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Similar to the modern age, the Dash Lakshan Parva was celebrated with great zeal and joy thousands of years ago as well; austerities viz. self-meditation, doing penance, fasting and study of holy scriptures were performed during that period. The householders purged their soul by keeping fast on the last day of the ceremonies and celebrated the closing ceremony with great pomp and show. When the ten day celebration are over, this festival leaves behind deep impress on the mind and heart of every Jain - young and old.
All Jains - Digambers and Swaitambers, will celebrate this sacred festival forever throughout India and abroad. The former appear to have the best pretensions to antiquity and cultural heritage and to have been most widely diffused; the later have only as yet been traced as far back as 5th century AD. The former are almost certainly the same as Nirgrantha, who are referred to in numerous passages of Buddhist Pal Pitakas and must therefore be as old as 6h century B.C. rather earlier. The Swaitamberas' idea of exclusiveness appears to be one of recent growth. In fact, Jainism is a prehistoric religion propounded by the first Tirthankara Lord Aadi Nath. Upon all these grounds we think that the celebration of Paryushan Parva is a holy tradition coming down from the ancient past to the present times.
To sum up, Paryushan Parva is a grand Jain festival of self-introspection, selfenlightenment and self-achievement, which ultimately leads to the one and only one final goal, i.e., liberation or salvation.
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Do not minimize the value of ideals. They appeal to the imagination, stir the heart, stimulate the noblest springs of action, but ideal and practical must be blended into one harmonious whole. There must be no divorce between the real and ideal.
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SUPREME FORGIVENESS (Uttama Kshama Dharma)
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