I found a nice article to send to friends explaining the essence of Paryushan.
http://pluralism.org/resources/tradition/essays/jain4.php
One question I had from this is where they mention, “They add to their normal vegetarian restrictions by avoiding such foods as potatoes, onions, and garlic–the eating of which entail killing the plant instead of just taking its fruit.”
Is that accurate? That seems like an important distinction which makes sense to me, to avoid foods which involve killing the plant rather than taking its fruit. I was always told to avoid kann-mood because there is more “life” in the roots. Thoughts?
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4 Responses to Paryushan article
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This article is right in most claims. Few flaws that I could identify are
1. Jains are not supposed to eat potatoes, onions and Garlic anytime and definitely during four months of Chaturmas. The explanation is partly right about not eating those things. Overall nice article.
Can be used to explain our Paryushan.
Thanks Nim. And Micchhami Dukkadam to all in advance.
Sahu Satya ma Hasho.
Mahendra
mahendra is right about root vegetables jains should not be eating at all. the concept of not killing sounds good but that is not what we learned
I seem to agree with the point where eating a root vegetable is killing the plant instead of just taking its fruit but all these years, I have never looked at it from that perspective, it has always been what you said that there is infinite life in the roots and that’s why, we avoid eating during parushan week but to motivate us more, it is a good point to note…
Nimit, I’ve heard both reasons before – not eating it because it has more life and not eating it because you are killing the entire plant. I feel like they both apply and make sense.