The Jain community in Auckland celebrated Paryushan Maha Parva’s auspicious day called ‘14 Supan Darshan of Trishla Devi – Mother of Lord Mahavir’.
It is said that the mothers of would-be Tirthankaras (the saviours and spiritual teachers of the dharma) witness fourteen auspicious objects in their dreams and Queen Trishala, Lord Mahavir’s mother also saw fourteen beautiful and auspicious objects at midnight.
There are more than 200 members of the Jain community living in New Zealand and 150 of them living in Auckland alone.
The community’s religious centre is located on Portage Road in New Lynn that hosts and celebrates all the prayers services and festivals of the community.
The Paryushan Maha Parva programme started on Friday, August 18, and will end on Friday, August 25 in the evening.
“We celebrate all Jain religious festival and activities including teaching the young ones, provide support to new students and migrants to New Zealand,” spokesman for the Jain community, Parag Shah said.
The community temple in New Lynn holds periodic Samayik, Snatra Pooja, Bhakti Sandhya, weekly Poojas, Pathshala, Gujarati classes and few more activities on a regular basis.
The community is looking for a new place to establish a Jain Temple in Auckland where the growing number of Jain community members can come for worship and celebrations.
A majority of the Jain families migrated to New Zealand in 2002 and settled here. There are many members of the Jain community who are still on student and work visas.
There are currently 18 families involved in the volunteering services for the New Zealand Jain Sangh Trust.
“We are now in the process of building our worship place in Auckland which is called ‘Derasar’ and we’re looking for suitable land,” Mr Shah said.
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