KOCHI: The construction of the new Jain temple at Panampilly Nagar has been completed. The Jin Bimba Vedi Pratishtha Mahotsav and Vishva Shanti Mahayagya will be held at G-256, Panampilly Nagar, from January 22 to 24. The programmes include a procession, aarti, pravachan, ghatyatra, nithya pooja archana, rathyatra and cultural programmes in the evening on all the three days. The programme is organised by Sakal Digambar Jain Samaj.
The temple is made of marble and the artisans from Rajasthan and Gujarat have given it an ethnic look. The painters have done Kishangarh style of painting on the pillars with elephant and kalash motives in soothing colours. The idols are from Jaipur.
Here’s throwing some light on Jainism. The message of the dharma is peace through renunciation, happiness through non-violence, progress through friendship and achievement through meditation. The Jains are followers of Jinas. Jina literally means ‘conqueror.’ He who has conquered love and hate, pleasure and pain, attachment and aversion and has thereby freed his soul from the karmas obscuring knowledge, perception of truth and ability, is a Jina. The teachings of the 24th Tirtankara Mahaveer
insist on practising
(i) Non-violence: Do not hurt any living being physically and verbally
(ii) Truth: Speak sweet and do not tell a lie
(iii) Achourya: Do not take what is not yours
(iv) Aparigrapha: Take only what you need and donate the rest and
(v) Brahmacharya: Have physical relationship only for the purpose of progeny.
Ahimsa is the foundation stone of Jainism, which also believes in eradicating the killing of animals. The principle ‘Live and let live’ sounds simple but is difficult to follow and practice. Every living being has a soul; each soul is divine and we should have regard every living being, be it a bird, insect or plant. Jainism also emphasises on moksha, the ultimate goal of life. It is the only faith that declares that man can attain paramatma status and lays emphasis on self-motivation and on the moral responsibility of individuals. The individual should attain
moksha by his own efforts.
Moksha can be attained by acquiring the triple sterling qualities of samyag darshana (right belief), samyag jnana (right knowledge) and samyag chaaritra (right conduct). Jains practice strict vegetarianism and do not consume vegetables such as potato, onion, garlic and carrot. Neither do they consume food which has been left overnight. Followers of the dharma eat before the night falls. They filter water regularly to remove any insects that may be present in it and boil the water prior to consumption as heated water is not a suitable base for micro organisms to develop immediately. Jain monks and nuns walk barefoot and sweep the ground in front of them to avoid killing insects or any other organisms.
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