What does Jainism preach? Live and let live.
What is Paryushan? 10 days in which Jains follow absolute abstinence as much as possible in order to clean their mind and body of negative thoughts. To forgive others and themselves for bad things said and done in a year.
Do we punish or look down upon Jains who do not follow Paryushan? Absolutely not. Our parents believe in the philosophy of live and let live and try not to force us for things in which we don’t believe yet or ever.
Does following Paryushan bring any change? Yes it brings out lot of perseverance in a person. 10 days in a year is all we do to celebrate Jainism we believe in.
Why exactly meat ban was asked for? May be our seniors believed that lets have less killing in those days so that few souls can live a little longer and there is positivity around. Also, Mutton and chicken are sold in the open. They hang the meat in shops and those who are fasting for a month during Paryushan are pained by this sight.
Do I support meat ban? No. The reason being, those who eat will anyways store it in advance or eat in excess to compensate those 4 days of absolute atyachaar inflicted on them by the govt. Purpose is defeated anyways. By the way, our purpose of calling meat ban is anyways not a very strong or real deal.
Is the ban really worth? Naah. We are a democratic country. We can wait for a thing for 20yrs of our life but dare you not have meat for 4 days (which are not consecutive 4 days, mind it), we will abuse your religion because we don’t care for ours either.
What the whole meat ban thing has brought forward? The hypocrisy in which we believe. My fellow Jainis who believed that our religion will be respected like others (various Government schools in Malabar stopped serving mid-day meals during Ramzaan) and may be will be at peace believing we saved a few lives of animals for few days. It also made my hyper educated friends jump out from their bed and made them express their over concern about the right of not eating what they like for 4 whole days. I am sorry for 100gms which you are going to lose.
Long live hypocrisy. Abide by the rules of minorities but not an iota of respect before giving expert opinion on our food habits which you have no idea of, except “That community that does not eat aloo pyaaz!! How are they even alive!! My whole point is, eat whatever you want, question the need of a ban but have some respect in what a particular community believes in. Period.
– Neha Jain(Via Mail)