Donate your Time

We usually have house helps to come at home to help with the dusting of the house and other basic household chores. This Paryushan Mahaparva, let us do something different for them. Whenever they come to your house for work, give them a quiet corner to do their Dharma Aradhana/religious practices. This will have 2 advantages.

Usually, when they come to your house, they don’t work keeping in mind the care and concern towards small micro-organisms and tiny living beings. Thought does not even cross them that they might be harming these tiny living beings in the process.

So, the first advantage of giving them time off and engaging in Dharma would be that you would be substituting work for them, thereby ensuring that no micro-organisms are being harmed while you dust the house and you will even save a few of them.

The second advantage is based on the idea of karma, ‘what you sow, so shall you reap’. In this case, if you give your house help time to engage in religious practices, then in the future you are also likely to get the time to observe religious practices yourself.

So, during the Payushan Parva 2021, donate and invest your time for a fruitful return of the same!

Paryushan Parv – the 8-day Jain Festival of Forgiveness is an occasion to eliminate the impurities that pollute the soul – such as anger, ego, greed, jealousy, deceit, attachment, hatred and much more. It is a period of emotional cleansing and becoming light and relaxed from within.

From a karmic perspective, it is said that during these 8 days, the magnetic frequencies in the entire universe are the highest. As a result, the soul vibrates the most and may even bind the karmas that determine his next birth. And therefore, Jains observe maximum sadhanas, spiritual practices, penance and fasting during these days to make the most of this auspicious period.

Param Gurudev Shree Namramuni Maharaj Saheb profoundly enlists a detailed list of Do’s and Don’ts of what should be done and what we should refrain from doing during these divine days of Paryushan. During these Paryushan days, Jains make an effort to realize, repent and seek forgiveness for mistakes made during the entire year by performing Pratikraman, Alochana fasting, taking small Pachkhan vows, etc. The last day of Paryushan, known as Samvatsari, is the day when everyone performs the annual practice of Samvatsari Pratikraman and says sorry or ‘Michhami Dukadam’ to every living of the universe for having hurt them knowingly or unknowingly through their mind, body and speech.