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My experience of the 8 blissful Days of Maun during Jain Festival - Paryushan Parv.

Updated: Sep 28, 2020

PARYUSHAN PARV is an annual #Jain festival that generally falls in the month of August or September as per panchaang[religion’s calendar]. It is tough to follow everything written in the books of Jainism on a day-to-day basis for a householder. But during these 8-days everyone is requested to follow all the codes of conduct of the religion to accelerate their speed towards Nirvana[Enlightenment].

Various austerities are performed with complete devotion. The degree of these varies too. You can choose what you wish to do. This year I chose to do MAUN for all the 8-days.



MAUN means silence or no talking. It can be done in various ways. The one I did at vipassana was Aarya Maun or Noble Silence which probably is the highest degree of maun that is expected to do.




The one I did in these 8-days was easier on the strictness but in my opinion more difficult to follow.

While in Vipassana the environment is conducive to follow Maun and everyone around you is also on Maun. The Maun I did now was at home. Everyone around me was talking. Sometimes you have to respond and sometimes you do it without realising.


WHAT were my MAUN rules? I decided not to utter a single word from my mouth. Not to talk with a gesture or even eyes or with mmms and aaas. I could read, write, listen to music and watch TV. I would not write or type to talk[no whatsapp].


MY EXPERIENCE

It is said that when one sense organ stops, the others try to overcome its void by becoming more efficient.

I found my LISTENING and OBSERVING skills get better. Observing not just the people, the raindrops, the breeze, the birds and the surrounding, but myself. My inner self. This feature was activated multifold during Vipassana than at home.


Realised how many unimportant dialogues I would get into otherwise. Remaining in Maun called for MINDFULNESS and developed it too.


I found WORK happening more efficiently. My attention, focus and concentration got more space to spread out.


I found time to do more things by not wasting it simply by talking. The reason why I used the word “wasting” is because usually, these talks are similar every day and many times unnecessary. Also, outer-chatting leads to a lot of time-consuming inner-chattering, which considerably reduced during this 8-day period.


One personal gain which is probably a bit insensitive was I was able to not talk when I didn’t want to without hurting anyone because everyone around me knew I was on Maun. haha


Words are weapons that are used to defend or to attack. Maun doesn’t stop anything good or bad from happening though but eliminates or reduces small unwanted fights.


QUIETITUDE leads to PEACE of mind. I love to talk and I talk a lot. I am the one who is an active talking person amongst a group of people but less chitter-chatter to me is RELAXATION. Maybe it evens out or BALANCES my super-talkative self.


The PAUSE a person is asked to make before bursting out in anger, before speaking, before making various other actions, builds. Your PATIENCE with others increases. Sometimes you get time to think from another person’s perspective.


SUCCESS RATE

I would give myself 69%. I spoke a few words or sentences daily. I used hand gestures and eyes to communicate a few times too. I didn’t want to give any expressions but I ended up giving a couple of times. A positive thing that I noticed was that most of the time, I spoke KNOWINGLY which I think is very crucial. But the negative thing would be that as per me, I didn’t give my best. I can do better.


IN THE END

Noble Silence in a hermitage is a beautiful experience and if you are into it then you should go every now and then. But I highly recommend this “everyday household Maun” because this is what is going to help us as a non-ascetic in various ways we may slowly understand to better our relations and more importantly better our lives.

|| Michhaami Dukkaddam ||

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