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Daslakshan Parva
or the Festival of ten virtues is the Paryushan festival celebrated by the
Digambar Jains annually for
self-purification and uplift. This parva ultimately leads us to our
true destination i.e., salvation. All Digambar jain celebrate the Dash
Lakshan Parva for ten days. It is the festival for the observance of ten universal virtues;
viz., forgiveness, contentment, and celibacy, which aim at the uplift of
the soul and are vividly preached and practiced during the festival. The
ten virtues or dharma are:
‘Dharma,
Seva, Kshanti, Mridutvmrijuta, ch Shotmath, Satyam
Akinchanyam, Brahm, tyagshch, tapashch, sanyamshcheti’
(Acharya Amritchandra, Sloka 208)
1.
Uttama Kshama - Supreme Forgiveness (To observe tolerance whole-heartedly,shunning
anger.)
2.
Mardava - Tenderness or Humility (To observe the virtue of humility
subduing vanity and passions.)
3.
Arjaya - Straight-forwardness or Honesty (To practice a deceit-free
conduct in life by vanquishing the passion of deception.)
4.
Shaucha - Contentment or Purity (To keep the body, mind and speech pure by
discarding greed.
5.
Satya - Truthfulness (To speak affectionate and just words with a holy
intention causing no injury to any living being.)
6.
Sanyam - Self-restraint (To defend all living beings with utmost power in
a cosmopolitan spirit abstaining from all the pleasures provided by the
five senses - touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing; and the sixth -
mind.)
7.
Tapa - Penance or Austerities (To practice austerities putting a check on
all worldly allurements.)
8.
Tyaga - Renunciation (To give four fold charities - Ahara (food), Abhaya
(fearlessness), Aushadha (medicine), and Shastra Dana (distribution of
Holy Scriptures), and to patronize social and religious institutions for
self and other uplifts.)
9.
Akinchanya - Non-attachment (To enhance faith in the real self as against
non-self i.e., material objects; and to discard internal Parigraha viz.
anger and pride; and external Parigraha viz. accumulation of gold,
diamonds, and royal treasures.)
10.
Brahmacarya - Chastity or celibacy (To observe the great vow of celibacy;
to have devotion for the inner soul and the omniscient Lord; to discard
the carnal desires, vulgar fashions, child and old-age marriages, dowry
dominated marriages, polygamy, criminal assault on ladies, use of foul and
vulgar language.)
The
eleventh day is the day of Kashma Yachna
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