Akshay tritiya : Dedicated to bhagwan Adinath

Last morning when, i was walking on the street at 2am, i saw a cycle wala was selling 'chai ,coffee,gutkha and panmasala' on its double price that reminds me, my childhood and my home town Lalitpur, where people use to sell things on high price, when there was market bandh, 'bharat bandh'  or a sunday ka market close, i went into my childhood memories started with high rated Gutkha and pan masala, then i thought about the big Jain temples in my home town...that reminds me.... oh man kal to akshay Tritiya hai...i came to know this 2 years back, while working on a presentation that its called akshay Tritiya because in Bundelkhandi we use to call it 'Akhti' an important day of jain religion its believed that on this day : first Tirthankara of jain religion  

Rshabhdeva was king of Ayodhya. He being enlightened gave up all worldly pleasures and chose to lead the life of an ascetic and become a Jain monk. Jain monks do not own anything. They do not even cook food for themselves. While hungry or thirsty, they go to people and ask for food or drinking water. Tirthankara Rshabhdeva also went to people and asked food. However, the people of that time did not know anything about the acts of monks, as he was the first monk in this era. People of Ayodhya offered gold, jewellery, gemstones, elephants, horses, expensive garments and even their daughters to honour their beloved king. Rshabhdeva was not in quest of all these. He wanted only a morsel of food, but nobody it to offered him. Nobody understood that their king was asking for food. As there was no choice, he had to fast for a long time until his grand son Shreyansha kumara understood his need. Shreyansha Kumara, finally, offered him sugarcane juice and Rshabhdeva ended his fast after a year. This was on the day of Akshaya Tritiya. This is considered by the Jains as one of the best offerings. It is believed that bestowing upon religious gifts on Akshaya Tritiya becomes inexhaustible. Jains, even today, observe fast to commemorate their first Tirthankara Rshabhadeva and end their fast on Akshaya Tritiya with sugarcane juice.

 i still remember those days, when my Mom, came back from the temple and follow some of the rituals like 'Gandhodak (water collected from jain statue, after their bathing/washing) se ghar pavitra karna' then a small worship, its gave all of us spirituality, and my mom cook best food and distributed some of it to the poor and hungry people, i started missing my mom and my family and these kind of ritual, that give us 'feel good factor'.

its also believed that its a great day to buy gold and silver, i remember this day because of one more reason i wrote my first 'lokgeet' while working on a presentation.

 while i was lost in these memory, suddenly my phone rang and it was my best friend from my home town and we start talking about 'Akhti' great fun it was.

so here we are Happy 'Akshay Tritiya' to all my friend, believe me these occasion that we almost missed in our life can work as a booster for our life, if we follow the rituals, so lets follow this 'Akhti' and fed some one who is in need i am goin to do this today evening...

Jain Jinendra