External Event - Phiroz Mehta: A Zoroastrian Philosopher of Religion in South London

17 May 2022

Phiroz Mehta: A Zoroastrian Teacher of Indian Philosophy of Religion in 1970s-80s Britain

Talk by Dr. Karen O'Brien-Kop , University of Roehampton

5:30-7:00pm, Thursday 9th June 2022

Chapman Hall, Southlands College, Roehampton Lane, University of Roehampton, London, SW15 5SL

Free to attend, with discussion and reception

This talk shares the results of a research project that has excavated the history of how an Indian Zoroastrian scientist and classical musician came to be the leader of a spiritual community in South London in the 1970s and 1980s. Phiroz Mehta, was a self-taught philosopher of religion who became the revered core figure of a universal religion and philosophy centred on concepts of existential freedom. Less well known than his contemporary and associate Jiddu Krishnamurti, Mehta nonetheless cultivated a significant following over some 25 years and influenced an early generation of yoga and meditation teachers and practitioners in the UK, as well as international New Age figures such as Fritjof Capra, author of the best-selling popular book The Tao of Physics . This paper will share ethnographic insights from a range of interviews with original members of this community as well as details of annotations preserved in Mehta’s scholarly library. His teachings centred on freedom in several ways: by focussing on the soteriologies of liberation in Indian religions, but also in the way that he combined teachings from Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism with Christianity, Judaism (specifically Kabbalah) and Daoism. He offered his tutees the freedom to practice philosophy and religion in whatever way they wished by drawing on a broad range of traditions concurrently. This talk hopes to raise further awareness about the unknown history of this compelling figure and his contribution to the cultural transmission of Indian concepts of spirituality to Britain.