Annual
activities
Jain festivals like ‘Ashtaanhikaa Parva (Festival)’, ‘Das Lakshan Dharma Parva’ etc. are the festivals of austerity, continence and worship of pure soul (Siddha and/or Shuddhatma). Jain festival are also called great festivals as these festivals teaches us how to conqueror senses (Indriya), passions (Kashaya) and desires (Ichchhaa). Jinendra Bhagwan has already conquered these vices and achieved a wonderful state of perfect faith, perfect wisdom, complete selflessness and eternal bliss. These festivals worship and praises Jinendra Bhagwan and his right followers (Parmesthi) for this remarkable triumph. Jain festivals are not of materialistic enjoyment or amusement. Materialistic enjoyment needs always foster worldly miseries (Moh-Raag-Dwesh) and bondage (Karma) for all times to come.
A. ETERNAL FESTIVAL
The permanent (eternal) festivals are related to spiritual thoughts and are neither related to any person nor to any specific event. These festivals are celebrated eternally as there is no beginning or end of Jain philosophy. The great festival of ten virtues, i.e. ‘Das Lakshan Maha Parva’, is one such eternal festival. It is related to soul’s natural traits (qualities) of supreme forbearance and so on; which emerges in soul as a consequence of the termination of impure (contrary) modes like anger etc. Another such festival ‘Ashtaanhikaa Parva’ in which eternal statues of Jinendra Bhagwan is worshipped in Nandiswar Dweep.
Following are the list of more eternal festivals:
B. PERIODIC FESTIVAL
The periodic festival are related to a particular person and/or to a particular event. These festivals are time span specific and changes as time cycle continues.
The temporary festivals are of two kinds:
• THOSE RELATED WITH A PARTICULAR PERSON
The festivals of ‘Deepawali’, ‘Mahaveer Jayanti’, ’24 Tirthankar Bhagwan’s Kalyanaks’ are the festivals that are related to persons. ‘Deepawali’ and ‘Mahaveer Jayanti’ are, respectively, related to Mahaveer’s salvation and birth. ‘24 Tirthankar Bhagwan’s Kalyanaks’ are related to 5 pious events in the lives of present time cycle Tirthankar Bhagwan.
Following is a representative list of festivals that has relevance with some particular persons:
• THOSE RELATED SOME SPECIFIC EVENT
The festivals of ‘Akshaya Tritiya’, ‘Shrut Panchami’, ‘Rakshaa Bandhan’ etc. are classified as the festivals, which are related to specific famous sacred events. These festivals are related events that glorified the importance of Dev-Shastra-Guru.
Following is a representative list of festivals that has relevance with some particular event:
