The Festival of Rakshabandhan : The Jain view

The Festival of Rakshabandhan : The Jain view
 Aryika Swarnmati  (Sanghasth)   Indian culture is full of festivals. All these festivals aim at the establishment of human relations and eternal cultural & spiritual values. ‘Rakshabandhan’ is also one of these festivals and in present times, it is mainly associated with the sacred relation of brother & sister. However, as per Jain tradition, Rakshabandhan is supposed to be originated at the pious land of Hastinapur about 12 Lac years before. The Jain story behind this festival is as follows: Once upon a time, a large Sangh (group) of 700 Jain Saints (Munis) came to Ujjaini, where the head of the Sangh-Shri Akampanacharya gave the vow of silence i.e. Maunvrata to all the Sadhus due to the doubt of some mishappening in his heart. As a matter of fact, the King of the city was a true Jain and the devotee of Jain-Saints but his four ministers-Bali, Brahaspati, Prahlad and Namuchi were jealous of Jain Saints & Jainism. All of them came for the darshan of the Sangh but as per the order of their Acharya, all the Saints remained engrossed in their meditation etc. and nobody talked with the King.

When the King was returning to his palace, the 4 ministers started criticizing the Sangh, as no Saint had given the blessings to the King. At that time, a Saint named Shrutsagar, who did not know about the order of Shri Akampanacharya Muniraj, was returning from the city after taking his meals (Ahar). Listening to the criticization of Jain Munis by those ministers, Muni Shrutsagar stopped there and soon defeated them in doctrinal debate. After returning to his Guru, he narrated the whole story. Listening to it, Akampanacharya became assured of some mishappening and ordered Shrutsagar Muni to go and get engrossed in meditation at the place of the debate. He accepted the order and did the same. With the feeling of revenge the defeated ministers came there at night and tried to kill the meditating Saint, however Vandevta (deity of the forest) stopped them in the same posture of killing the Saint with the sword. In the morning the citizens saw this sight and criticized the ministers a lot. Ultimately, the King ordered them to leave the city forever.

The wicked ministers reached Hastinapur and somehow pleased the King Padmaraj by defeating his enemy Simhabal. Infact, Padmaraj was the son of Maharaj Mahapadma, who has gone to his younger son Vishnukumar Muni after handing over the Kingdom to Padmaraj. The 4 ministers got a boon from the King Padmaraj to be utilized in the future and started living at Hastinapur like the ministers of the Kingdom. Once Muniraj Akampanacharya came Hastinapur with his Sangh of 700 Saints. When the ministers knew about it, they made a cruel plan to take revenge on these innocent Saints. They got the Kingdom from the King Padmaraj for 7 days as per the previously obtained boon. Although the King became suspicious, but as he was bound by his oath of giving the required boon to the ministers, he could do nothing. The ministers ignited fierce fire encircling the Munis on the pretext of performing ‘Yajna’. The Saints were undergoing hard atrocities but they remained quite peaceful. Each of them was thinking that the fire is burning my body and not my soul because my soul is immortal & eternal and when my soul can not be destroyed, why should I be afraid of and so on.

On the other side, another Acharya Shri Shrutsagar Maharaj at Mithila Nagari saw the Shravan Nakshatra (star) trembling in the sky and so, painful words emerged from his lips. The Kshullak, sitting beside, asked him the reason of it and understanding the whole situation, he at once flew to Dharnibhushan Mountain, where Vishnukumar Muni was engrossed in penance. The Kshullak told the whole incident to him and informed him that he (Vishnukumar Muni) had obtained Vikriyariddhi i.e. the supernatural power to change the shape & size of the body, by his hard penance.

With a deep feeling of love for the burning Saints, Vishnukumar Muni at once reached Hastinapur and after understanding the real position from the King Padmaraj, he took up the form of a Vaman (i.e. Brahman) and went to the  4 ministers, who were indulged in distributing the desired articles to the public as daan on the occasion of Yajna. Seeing the Vaman, they became very pleased and asked him to have the desired daan. The Vaman asked for the earth measuring 3 steps of him, the ministers were agreed at once. By the effect of his Vikriyariddhi, the Vaman placed his first step on the Sumeru Mountain, the second on the Manushottar Mountain and there remained no place for keeping the third step. Terror prevailed all around and the voice of ‘Please Forgive’ echoed in all directions. Ultimately, the deities bound the ministers and ended the atrocities on the Saints by the showers of rain along with the worshipping of Vishnukumar Muniraj. The householders prepared the Kheer with soft Sevai so that there may be no problem to the Saints in taking meals as their throats had been choked due to smoke & fire etc. Thus as the symbol of the protection of Munis, 'Rakshabandhan’ festival is celebrated on Shravan Shukla Poornima of each year since then. Infact, it is the festival to be determined to protect the Jain Culture, Jain Temples, Jain Saints and Jain Fellows so that this eternal spiritual culture may flow forever.