Dharam Shiksha - Class 11 & 12

Jai Jinendra everyone!

Welcome to yet another recap of the Dharam Shiksha classes that your kids are attending with so much interest and excitement.

Class 11

So in Class 11, we had the most amazing time watching our little artists bring their imaginations to life in the drawing competition! 🎨✨ From bold colors to creative ideas, every single child showed us that talent has no limits🖍️ and that they have beautifully grasped the concepts explained to them in the Dharam Shiksha classes.

Your kids are true stars — each drawing was unique, painstakingly created and a reminder of how wonderfully creative young minds can be. 💖

Please give your little Picasso a big hug from us — they made us smile, made us awestruck and even made us go “Wow!” more than once! 🌈👏

We are sharing some of the masterpieces below:

Class 12

Since Class 12 was held just a few days before Mahaparva Paryushan, the point of discussion obviously had to be that.

🌸What is Paryushan?🌸

Literally speaking, Paryushan is a combination of two words:

Pari: meaning from all 4 sides

Ushan: meaning to come closer

So Paryushan means to shift our focus from the outer world to come closer to our true self - our soul.

We even gave the kids a special Paryushan slogan!🔊

🔊Paryushan ka Sandesh - Atma ki aur Pravesh!

🌸Relevance of Paryushan🌸

Paryushan is our biggest festival - but unlike other festivals where we celebrate by having parties, wearing new clothes, eating sweets etc, in Paryushan we only focus on our soul by doing tapasya.

Now you must have heard about people doing vrat, ayimbil, ekasana and other forms of tap during the 8 days of Paryushan. This tapasya is to cleanse not just our bodies but our souls too. When our focus shifts from the distraction of food, it automatically moves inwards.

But what to do if you can't stay hungry for too long?

We get it - you are little kids, after all!

The good news is we don't just have to keep ourselves hungry to do tapasya. Tapasya can be in different forms like:

• Not eating fresh fruits and veggies during Paryushan

• Doing Samayik

• Listening to our Gurus and going to Sthanak regularly

• Practicing Maun (keeping silent) for 48 minutes

• Chanting Navkar Mantra

• Reading religious books or stories

• Controlling our taste buds by not eating our favourite food for 8 days

• Not eating after sunset

• Not watching or limiting the time you spend on TV, mobile etc.

• Trying to control your anger and desires as much as possible

Another way to purify your soul during Paryushan is by giving daan. You can take out some of your pocket money and donate it to anyone less fortunate than you! The blessings you'll get in return will be priceless, we assure you!

🌸Samvatsari🌸

The last day of Paryushan festival is celebrated as Samvatsari. This is the day of "Forgive and Forget." On this auspicious day, we ask for forgiveness from family and friends for any wrongs which we may have committed against them in the previous year.

Let's explain this simply - Imagine your heart is like a whiteboard. Every time you get angry, fight, or hurt someone, a little black mark appears on it. By the end of the year, the board has lots of marks!

Paryushan is like a special eraser time. For 8 days, we pray, fast, stay as calm as possible, listen to guru pravachans, read religious texts, and try to be very kind. On the last day of Samvatsari, we say “Micchami Dukkadam”, which means “Sorry if I hurt you, please forgive me.”

When everyone forgives each other, all the black marks are wiped away, and the whiteboard of the heart becomes clean and shiny again. 💖

That’s why Paryushan is a festival of forgiveness, kindness, and fresh starts! 🌸

🌸What do Gurus preach during Paryushan?🌸

During the special 8 days of Paryushan, our revered Gurus narrate sacred religious text (Antkritdashang Sutra) that includes stories of 90 pious souls who shed all their karmas and reached the final destination - Moksha.

Among these 90 souls was a little boy named Atimukt Kumar who was just 9 years old.

🌸The Story of Atimukt Kumar🌸

A long time ago, there was a boy named Atimukt Kumar. He was the son of King Vijay Raja and Queen Shri Devi. He lived in a big palace in the city of Polaspur.

Even though Atimukt Kumar was young, he had a very pure heart.

One day, Atimukt Kumar was playing with his friends outside his palace. At that time, Bhagwan Mahavir Swami had also arrived in Polaspur - just like in today's times, Guru Maharaj jis visit our city/neighborhood.

So while playing, Atimukt Kumar saw Gautam Swamiji, Bhagwan Mahavir Swami's disciple, walking through the streets. He approached him and asked who he was and why was he dressed like that.

Gautam Swamiji explained lovingly that he was a Jain Sadhu and was going around for Gochari.

Hearing this, Atimukt Kumar left his friends and took Gautam Swamiji to his palace.

There, his mother did vandana (remember the Tikhhuto Path?) and gave Gochari to Gautam Swamiji with utmost pure bhaav.

When Gautam Swami was about to leave, young Atimukt Kumar asked him where he was headed. On learning he was going back to his Guru Bhagwan Mahavir Swami, Atimukt Kumar decided to accompany him.

When he heard Bhagwan's words of wisdom, he got so inspired that he decided to leave the worldly pleasures and become a sadhu too.

But for that, he needed his parents' permission. When his mother got to know about Atimukt Kumar's intentions, she begged him to reconsider saying becoming Sadhu was very tough. But Atimukt Kumar was adamant.

So she tried to lure him saying his father would make him the King of Polaspur if he chose to stay back.

Atimukt Kumar couldn't take deeksha without his parents' permisssion so he agreed. But on the day he was crowned the King of Polaspur, he ordered everyone to start preparing for his deeksha. Since he was a King now, everyone had to obey him. When his mother saw his firm resolve, she finally agreed to let him go.

So kids, that's how Atimukt Kumar took deeksha under Bhagwan Mahavir Swami and became AVANTA MUNI.

After becoming a Sadhu, one day Avanta Muni saw a few kids playing beside a puddle during rainy season. They were making boats of paper and floating it on the water. Now Avanta Muni was just a kid - so he took his wooden patra (utensil for food) and floated it on the water.

When it started floating, he clapped his hands joyously - "Look my boat is floating! My boat is floating!"

Hearing this, the other Sadhus started laughing at him because Jain Sadhus are not supposed to touch rain water as it has infinite jeevs. They mocked him saying he's too ignorant to be a Sadhu.

Some of them even ran to Bhagwan Mahavir Swami to complain about Avanta Muni and his actions. But when Bhagwan heard about the whole incident, he told them to stop mocking Avanta Muni as he was about to gain Moksha in this lifetime itself!

Then Bhagwan called Avanta Muni and explained to him his mistake. The little Muni accpeted his mistake and followed the strict life of a Sadhu thereafter. Ultimately, he gained the ultimate destination - Moksha!

🌸Moral of the story🌸

So kids, Atimukt Kumar’s story teaches us that even children can understand big truths. We don’t need to wait until we’re old to practice kindness, honesty and self-control. Let us all hope to be like Atimukt Kumar some day and attain Moksha!

🌸Activity Fun🌸

For activity, we narrated different scenarios of Do's and Don'ts and the kids had to tell us via actions if these scenarios should happen during Paryushan or not.

Next, we gave the kids a printout of 8-day log wherein they can put a tick mark against all the things they're willing to do during Paryushan.

1.pdf

Download PDF • 500KB

A humble request to mommies: Please encourage the kids to fill this log daily during Paryushan.

Acknowledgement: Atimukt Kumar story pictures have been sourced from https://jainqq.org/explore/006656/18