roof rainwater to filters and tanks. We here in Toronto are taught similar. Don’t pave over your front yard; instead plant native species and gardens that allow the rain to percolate into the soil instead of running off and flooding city streets and homes.
They say that one person sharing their experience with another dramatically reduces resistance to going carbon free. On a community level, Dr. Rashneh has proven this. After she began working with Parsi Agiaries (Fire Temples) to harvest rainwater, the Anglican Diocese of Mumbai wanted her help in doing the same for their 129 churches. Seeing how harvesting rainwater stopped flooding around the Agiaries and cleaned and replenished their wells, they wanted the same benefits for Christian churches. (Flooding has become a concern because the roads keep rising under repeated tarring and building; in effect, the temples “sink” and water runoff thus accumulates, floods the area, and prevents people from using the Agiaries.)
Solar Is Light
I’ve posted quite a bit on my adventures with having solar panels installed. I highly recommend them to anyone and everyone. I was chuffed to hear they used Canadian Solar, the same company as I did. But India has “Made in India” requirements. No company makes solar panels in India, so it’s a bit of a workaround to keep installing high quality solar panels. I hadn’t realized there are scammers on the market who sell cheap panels and use low quality silica, which lead to low efficiency and short usable life, thus dissuading people from solar.
While we in Canada contend with snow blankets on our panels, they contend with heat. I know from my own experience that solar panels produce more power in cooler temperatures, below 25C. Bombay was 30C in March! However, even with our environmental challenges, like with here, solar there saves a ton of money for energy. Solar is cheaper than coal.
Solar energy doesn’t pollute the air.
Batteries and Green Roofs
Batteries there have a life of 5 years because of the heat and other factors. So while I’m hoping for a house battery that can withstand lower than -20, they need a battery that can live long in 30+ temps. Dr. Rashneh was bullish on battery innovation. As am I.
I asked about green roofs. People don’t want them because they use their terraces (roofs?) for parties. Good grief. Wouldn’t trees, bushes, and greenery make parties cooler, literally and psychologically? I’m also appalled that so many of Toronto’s skyscrapers don’t have green roofs and solar panels. I don’t know why we don’t.
Wrapping Up
I had heard some secular Western environmentalists talking about how the Climate Crisis will lead to our species extinction. It was a shock to hear the same from Dr. Rashneh. I’m not that pessimistic because I believe God’s plan to renew the world means that our species won’t go extinct. However, that doesn’t mean I believe our numbers won’t diminish. The third novel in my Resurrection trilogy is set in the far future with a Black-Death-like drop in the human population.