The Power of Will Power..

Hello there, I hope you are safe and doing well. Where was I all this while..??

Well, After that senti - motional write up for bhai on Rakhi, my mind was prepping me up for a physical feat.

Me and bhai have been wanting to do an Athai since so so many years. I will explain what it means first.

We Jains celebrate the King of festival called Parv Paryushan during chaturmas (rainy season) every year. We try to get rid of all our wrong doings and shed the load off our souls.

Giving up zamin kand (root vegetables), Mandir darshan, puja, vyakhyan (sermons from saints), bhakti, samayik, pratikaman, tap (fast) are different ways given to us by the Lord to free our souls from paap and fill our ghadas with punya.

The moderate jain that I am, I do not do all of it but I do visit the temple, give up rooted vegs and abstain from eating after sunset (for 2 months) and try to do as much tap as possible.

Jainisn gives the liberty to every jain to fast as per allowed by a person's body. We can abstain from eating at night, eat twice a day while drinking boiled water, eat once a day or give up food for the whole day and stay on boiled water. I am skipping the minor details of fasts here just to give an overview.

One day fast is called Upvas, 2 days - bela, 3 days - tela and so on. Athai is the fast for 8 days and one can go on for as long as the body permits.

Getting to the point, bhai accomplished his Athai goal 2 years back and I felt I missed it. While I did do a fast for 3 days continuously, twice, I could not continue post that. For some reason this year I was very positive on doing some tap.

So I was having visuals of me and hubby visiting temples, my parents blessing me, my mom in law being overjoyed, my family enjoying the religious atmosphere. But I did not know if any of it would be possible.

Paryushan started on 3rd September and I had decided to fast the previous night. So I got up in the morning and thought, ek upvas kar leti hoon, have cherith's classes and work is usual so I do not want to trouble anyone.

Day one was usual, day 2 mummy prepared for my Paarna (eating after fast) and left for vyakhyan. Aaj ek upvas kar leti hoon I thought. When she returned, she asked me not to continue since it will be difficult to manage home and fast simultaneously....

Day 3......

Come back read about it in the next one...

CHEERS! 

GOD BLESS!! 

CHS