From today begins 10 days of our prayers which are dedicated to our dear departed ones in Zoroastrian religion. These 10 days hold a very high spiritual significance for us where most of our time is spent in prayers which are done at different times of the day. On the 11th day is the New Year that we celebrate.
These 10 days are called the period of Muktad, during this time at our fire temples we reserve a table on which a silver vase filled with flowers are kept and the priest will do the prayers which will be attended by the relatives. It is believed that during these 10 days these souls who have passed away come to Earth and visit their loved ones. These souls reside in the water of the flower vase. Every day the family members will visit the fire temple for prayers with flowers. In the prayer ceremonies there will be some food and fruits kept which then will be consumed by the family members.
The word Muktad comes from the sankrit word Mukt Atma, which means free soul. It is believed that during these 10 days all souls for who the prayers are held will come down irrespective of their Karmas and these prayers will help elevate their after life journey. Hence when someone passes away in my religion, it is considered to be very important for the family members to do these prayers for the 10 days. It is also believed that one can do it for a minimum of 5 years from the time the person dies, because till such time the soul gets the power it needs to elevate. After that it is an individual choice. I did these prayers for my father for 10 years and after that a part of it which I have been continuing now being 24 years. I have been doing it for my mother in law for 8 years and this year we also have to do it for my sister-in-law who passed away 2 months back.
The scene in the fire temple during these days is very spiritually uplifting. Mostly people wear white clothes and the whole room is filled with table of flower vases, there are prayer chanting which fills up the room and you can see every single person present there in devotion. It feels like a different world altogether. It feels like we are in a paradise with angels all around.
This is the picture of one of our Fire Temple in Iran, here in India we cannot click pictures inside the Fire Temple, but in Iran we can and the Fire Temple is open for everyone to visit.
That's how the fire keeps burning in all the Fire Temples 24x7, there are priests who time to time keep attending to the fire.
During these 10 days of prayers there are no restrictions as such but majorly we spend time in silence and meditation.
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