पर्युषण - खमत खामणा - मिच्छामी दुक्कडं

पर्युषण - "खमत खामणा" - "मिच्छामी दुक्कडं"!!

Disclaimer : Following is about what I have personally understood about Paryushan and is an exclusively personal comment, based on personal experience only……

My first encounter with Paryushan happened around 20 years back. I was staying in Mumbai and had a handful of Jain clients, who were on focused weight loss diets. Protein rich and Carbohydrate Restricted diets were trending and quite in fashion…..

As a Diet Consultant, my philosophy has always revolved around being Mindful of What, When, How and How often you eat. Educating a client to make his/her food choices is always Liberating. Eating consciously and being answerable to yourself almost always brings about the required, positive changes in the Lifestyle.

On the other hand, Jains follow the most rigorous form of spiritually motivated Diet and are complete lacto-vegetarians…. The normal food restrictions “Peak out” at the time of Paryushan.

I used to literally have a really hard time convincing my clients that, if done in the right way, this period of Festivities can be converted into a good opportunity to  actually have desirable effects.

Following are some interesting facts about 

पर्युषण - खमत खामणा - मिच्छामी दुक्कडं

The Jain community celebrates Paryushan Parva each year for self-purification and spiritual development.

Paryushan typically means 8 or 10 days of rigorous prayer and fasting…. The Digambar Jains celebrate it for 10 days & the Shwetambar Jains observe it for 8 days.

This festival focuses on self-analysis, deep introspection, mental and physical purification and Abstinence of materialism for a possible attainment of Nirvana. 

Food Abstinence and Fasting, Self-Study, Reading Religious books and Chanting Verses,  Samayika- the vow of periodic concentration, Restraint on speaking, Pledging to refrain from bodily pleasures and Meditating are some of the activities the Jains follow.

Most significant day of this festival is the Samvatsari Mahaparva. Fasting for the whole day is a must and even small children participate with vigour.  

A notable fact - The festival of Paryushan ends on Bhadrapad shuddha Chaturthi, which is Shri Ganesh Chaturthi according to the Hindu Calender and is the first day of the Ganeshotsav. Ganeshotsav is one of the most loved festival of Maharashtra. Interestingly, the “पंच खाद्य” naivedya that we offer to the lord Ganesh, can be very easily incorporated in the Jain Paryushan diet. 

“पंच खाद्य” is  an absolutely “nutrient dense” combination which will help our Jain friends in maintaining their fasts and inclusion of this “पंच खाद्य” would be an interesting as well as a healthy way of adopting and adapting to become a more colorful and homogeneous lot. (Sharing pics of homemade “पंच खाद्य” I made today) 

The last and and most important day or Paryushan parva is when everyone actively seeks Forgiveness.

Acceptance of one's deeds, and, knowingly and consciously asking for forgiveness from those whom you may have wronged, can be the most liberating thing one can do in a lifetime.

“खमत खामणा” - Literally means,Please DO forgive me for anything i may have done to hurt you” 

and

“मिच्छामी दुक्कडं” - is probably an aberration of the Sanskrit phrase, “मिथ्या मे दुष्कृतं”, which means, (I pray) that all my misdoings and bad deeds be erased /nullified/ and-or be void.  

Over the years, my practice and learnings from Yoga have further helped me in understanding what may have been the ultimate basis of this ritual…. And with each passing year I have come to revere the entire process even more…

The Introspection, Self Analysis and Soul-searching aspects of Paryushan can be adopted by each one of us. Irrespective to one’s religion, caste, tribe or sex, “खमत खामणा “ and “ मिच्छामी दुक्कडं” are phrases we all should ideally carve in our minds and inculcate in our awareness to help us evolve into better human beings…..

                       

Diet Tips to Fight Stress

We have seen before that there are a few key nutrients which can help us in fighting stress and help us to handle it in a better way!

Let us now incorporate it as some diet tips to fight stress.

1) The first and the most important thing to follow is to have an eating routine or pattern. If the body is fed at regular intervals and according to its daily routine, it will automatically cut down the irritation levels and fluctuating sugar levels which almost always bring mood swings with them. The more the balanced blood sugar levels, the lesser the irritation and mood swings, the lesser the chances of one getting into simple pressures and stresses . Plus this also increases your productivity and helps you to stay calm and make better decisions on the work front. All this obviously will add to reducing the pressures and eventually the stress that they will produce.

This will especially help all the "Managers and Professionals" who keep on telling me time and again that they do not find time to eat when they are at work. I will like to tell them that they should regard their food equally important and I am sure this eating routine will help them fare better in stressful situations.

2) We have also mentioned before that at least 30 to 45 minutes of some exercise daily will help the body to have the "feel good " hormone running in our blood streams. This surely helps fighting stress as this will improve our reaction and response to all the stressors.

3) Many people resort to or unknowingly get into a habit of having some or the other addictive drink. This will include all the cola drinks, carbonated drinks, all the cups of tea and coffee that you may consume during the day. The "Caffeine" in all these is habit forming and is also a chemical stimulator to the body. It is seen that people actually have withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking these drinks. So.............. it is in the favor of health that the intake of Caffeine has to be brought to the minimum.

The several cups of tea and coffee and colas can be easily replaced by more healthier drinks like green tea, herbal teas, vegetable juices, thin buttermilk, lemonade , ginger-ale. I find that there are a few work places that actually have started offering these alternatives to their employees. It is up to all of us to make them available at our workplace as well.

4) Replacing the refined flour "phulkas" and white breads with healthy unrefined "rotis" or "rotla's" or "bhakris" traditionally made from native cereal flours like Bajra, Jowar, Nachani etc will help to bring in the necessary fibre, trace minerals and vitamins and of course the variety to the food to fight stress. Many shops also offer a variety of brown rice that can be easily replaced with our regular polished white rice. Adding fine quality wheat bran or rice bran to regular phulkas or rotis can improve the fibre content of the diet.

5) Another important thing is to try and include at least one seasonal fruit in your daily food regime. Using regional and seasonal fruits and vegetables will help in providing many important antioxidants and necessary nutrients to fight stress. An ideal diet should contain 4 to 7 exchanges of fruit and vegetables every day. If we just happen to jot down our last 2 days food intake, I think the obvious answer to better our diet regime would be to include more of fruits and vegetables.

6) Including enough proteins in our daily food like whole and split pulses (daals), dairy products and lean white meat is also very important to balance the food and gives excellent satiety value to food.

7) We just seem to have forgotten eating nuts and oil seeds as an healthy evening snack. These can act as a very very healthy evening snack, easy to carry, will help to fight the evening cravings and thus keep away from the tantalizing junk alternatives. A handful of roasted "chana", some peanuts, 2-4 almonds, handful of pumpkin seeds, 1-2 halves of walnuts can serve as an excellent evening snack, full of antioxidants and nutrients, to fight stress.

Also, traditional peanut, sesame seed, poppy seed, dry coconut and flax seed chutneys with food are excellent adjuncts that can be included to provide the necessary stress busters.

8) The last one on this list but a very important tip would be ........................... It is absolutely alright to include a multivitamin supplement ( Vit B complex plus some important vitamins and minerals) available at the chemist for a few days , if you know that you would be facing stressful times. And they can be anything from an exam, some family crisis, stressful situation at the job, too much travelling ...........or even getting married ;)............ It is always better to be well equipped than running into trouble later..........!!!!!!!