devotees of jainism observe an annual ritual of fifteen days called 'paryushan parva' culminating in 'kshama parva' when they confess to their mistakes during the year and ask all their family,friends and partners in trade for forgiveness. on august 24 they sought kshama(pardon) from one another. during these fifteen days,they live a life of purity and simplicity. between noon and 1pm they take a meal and live on that till the next day. a day after 'kshama parva' they live throughout the day on boiled water only.i have a jain business friend who sent me an sms on 'kshama parva' day seeking my forgiveness for whatever faults he might have committted during the year in his dealings with me.he ended with the words "micchami dukkhadam"(please forgive me for all the mistakes committed).i was quite surprised at the humility of my friend.
sometimes some people carry this noble practice to excess. a two and half year old jain boy inspired by his elder sister did 'paryushan' for the first time.it lasted 40 hours.he lived during this period only on boiled water.his father,a diamond merchant was proud and happy about what his son had done.this family has been doing 'paryushan' for the last 26 years.it is an old jain ritual and started some 1000 years ago.jains believe that fasting purifies the soul,kills greed and allows one to attain spirituality.
fasting and forgiveness are great virtues and almsot all religions have this practice in different variants. in the yajur veda there is a mantra which seeks the forgiveness of the supreme lord for all the sins committed in thought word or deed so that the body and self of the seeker become pure and that one can realise oneself as the light divine.
"to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you".
5 comments:
hey GS was wonderful meeting up with you....I've always thought the tennets Jainism made a lot of sense and maybe I do follow some of the ideologies...but the fasting thing...not really sure!
hi avv
i enjoyed meting you and your family.all the nagpurwaale! your hubby is a nice guy and your son k very bright and talented.thanks for having me over.
fasting is a great medicine.(langanam paramaushadam).the muslims and jains do it in a very disciplined way. we are pretty casual about it.both of us can do with a little fasting:-)
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mama even i had a jain friend during my school days who said something about this but it was not clear to me.Now i can understand about Paryushan..Fasting is quite difficult but everything is in our mind and heart to follow good principles in life.
I have a great respect about the fasting as per Jainism. But recently, I met 2 Jain familes while holidaying in Kerala. They were very particular about their food habits and sometimes it was becoming too much, when they insisted to have it aling with other fellow guests in Club Mahindra resorts.
Mangesh Nabar
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