Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/159

prays for! And what decent man will not be shocked at this miserable travesty? If devotional services are a necessary institution for the people, let them be so; but why this public exhibition which exposes the community to the ridicule of all others? What presumption that a man should ask Deity to think of him, and him exclusively! The presumption becomes simply unpardonable when the supplicant descends to details such as asking God to get him good interest for his money, to provide his son with a suitable berth, and his daughter with an eligible husband! God is asked to be a match-maker and a broker; he is requested to be engrossed with the supplicant's affairs altogether, as if the Creator and Upholder of the vast and magnificent universe had nothing better to do than to devote His time to the affairs of an infinitesimal and insignificant worm-like man! The fact is the average orthodox Parsi has mistaken the scope and spirit of genuine devotion till he has drifted into a callous, selfish, presumptuous creature, unworthy of the name of Zoroastrian. And this is entirely owing to the mystery in which a crafty priesthood has hitherto shrouded his scriptures.