Happy Mahavir Jayanti !

Happy Mahavir Jayanti Everyone.

Let's all know a little bit about Mahavir Jayanti, why it is one of the most important religious festival for Jains and how they celebrate this auspicious day?

As per the Hindi calendar, Mahavir Jayanti is celebrated every year on 13th day of the month of Chaitra, however, as per the English calendar, it is celebrated in the month of March or April (date and month varies every year)! This year the day is 29^th March 2018!  Mahavir Jayanti is also called as “Mahavir Janma Kalyanak” most important religious festival for Jains.  

According to Jain texts, Mahaveer was born on the thirteenth day of the bright half of the moon in the month of Chaitra in the year 599 BCE (Chaitra Sud 13). Mahaveer was born in a democratic kingdom (Ganarajya), Vajji, where the king was chosen by votes. Vaishali was its capital. Lord Vardhaman’s (Mahavir’s) expecting mother had 14 dreams. When astrologers interpreted these dreams, they predicted that the child would become either an emperor or Tirthankar, a person who achieves spiritual enlightenment. The prophecies of the astrologers came true and later he became the 24th Tirthankar.

Lord Mahavir was believed to be a proponent of non-violence, and preached love and respect of all kinds of living beings, from the tiniest micro-organisms to the largest multi-celled creatures. These values then translated into a religion that he found – Jainism

Celebrations on one of the most auspicious day for Jains vary between communities across the world. Usually, an idol of the founder of Jainism, Lord Mahavira, is carried on a chariot which is then taken on a procession popularly known as a Rath Yatra. The devotees chant a variety of religious rhymes or Bhajans in praise of Lord Mahavir and his contributions. The idol is then given a ceremonial bath or an Abhisheka. Since the day is considered to be special, people who belong to the community indulge in a number of charitable work in an attempt to give back to the society and do good. They also get together and visit temples that are dedicated to Lord Mahavir and conduct prayer meets. Monks or priests of the community also hold lectures so as to preach the path of virtue that defines Jainism. Many Sanghs across the world celebrates by playing dramas, performing stavans, giving lectures to the community from Lord Mahavir’s story to pass the Bhagavan Mahavir’s path which defined Jainism!

On this day, Let's understand few simple things Lord Mahavir has given us, An understanding of these things could be a life-changing experience and will definitely help us uplift our life with a true understanding of Soul. 

1. The most important principle of an environment is that you are not the only element
2. Live and allow others to live; hurt no one.
3. Anger begets more anger and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love
4. The soul is the central place of spiritual discipline.

One of the important thing that I learned recently after reading lots of material on Lord Mahavir's Karma theory is “How to get rid of Karma?”.

જીવન મા જે ઘટના બને, એનો પ઼તિભાવ મન મા ઉઠે, ત્યારે  એને  વય્કત કરતા પહેલા, એનુ નિરીક્સણ  કરી લેવુ તો આ સમજણ કમઁ નીરઁજળા માટે મદદરુપ થાય છે… !!

Before reacting to any incident in your life, if you first understand why it happen.. that would help get rid of Karma.. !!

Let's Pray for Peace and Harmony for all the humankind on this auspicious day Let your Spirit fill with Ahimsa and Truth

Happy Mahavir Jayanti !

Love,

LisAnk-Aarav

Pain is inevitable while suffering is optional !

There is no suffering if you can simply let go the Pain. Pain becomes immaterial in the absence of suffering!

Just learned this yesterday from my spiritual friends, “PriAm”. The knowledge and the positivity they have within is fabulous; they are a source of inspiration in many ways, you guys are awesome!! Learning many inspiration things from you both! Thank you for pumping this positivity and encouraging us to do more and more Purusharth to achieve our final “Goal”!!  I could not hold my thoughts from our last session and couldn’t stop myself writing this, “Pain is inevitable while suffering is optional”. What a profound statement!

To understand this, let me give you a very simple example from our regular life. Say, you’re running and suddenly you hit something on your way and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘HURT’ part is an unavoidable reality here, but the optional part is the ‘feeling’ of suffering. What we choose to feel from inside is in our control - whether we feel miserable & keep blaming (god, karma or the Nimit) or we accept it gracefully & move on!

The best example we could take to understand is from the story of Lord Mahavir (also known as Vardhamāna, the 24^th Tirthankara of Jainism)

While he was meditating in a forest, a cow herder came there with his cows. He wanted someone to look after the cows so he can go somewhere to finish something else he wanted to do. The cow herder asked Lord Mahavir to look after his cows for a few hours. Lord Mahavir was in deep meditation and did not reply to the cow herder. However, the cow herder went away thinking that Lord Mahavir had heard him.

In a few hours, the cow herder returned and found that his cows were missing. He asked Lord Mahavir, "Where are my cows? What did you do with them?" Lord Mahavir was still in meditation and did not reply. The cow herder got very angry at Lord Mahavir and he picked long nail like thorns and pierced the ears of Lord Mahavir deeply by hammering the thorns in. Even such excruciating agony did not move Mahavir from his meditation. Even bhagwan Mahavir calmly meditating while the pegs were removed. He was so deep into his meditation that he just let the pain go which was inevitable, this helped him to separate himself from a body and concentrate on the liberation of his immortal soul.

Pain could be in any form physical, mental etc.. The “Karma Theory” in Jainism tells that Pain is always inevitable and is not optional, one has to go through it. The thing one can control is the suffering! We should use our mind and the power of our soul with full of positivity such that we could let the pain go and control suffering for any situation!

Love,

LisAnk-Aarav