Christmas and New Year Celebration – NOT A PART OF OUR JAIN CULTURE!

The way of celebrating christmas today includes roaming carefree on roads at odd times of midnight, consuming alcoholic substances all under the wrong impression of being the true way of life and under the influence of western culture. Is this the way of celebration which is preached by our Great Indian Culture and Especially by our Jain Culture? The wrong tradition of celebrating festivals at odd hours of midnight, in addition to consuming alcohol, in no way can be set at par or match with the principles and traditions of this land and Jainism.

Where lies the Culture of this land where for every action there is a scientific reason and a reasonable thought and where lies the western Culture where it is considered cool to celebrate like a berserk animal after 12! On one side a culture which prohibits even chewing of tobacco , and on the other side a culture of night life which supports consumption of the poison called alcohol. On one side lies the culture where a woman gracefully and meaningfully dances in front of people who appreciate her art,  and on the other hand the tradition in which women dance under various influences in front of other men which are soaked in alcohol and addiction. Is this even common sense?

The enthusiasm with which our youth celebrates the Non-Indian Cultural festivals is both dissapointing and amusing at the same time. Disappointing for seeing well literate youth in the depths of ignorance for accepting a non-Indian way of life in barter of a rich cultural Indian way of life, and it is amusing when we try to comprehend how did the westerns succeeded in brainwashing our generation-next to such an extent of accepting their culture. The answer to this eventually is revealed ahead, read on!

Well it’s Not the fault of our youth completely, they are just the prey of the brilliant marketing of a religion which dedicatedly works towards harvesting ‘souls’ and saving them from ‘barbaric‘ cultures and giving them refuge in their ‘civilized‘ culture. Souls being ‘harvested‘ in the same culture which is responsible for the mass genocide of the Australian Aborigines, the Red Indian Americans and many of the great scientists of the Medevial world.

Such a ‘Loving’ and ‘peaceful’ culture’s way of life is celebrated with great energy and enthusiasm in India and in Indian schools. Why? Is this way of celebration is  what is suggested by our rich Indian Culture? The wrong tradition of celebrating festivals at odd hours of midnight, drenched in the poison of  alcohol, in no way can be set at par or match with the rationale, logic, principles and traditions of this land.

The Great Jain School of Indian Philosophy has put scientific reasons and ethical reasons behind why meals should not be consumed after Sunset and why alcohol should be avoided for ethical reasons. One of the reasons being alcohol has infinite microorganisms constantly sprouting to life in it, and to even spare those life from being killed by consumption – Jainism prohibits alcohol! Isnt it ethics par-excellence?

That’s not all! And baffling it is, why are we even celebrating Christian New Year when we have our own Indian New Year set according to sound logical standards? Do we even celebrate our Indian New Years with such enthusiasm like how we celebrate the Christian New year? Do you know the Jews and the scientific community way back objected to the usage of AD (Anno Domini – The year of our Lord) and BC (Before Christ) as it were political and religious in nature. Since then came in existence CE (Common Era) in place of AD (Anno Domini), and BCE (Before Common Era) in the place of BC (Before Christ).

Where are we heading towards? What kind of culture are we accepting as progressive which in reality is inherently regressive. We are facing the negative consequences of this culture today. Both social as well as civilizational! 

On the night of 31^st, people who are drenched in the hangover of alcohol do many such things which are not permitted socially nor ethically! And let’s not sprinkle salt on wounds by discussing how we betray our Indian and Jain culture when we celebrate such mindless, senseless, illogical cultures. 

 We have fallen greatly. Why are we wanting to celebrate an occasion such in a way such which destroys our culture, our traditions, our family, social and religious institutions and which slays us from our humanity down. Till when will we  be slaves of western culture? 

Umpteen times more importance is given to Christmas festival than our festivals in our country. 

During Christmas kids in school get 8-10 days of holiday. Jesus Christ with whom we have no cultural  linkage with, that persons festival is being celebrated for 8 – 10 days whereas when it comes to, let’s say, Jain Festival Paryushan, our kids are punished for skipping school for 2-4 days and in some cases even expelled from school! Yes, such an incident happened in the year 2015 and 2018 where Kids belonging to jain faith were suspended from attending school as they missed their school for 2-4 days due to Paryushan festival. But as their were 80-85% jain students studying in that school, the parents were successful in convincing  the school committee to take back the suspension orders. Along with that the school committee then declared a 4-5 days of holiday in school during Paryushan period. 

Question here is, Jesus Christ, a person who is  not born on this land, is not connected to this land in any way, followed most in  western culture and is not in anyway related or at with Indian or Jain culture, for such a Man’s festival there is 10 days holiday and for great Indian festivals like Paryushan there is no holiday but punishment? What sort of fair treatment is this? In our country we don’t even get 2 days of holidays for Indian festivals like Paryushan and for festivals of other culture there are 10 days holidays? 

In Islamic Nations, schools are off in the occassion of Eid. During a debate in America on whether should Christmas be celebrated in Public schools,  the people favouring it cited that it should be celebrated because America is inherently a Christian majority nation. When the people of Islamic and Christian Majority Nations believe in issuing holdiays in school for celebrating festivals of majoritarian religion, then why are we falling back to demand the same?

It is high time we wake up from our slumber and act fast on this issue. Cant we think on the lines of starting a private school for Jain kids where they practice and are taught Jain principles, Jain ethics and Jain conduct and are given holidays for Indian festivals? We all Jain parents are ready to spend lakhs over our kids education and tuitions. Cant we all unite and collectively immerse funds to start a Gurukulam which teaches our kids according to the culture of this land? Its not that tough a job.

The colonizers strategically attacked on our roots. When they were unable to attack and demolish our religious institutions, they  attacked our Gurukulam way of education and replaced it with theirs. They planned to extinct our religion by fundamentally brainwashing the generation next – our kids – by replacing the educational system. And to a great extent, Lord Macaulay and Vatican City to a great extent have succeeded in their attempt. Today to a great extent Christmas Parties are celebrated in Schools all over India. In these parties students loose their respect towards their teachers and rreligion. And on the other side no Indian religions are celebrated and hence they forget or don’t tend to know more about their native culture. We need to take this issue seriously or see our culture diminish in front of our eyes.

Please note. :- In no way we mean disrespect to a Saint like figure Jesus Christ, he should be respected for his humanitarian efforts to make this world a better place. But respecting him does not mean he or his religion is infallible. The politico-religious ambitions of the people of same religion of his is responsible for the highest number of deaths and irreparable loss of diversity in mankind and should be condemned for it. We cannot allow our scientific and rich culture to diminish in front of our eyes and truth should be made public.