India is country that has always been known for the celebrating a lot of festivals. Saying would not wrong that there is a long list of festivals and hardly there would be any month without a festival. Mahavir Jayanti is one of the celebrated on a large scale. It holds incredible value with itself and incredibly known on a large scale. Today, we are going to cover this festival. Do you wish to know more about it? Let’s know more about in the Significance of Mahavir Jayanti Celebrations.
The Significance of Mahavir Jayanti Celebrations | Why We Celebrate Mahavir Jayanti
Mahavir Jayanti is the most significant day, especially for Jains that is celebrated in a most religious manner. This festival is celebrated on March 29th, 2018 all over the world. A procession is called with the idol of Lord Mahavira called the Rath Yatra.
Based on the Hindu calendar the festival arrives on the 13th day of the month Chaitra and according to the English calendar it may vary between March to April. The other names for Mahavir Jayanti include the birth anniversary of Lord Mahavir and the Mahaveer Janma Kalyanak.
What About Lord Mahavira
Lord Mahavira also was known as Vardhamana was born in the early parts of 6th century BC in the place called Vaishali. The birth of Lord Mahavira is considered as a divine experience of getting intimate with God. Because it is said that Mahavira was conceived by Devananda, who is the wife of Brahmin Rishabhdeva where the God himself who gave birth to Mahavira by transferring the embryo to Trisala.
It was already known to her that she is going to give birth to the child who is going to change the world with his preachings. He ruled his kingdom for about 30 years, after which he decided to move on the religious way. With the spiritual, divine, he became the follower of nonviolence and peace and also equally treats every living creature. That is what he also implemented on Jain religion and is worshiped as the founder of peace and unity.
Celebrating Mahavir Jayanti
Do you know that how Mahavir Jayanti is celebrated? Here, we are going to mention all these points in a great way. Let’s check it out.
How to celebrate Mahavir Jayanti
- Mahavir Jayanti is celebrated all over the world and is varied depending on the community and religious practices. The traditional ritual of carrying the idol of Lord Mahavira on a chariot is the most auspicious thing. As already said the procession is named as Rath Yatra. Every year a number of people do take participate in this. According to the devotees, it makes them feel great to be get part of activities associate to this festival. And we do wait all across the year to celebrate this festival with much love and excitements.
- Throughout the procession, the devotees start singing different religious rhymes and often do Bajanas. Such a wonderful and peace-giving experience of watching the Rath Yatra moving all over the city spreading positivity to each and every person. The yatra is a massive move of divine processions where one can find elephants, horses, and drums that have become part of it. This can be said that is an incredibly amazing festival to celebrate. And every year, it gives so many memories to the devotees.
- During the celebrations, the life of history of Mahavira is often praised to make people know about his contributions. Considering it as one of the most special days the people belonging to the community often involve themselves in charity and other activities like donating food, clothes and other necessities. It means this festival also become a good-social-cause. People do come forward and spread happiness.
- This is something that implies that the devotees give in back to Lord Mahavira. Some of the organizations also take part in offering free food and drinks for the duties and public as well. The Jain temples all over the world shine like stars let the world know about the significance of Lord Mahavir Jayanti. Gone are the days when a festival used to be restricted to any particular region. Now it is spreading and celebrating all around the world. And Mahavir Jayanti is getting the same exposure.
- On this day, devotees do worship and contribute to the society. It means this also goes in good ways and quite helpful towards the society. The fact is that people are celebrating it and it goes on a large scale.
- Moreover, the people visit Jain temples and offer prayers along with specially dedicated offerings. On this special occasion monks and priests belonging to this community gather at the temples to teach the mind voice of the Lord. Unlike any other festivals, Mahavir Jayanti is also celebrated withdrawal and food also play an essential role. T
- Most of the Jains and follow a special diet known as “satvik” where they have to completely avoid intake of food that contains onion and garlic as well. Apart from this their intention is to kindly consume natural food that does not cause any harm to even a microorganism or any other living creature.
The significance of Mahavir Jayanti
Well, people belonging to Jain community often know the significance of celebrating Mahavir Jayanti. How to understand the significance of the celebrations there is a huge necessity to know about the greatness of the Lord Mahavira. He was the son of King Siddhartha and Queen Trisala who is member associated with earthly belongings and is completely different in thinking and implementing things.
This is the only reason why he is well known as a preacher rather than a king. From his childhood, he started following and propagating Jainism by following the footsteps of Teerthankara Parshvanatha. With the positive attitude, he always thought of spreading a good message to the world. Seeing his contribution towards the religion and people, many started following his way.
The huge response made in to motivate people in all possible ways and then came into existence the five-fold path. He always considers that people should always follow the five-for/old path named as ‘Ahimsa‘, ‘Asteya‘, ‘Brahmacharya‘, ‘Satya‘ and ‘Aparigraha‘. It is too good to be true that every person who belongs to Jainism often vows to themselves to strictly follow the path. Lord Mahavira is not the only preacher, but he also made his preachings come into life by connecting them to nature.
This made him reveal the true meaning of life and the devotees also gained lots of religious knowledge from him. Even today his followers always motivate people to understand the meaning of life and the main reason for the existence of the true God. Of course, the festival is celebrated for one day, but it gives the immense pleasure of experiencing the joy of worshiping the Lord for the complete year.
Commonly Celebrated
The festival is celebrated especially in places like Gujarat and Rajasthan. They considered Lord Mahavira was the divine God and there is the maximum number of Jain temples and shrines situated all over the state. All the different countries, India is said to occupy special acquisition by celebrating the biggest fair of Lord Mahavira Jayanti.
As Vaishali, in Bihar, is the birthplace of Mahavira so it has lots of importance and the significance of the Jayanti is also spread all over Bihar. In the temple, the auspicious ritual called ‘Abhishka’ is performed where the idol of Lord Mahavira is offered a bath with milk, honey, and water. On this day, temples are decorated in the way so you would Then start the actual Puja by offering different prayers to the Lord.
The festivals always come up with a lot of enjoyment, happiness, and great feelings. This is next on the list and you should not refrain to celebrate it. This is the best thing about the festivals that they are made only for spreading the love. If you do celebrate it then do not forget to wish your colleagues, friends, and festivals.
So, what are you waiting for? This is high to time get indulged with Mahavir Jayanti celebration if you have never celebrated it earlier. This is seriously great to enjoy this festival and it brings immense pleasure and happiness to you. You will seriously love it.
JiyoPalPal team wishes you a very happy Mahavir Jayanti…
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