Samvatsari

Well, thank you for staying tuned. Today.... is Samvatsari, the most important of the Jain festivals. Samvatsari is celebrated by all jains alike (How? will tell later in this post) and is the last day of the 8 days of 'Paryushan', the most holy & sacred days of the year.

Paryusahan are the days to introspect, to talk to your soul.
हम पर्युशन के दिनों में तपस्या करते हैं, सामायिक करते हैं। इतना धर्म कमाने और पाप कर्म काटने कि कोशिश करते हैं, जितना सम्पूर्ण वर्ष में नहीं किया. तपस्या? जैसे एकासना, आयाम्बिल, दिन शिपने से पहले भोजन करना, उपवास, बेला, तेला, चोला, पंचोला, अठाई, etc.
एकासना: पुरे दिन में एक बार एक आसान पर बैठके खाना।
उपवास: व्रत, पूरे दिन में केवल उबला हुआ पानी (दिन शिपने से पहले ही) ही लेना।
बेला: दो दिनों का व्रत
तेला: तीन दिनों का व्रत
चोला, पंचोला, अठाई: ४, ५, ८ दिनों का व्रत (4, 5, 8 respectively)
यही नहीं बहुत और तरीक़े भी हैं तपस्या के, एक साधू ने तो १२ महीनो का व्रत किया था...! प्रतिदिन प्रतिक्रमण किया जाता है (गुरुं को नमस्कार और सभी जीवों से भी ग़लती के लिए माफ़ी माँगना)।

Samvatsari, the most sacred day of the year, is just the icing on the cake.

One of the most happening things about Samvatsari is that we ask for forgiveness for our mistakes, whether intended or done by mistake, from whom? Well, from practically everyone, everyone you know, everyone you don't know, anyone you have met till now, , every animal, every organism on this earth and beyond... any organism in the whole universe. Well, we left out on the fourth dimension. Anyone you ever seen or met even in your previous incarnations. It is a very good time to make up with anyone you have not been in good relations with. Forgiveness is one thing which can make any happy man cry and any poignant man smile. Asking for forgiveness: the key phrase is "खमत खामना" (khamatkhamana). Some also call it "खिमत खामना"

अगर मैंने इस जन्म में, पूर्व जन्मों में किसी भी जीव, देवता या किसी भी आत्मा को जानते अजानते दुःख पहुंचाया हो, तो मैं माफ़ी माँगता हूँ। खमत खामना

Finally, I ask for forgiveness from my readers of any mistake I ever made which hurt or did not hurt you. Happy Samvatsari.
सामायिक क्या है? कुछ इंतज़ार करें।

महावीर जयंती / Mahavir Jayanti

Well, today's Mahavir Jayanti, the big day!!; the birth anniversary of the greatest man to ever walk the earth (well, atleast in this avasarpani kaal), i.e. Mahavir Swami (महावीर स्वामी). Today, I want to tell my readers about this great man or better this great soul.
He was to be born to Rishabhdatt (ऋषभदत्त ब्राह्मण) and Devananda (देवानंदा ब्राह्मणी), i.e. he came into her womb. But they were very poor and due to convention, all to-be tirthankaras (तिर्थंकर) are born in very rich families. So, the god indra (इंद्र) exchanged the souls in the wombs of Devananda and the queen Trishla (त्रिशला). Thus, he was born to the king Siddhartha (सिद्धार्थ) and the queen trishla (त्रिशला). He was originally named 'vardhmaan' (वर्द्धमान) due to the profit in trade and other aspects in the kingdom of Vaishali (वैशाली) on his birth. He was born in Kundalapur (कुन्दलपुर).
He was very brave, even in his childhood, very characteristic of a tirthankar. Once while playing with his friends, they saw a snake which was drawing near them. Everyone began to ran away in fear save one, yes, mahavir swami. And due to this act of bravery by him, he was named 'Vir' (वीर). And due to his more such acts, he was eventually named 'Mahavir' (महावीर). He had an elder brother 'Nandivardhan' (नन्दीवर्धन) and a younger sister 'Sudarshana' (सुदर्शना). He was married to Yashoda (यशोदा) and had a daughter 'Priyadarshana' (प्रियदर्शना). Priyadarshana was eventually married to Jamaali (जमाली).
He wanted to take diksha at the age of 28, when his parents died. [This amounts to me telling you another anecdote. When he was in the womb of Trishla, he delibrately stopped moving so as to reduce the pain mother Trishla was feeling due to his movement. But when movement stopped, she even grew more troubled and worried. And then, Mahavir prabhu started his movements again, such was his greatness!!. And then, he vowed that he won't take diksha until his parents die, so that they do not feel pained.] But his brother nandivardhan stopped him, saying that he should atleast stay 2 years more with him. So, mahavir swami took diksha at the age of 30.
He got niravana (moksha ->मोक्ष) at the age of 72. Do you know, he gave deshna (i.e. व्याख्यान) for consecutively 3 days before getting nirvana.
Dont despair, more will be posted on this great soul in due time.

