I am pleased to witness another milestone achieved by the JAIN AVENUE Magazine – the second anniversary of the magazine launched by the JAINA India Foundation.   Our magazine is a result of labour of Love by an army of dedicated volunteers ably guided by our editor, Dr. Sejalben Shah, and the watchful eyes of our mentor Dr. Bipin Doshi.

At the age of thirty, a Kshatriya Prince from Bihar renounced the comforts of his palace to seek spiritual awakening. By the age of 72, he attained ‘nirvana’ and came to be known as Lord Mahavira. Jainism believes him to be the 24th Tirthankara (spiritual teacher).

WHAT IS PARYUSHAN? Paryushan means it is a time for opening the lock of the heart and cleaning of the dirt (karma) which is collected on the soul. - Namra Muni Paryushan – the celebration of spiritual awareness - is the most important annual festival of Jain religion. Pari + upshamana + upshamana means to suppress, to suppress our passions (kashayas— anger, ego, deceit and greed) from all directions.

Paryushan parva is the king of all festivals for whole Jain community. It is a time for self-analysis and soul searching, it provides a break from routine life and allows us to reflect and contemplate on our past conduct. Paryushan is not just a festival to rejoice and celebrate; instead, it is a ‘parva’ in which all Jains try to discipline themselves.

Let us understand what is meant by "Michchhami Dukkadam" and why do we say it? Michchhami means to be fruitless i.e. forgiven and Dukkadam means bad deeds. Therefore the meaning of Michchhami Dukkadam is, let my bad deeds be fruitless. So the concept behind saying or writing to someone, "Michchhami Dukkadam", is that if I have done any harm to you, those bad deeds to be forgiven (be fruitless).

who is responsible for the events that occur in the world? Hegel said it is history. Marx said it is “the system.” Various views have been propounded to explain the occurrence of events. These theories put forward mutually conflicting answers to the question of who or what causes events in this universe to transpire. An event does not take place because of one reason. There are always more than one factors