Phiroz Mehta

Phiroz Mehta
Phiroz Mehta outside his London home, Dilkusha
Born	Phirozshah Dorabji Mehta 1 October 1902 Cambay, Gujarat, India
Died	2 May 1994 (1994-05-03) (aged 91) London, England
Occupation	Pianist, Author, Lecturer
Nationality	British-Indian
Notable works	Early Indian Religious Thought, Zarathushtra: The Transcendental Vision, The Heart of Religion, Buddhahood
Website
www.phirozmehtatrust.org.uk

Phirozshah Dorabji Mehta (2 October 1902 – 2 May 1994) was an Indian writer, lecturer on religious topics and a pianist. His other academic interests included astronomy, poetry and philosophy.

Early life

Mehta was born to Parsi Zoroastrian parents in Cambay, Gujarat, India.

Education

After his schooling at Royal College, Colombo, he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge where he read Natural Sciences and History. The scholarship was not allowed due to his lack of a birth certificate. Despite being taken as far as the House of Lords, no grant was given. Private sponsorship was eventually secured and he was able to commence his studies. During his final year at Cambridge, he fell ill and was unable to complete his studies. Twenty-six years later, after studying intensively for only ten weeks, he took the finals exam in history and was awarded his master's degree.

Pianist

From 1924 until 1932 he studied the piano with the world-renowned pianist Solomon, giving recitals in India and Britain. Due to illness he was unable to follow his chosen career as a concert pianist and piano teacher. The conductor Zubin Mehta was one of his early piano pupils.

Philosophy

He now devised his own system of physical education to promote health and self-expression through rhythmic movement and breathing and taught this method for fifteen years. People as diverse as C.B. Fry, the England cricket captain, and Douglas Kennedy, president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, came to him for lessons.

From early childhood Phiroz Mehta had a burning interest in religion and philosophy and he was closely involved with the Theosophical Society for many years. At the age of 16 he was running the Colombo branch.

In 1956 his first major book, Early Indian Religious Thought, was published. It was not however until 1976, after extensive study, research and travel in India that he completed The Heart of Religion, a profound study of the essence common to all religious experience. During these years a frequent visitor to his south London home, Dilkusha, for advice on Eastern religions was Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics et alia. He subsequently published three more books, Zarathushtra (1985), Buddhahood (1988) and Holistic Consciousness (1989).

Through his knowledge of current scientific thinking and his lifelong study of major religions (notably Christianity, Buddhism, Zarathushtrianism, Hinduism, and Qabalah) together with life experience in both India and Great Britain, Phiroz Mehta not only bridged the fields of science and religion but also linked the cultural heritage of the East and the West.

During his lifetime he gave over three thousand lectures on religion and Indian culture to learned societies, university students, schools and conference centres in England, the Netherlands, Germany, India and at his London home, Dilkusha.

Phiroz Mehta always insisted that he was not to be regarded as a guru or as a leader of any movement but essentially as a fellow student. He regarded every person as being unique, discovering truth through his or her own way of life.

Bibliography

• Early Indian Religious Thought (1956)
• The Heart of Religion (1976)
• Zarathushtra: The Transcendental Vision (1985)
• Buddhahood (1988)
• Holistic Consciousness (1989)

Posthumous publications

• Insight into Individual Living (1995)
• The Oakroom Talks on Buddhism (1998)

External links

• Being Truly Human - The website of the Phiroz Mehta Trust - UK Registered Charity 328061