Points to Ponder

Logass ka paath

I begin by welcoming my readers. Today I am going to tell you about logass ka paath. It is a beautiful paath whose enchanting gives you all you want.

Basically, its vitality lies in the fact that it worships all the twenty-four tirthankaras, and gives you all the blessings of the world. Its nicety lies in its meaning, truly respectable.

It is a prayer to the 24 Jinas (Tirthankars) and the Siddhas. The language of the sutra is Prakrit

Well, here is it...

Here is the meaning:

Who have enlightened the world,
have established the dharma-thirtha,
I praise the Arihantas
the twenty four kevalis.

I worship Rushabha and Ajita,
Sambhava, Abhinanda and Sumati,
Padmaprabha, Suparshva,
I worship the Chandraprabha Jina.

Suvidhi or pushpadanta,
Shitala, Shreyansa and Vasapujya,
Vimala and Ananta Jina,
I worship Dharma and Shanti.

Kunthu, Ara and Malli,
I worship Muni-Suvrata and Nami Jina,
I worship Arishtanemi,
Parshva and Vardhman.

These who I praise,
without the dirt of Karma, beyond old age and death,
the 24 Jinas,
may Tirthankaras bless me.

Those who I praise and worship,
noble Siddhas in the world,
freedom from disease, possession of wisdoms
give me the noble blessing of Samadhi.

Cleaner than the moons
Brighter than the Suns,
deeper than ocean,
the Siddhas may bless me with Siddhi.

This is a very ancient prayer। And it is bound to change your life for ever for good. Believe me, just one read in a day keeps all evil and harm away. So, hereby, I appeal and request whole-heartedly to incorporate reading of this paath as an essential part of your routine, and notice the change in your life. For any qualms, you can comment on this post. Thank you for your time, my beloved readers.

Listen to Logass ka paath

ONE SHORT EYE-OPENER

Today, I got to know about this short interesting example to illustrate our conditions.

Picture a blind man in a very large room. The room has just one small door. The blind man wants to get out of the room but doesn't know where is the door. After much futile labour, he devised a plan. He went near the wall and put a hand on the wall. He thought that he would move along the wall and get to the door finally, whether it be after a long time. He walked. An hour passed by but didn't reach the door yet (the room is so large). And then when he was just about to reach the door, his knee began to itch so painfully that he had to remove his hand from the wall and rub his knee with both his hands very vigorously. He passed by the door but didn't get to know about it. And then he put his hand on the wall...
Don't you feel magananimous or pathetic about that poor blind man? Well, first think about yourself.

The blind man is our soul, and the laaaaaarge room is this damn vast universe, where our soul resides, and roams continuously searching for that one Door.......moksha, yes, moksha.

It is highly unlikely that a soul (after the end of its one life) is reborn in manushya gati. Statistically, the probability approaches zero. And then, even if one gets this gati, it is far more unlikely that one gets 'dharma'. Do you know that in some parts of the world, there are people who eat other people. The actually devour babies and even children. You might be knowing about the Chinese who eat anything, absolutely anything. Why? because of the simple reason that there is absence of 'dharma', i.e. enlightenment or true awareness of what's right and what's wrong, about where we have come from and where do we have to go.
So consider yourself very lucky that you are a human, and yet a few times luckier that you are reading this, and knowing what dharma is.

Moksha is not a particular place where we have to go, rather it is a state of our soul, a permanent one. As our bondage with this strange world lessens, our soul moves towards moksha, its ultimate destination or better its ultimate state.

