Why Paryushan?

When I follow Paryushan, the 8 day festival of Jainism where I try to follow the minimalistic lifestyle, fasting, eating only when needed, avoiding certain kinds of food, reading books on Jainism, I am often asked a question or rather indirectly told that if I really am into Jainism, I should follow it on a regular basis rather than be a hypocrite and follow certain things during this 8 day period and forgetting about it post that.

This post is not an explanation, but for inspiration to those beings, to follow Paryushan.

This 8-day festival of Jainism gives me an opportunity to recalibrate. It gives me an opportunity to halt and to re-evaluate what I am doing now and what I really need to be doing. It helps me put my spiritual growth ahead of my mental or physical growth that normally gets a priority in the day to day life. It helps me introspect. It helps me try to follow the recommended Jain lifestyle and learn how difficult it is to do so even for 8 days. It makes me find renewed respect for our monks and nuns who do this and much more on a daily basis. It helps to form a habit.

Also, Paryushan helps me reflect on the misdeeds that I did in the past year and apologize to those around me for the hurt that I may have knowingly or unknowingly caused them with my actions, words, or my general attitude towards them (that emanates from my thoughts). It helps me try to ensure that I don’t repeat the same mistakes again.

I have been following Paryushan ever since I can remember. It gives me a taste of what my life really should be like if I want to walk on the path of enlightenment. I candidly confess that after these 8 days, the effect of these 8 days last for less than a month and I am back to the daily grind, doing what I always did. I may add a change or two every year for a certain period but I am unable to carry most of the knowledge that I gain during this period forward. But the reason that I follow it and will continue to do so is that I hope that it helps me refresh each year the principles of Jainism. I hope that someday when I am mature enough and when I am spiritually ready, I will be able to implement the principles of Jainism more wholly and in a much more meaningful manner than I do now. I am hoping that these 8 days help me slowly but steadily ingrain the philosophy and principles of Jainism in my life.

Do you follow Paryushan? If yes, why?