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NOVEMBER 2016
PRABUDDH JEEVAN
A PALAVER WITH YOU!!
Prachi Dhanwant Shah
Our mind is a so-called question bank. Questions arise before we crave to get the answer for it. Why this, and why that? I'm sure you will agree with me that these questions are not just restrained to children but for an adult common person as well. This is, of course, my perception and visualization. Talking about myself, I have always loaded my parents with questions. Maybe that was my ignorant self. I would like to share my heart talk today about one of the questions that came up to my mind once. And moreover, I was enforced to share this question of mine because the same question was asked by my son recently. And it is said, history repeats... as a parent, I tried to explain my best to him the same way I was explained by my parents once.
When I was a child, I use to see my naani rushing every day to temple to do Pooja, she would do 'N" number of Samayak's every day, every Tithi, she would fast or do ekasana, during the days of Ayembel, she would do Oli, and similarly, she followed many rituals of Jainism. At that time, I use to wonder if all these rituals are equally important? What happens if you follow these rituals? And many more of such questions wrestled within me. At some point, I was also inquisitive to go to my naani upfront and ask her, "Naani, all these fasts and rituals that you are doing do you think it is going to give you something? Is it so important to you in life?" But then my cognizant mind adhered me to seal my thoughts and questions. It could not have been appropriate for me to go and ask such candid question upfront to her. I ignored this question and let it go for few days. But then it started bothering me and finally one fine day, I went to my father and asked about it. My father just stated one thing, and that "these are all the conducts of right Dharma". These code of conducts forms a cosmic path that guides the soul through reincarnation and towards the goal of enlightenment. Dharma is a withdrawal of world and work towards our soul.
I got my answer to some extent but I was not fully justified. I counter asked my father that doing this kind of conduct to follow dharma can also be interpreted as selfish motives and one does this to guide just their own soul. What about their duty towards others? Why just work towards your own soul and not do anything for others? Isn't doing sevai.e serving others is the right form of Dharma? To this he said, Dharma is incomplete
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without seva but at the same time, when seva is done without understanding right Dharma and is not pure then it insignificant. To instigate precise genre of Seva, one needs to purify their soul from any selfish motives and comprehend the veracious connotation of Dharma.
What I understand today is, in life, there is no good Karma without Dharma and there is no Dharma without good Karma. Both go hand in hand and are interlocked with each other.. When one performs his/her/its karma in accordance with Dhrama, peace and prosperity are for sure ensured.
Every religion is a cluster of Philosophy, Conduct, and Rituals. Similarly, Jainism holds its own Philosophy, which allows us to implement good karma in life and follow the right path to achieve an enigma of good acharan (conduct). These conducts can be implemented by means of certain rituals. And hence, religious philosophy cannot last unless it has the sustenance of conduct.
As and when I tried to learn more on Jainism, I realized that these rituals are not senseless and meaningless. Every ritual has its own meaning behind it and to put it in right words, in today's era, these reasonings behind each ritual is moreover scientific and very much justified. These rituals assist us to live a healthy life not only physically but spiritually as well. Vows of Jainism such as non-violence, forbearance, simplicity, aparigraha, etc are moreover cherished by means of rituals and vratas. Besides penance is not the ultimate path. For a common man, following basic vows of Jainism can also lead oneself to enlightenment and relish the paradox of right conduct. Even if we follow the first and foremost vow of Jainism in our day to day life, which is Non-violence, we would serve the purpose of being Jain to a great extent. If you wish to achieve enigma of good conduct, then first you need to fill your soul with love towards others. We need to see others with the vision of respect, vision of appreciation, and with the vision of pure love. My father always said "love yourself, love others and love the world. Love is the solemn way to Moksha". And if you want to be loving you need to be happy first. If you understand your Dharma in the right form, effortlessly your soul will be happy. If you are happy, your vision will be pure. And if your vision is pure, it will naturally expel pure words, which indubitably depict pure action- pure KARMA.