Ahimsa

Ahimsa is non-violence. It is the feeling that harming others is harmng oneself. It is the sense that others, be they animals or microbes, have as much right to live on this earth as ourselves. Ahimsa is to 'Live and Let live'. Ahimsa is one of the five basic principles of Jainism. One who practises ahimsa truly lowers his burden of 'karmas' and improves his/her fortune of getting a good form of life in future.
Ahimsa has many meanings, not just not killing or harming others, but many. First of all, if you are a non-vegetarian, you cannot be practising ahimsa. Non-veg itself comes from killing animals. Ahimsa means that you don't have to do any such work which directly or indirectly is causing killing of innocent living organisms. Ahimsa tells you to feel for others. It is to not harm others yourself and stop others from doing it.
Here are some examples which are not related with 'hinsa' at all, but are. Wearing leather belts or shoes or using leather in any form is hinsa, YOU are liable for the animals killed for the leather with which those were made. And if it is that damn necessary (e.g. for wallets), use resin instead, i.e. things made of resin, they work the same. Now, wearing silk is yet another form of hinsa. Why? Because, just to make 1 m of silk, about 500 silkworms are boiled to death. It is most barbarous of acts to kill so many organisms for just style when you have alternatives as synthetic silk, or cotton, or many more. Now, as already mentioned in my previous posts, even thinking about killing other organisms is hinsa. Buying a chewing gum, even if you dont eat it is hinsa since it contains gelatin, obtaining which involves killing. You know, even seeing violence in movies and serials involves hinsa, since somewhere in your mind, while the hero is killing the villain, there exists a feeling "go kill him" and here the hinsa comes in. And then, these are the examples of hinsa which are unavoidable. When you walk, you kill the 'sthavar' organisms below your feet in the floor. When you speak, the microbes in the air in front of your mouth are killed. (this can be avoided by keeping your hand in front of your mouth or 'mukhpatti' while speaking as you would have seen the jain sadhus, but isnt practical for us). When you eat, you are being the cause of killing as cooking the food kills the microbes in the food. And even when you excrete or urinate, it involves hinsa. You switch on the light in your room or use any electrical appliance, you are doing hinsa as electricity kills 'jeevs'. There are many more.
Now, recall; Recall everything you do in routine. There are numerous incidents or works done by us which causes hinsa. But many of them are impractical to prevent. SO, I appeal to all of you to atleast abandon those reasons of hinsa which can be left, to clean your soul from all sins. eg. try not to eat non-veg and avoid leather shoes.
You might know ahimsa as one of the basic principles of Gandhi, but do you know where he got it from, our 24th tirthankara 'mahavira'. His thinking were radically affected by the teachings of 'mahavira'. If you are a pure ahinsak, ahimsa alone can lay your path to moksha.

The five 'species'

Today, I want to tell you about the classification of all living beings, including humans, into five species ('jaati'). Without delay, these are the 5 species:

Here are the details:

1. ekendriya: These are the organisms with only one sense. eg many microbes
2. dvindriya: 2 senses
3. trindriya: 3 senses
4. chaturindriya: 4 senses
5. panchendriya: 5 senses, eg humans, dogs, crow, etc.

The significance of the classification can be illustrated with this example: The classification tells us the comparative 'importance' of the living organisms, i.e. the ekendriya organisms are underpriviledged to the dvindriya and so on... Now, suppose, by mistake you killed a trindriya organism, so you get less 'karmas' tied with your soul as compared to when you kill a chaturindriya organism. Note, a soul can shift its mortal body from ekendriya to panchendriya, even, through good deeds. If even an animal thinks good or does good, (has enough good deeds), he can even become a human being in his upcoming births. And we, the humans, if do evil deeds, can even go to the ekendriyta jaati.

Here's a real story: There was a jungle. Once there was a forest fire in the jungle. All the animals ran and gathered in a small piece of ground, where fire was ineffective. There was an elephant among those. He suddenly felt some itching and to relieve it, lifted one f his legs, and history has it, that a small rabbit came running into the smaller piece of land where the elephant had his leg. Then, as the elephant began keeping his leg back on ground, he saw the rabbit, and so high feelings of magnamity aroused in him, that he kept his leg lifted, though it was very difficult. But he did not even think about killing the rabbit. Months passed by... After the fire was extinguished due to the rains, every animal ran back away into the jungle. The elephant began keeping his leg on the ground, and damn, couldnt move it. He fell, and died there, and then, was reborn in heaven.
So you see?
I once again request my readers to keep 'samta'.