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Personal Profiles representatives of eastern and western spiritual traditions, and is today recognized as the birth of formal inter-religious dialogue worldwide.The dialogue formalized in 1988, when Rohinton and monks from the Vivekenanda Society suggested organizing a celebration around the centennial, resulting in the eventual formation of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Rohinton envisions more Zarathushti participation, but not without coordinated efforts at the interfaith leadership level to foster a broader dialogue aimed at understanding the dynamics and competing forces within each religion. These forces, he says, tend to stovepipe and marginalize interfaith affairs, rather than prioritize them.
Rohinton jumped in at traditional Rohinton pace, putting together a formal constitution for the Council. He recalls:
“We need to persuade people and religions to generate peace among themselves,” he said.
“Seven of us met – I took the ZAC (Chicago) constitution and prepared the charter accordingly. Swami Sarveshananda pulled more people together, and as folks became interested, things got moving,” Rohinton said. The Parliament did not have a focus as such but I started seeing the value and potential behind our work. We felt our mission was broader than just celebrating the centennial.” He would go on to recruit, organize and lead the Zarathushti delegation at the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Through the years, the world’s leading spiritual voices have spoken at Parliament events, including His Holiness Dalai Lama (Chicago, 1993) and Nelson Mandela (Cape Town, 1999). This year, the Parliament will convene Dec. 3 – 9, in Melbourne, Australia, and is expected to draw approximately 10,000 people. The culturally-vibrant Melboune and Victoria are home to indigenous and aboriginal spiritualities, as well as a breadth of religious and spiritual diversity, including: Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian faiths. As a bridge builder, Rohinton has always concentrated on generating dialogue, participation, involvement and alliances, believing in the power of dedicated individuals working together to bring about the change needed to advance shared causes. “Our community does not externalize - we are centered among ourselves. We need to step out a little bit and look at the world outside, where you’ll find Christian churches are very much into the North American scene,” he said. “Resources don’t always have to be monetary, they can be human resources, but as a community we don’t feel compelled to provide services outside the community. Christians do it as part of their scripture and training, we have to transform and externalize more.”
FEZANA JOURNAL –Winter 2009
With a large North American churchgoing population, Rohinton says religion can be a very positive force for transformation to take place, although he was equally strident in citing the potential of religion to be used in a negative manner. “The positive force of religion can transform people’s thinking, but people do not understand that value within our Zarathushti community,” he said. “We cannot feel we are superior to anyone else, and sadly many Zarathushtis feel this way. Everyone loves their faith and feels their religion is best, but if we continue on that path then we end up declaring war on each other.” Rohinton’s remedy for a brighter, more cooperative world: generating peace within the religions through the personal transformation of its followers. “We need to transform within ourselves, finding ways to create understanding and be respectful of one another within our own communities”, Rohinton added. “How we generate such respect is the question. How can we be more respectful of each other? These are the kinds of things we need to be doing in the future in order to create our own internal peace.” Through each endeavor, Rohinton has been supported by his wife of 43 years, Roshan, their three children: Zenobia, Jamshed, and Cyrus, and five adorable grandchildren to constantly keep them on their toes. Jim Engineer is an independent public relations consultant and a director of NextGenNow (www.nextgennow.org). For more than 20 years, he has donated his time and talent to the North American Zarathushti community, serving twice as FEZANA’s Public Relations Chair, starting and perpetuating the Youthfully Speaking section, of FEZANA Journal, co-founding ZYNA, and representing Zarathushti youth at the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions. 75