JAINISM AND HOME DÉCOR by Nikhil Pattani

Jainism and home décor by Nikhil Pattani 

This article is published  in On the dot maga7zine On 1st April 2023

While buying a new home, or refurbishing the existing house, do you look at certain known aspects of vastu? Do you look at the numerology of your house no.? Do you hang lemon and chilly or a black doll out of your main door and many such arrangements in the house as instructed by priests, or elders, or some occult science experts or Vastu /fengshui expert? If your answer is “YES”, then next question is “Why”? Have you yourself taken a deep dive in these subjects or you blindly trust on the predictions made by priests, elders, gurus, or experts?

No, this is not an article about any Occult science, or Vastu Shastra, Numerology etc. nor I am planning any such advice, Neither I am asking you to skip or challenge  your faith and belief in such arrangements. 

You mainly look at peace and harmony to prevail around you and your loved ones, prosperity at your profession or work, gaining wealth and health by following all of that I mentioned earlier. 

Let us take a broader perspective, we all believe in Punya (Virtue) & Paap (Sins), and we also believe in the karma. Whatever you own, posses, is the result of some good deeds done proportionately in the past. This past is not necessarily in this birth but many births in the past as well. Your well-being monetarily and health wise is proportionate to the balance of punya you have got. Similarly, the Paap (Sins) we did in the past would being the results accordingly. Do you agree?

Your house , its environment within and around, the people living in it and your mental and social status, your health is available to you in accordance to your past karma. All of it is earned by you. Now, the most important aspect of this article : Do you want start earning more of punya ( virtues) and eliminate the paap ( Sins)? Let us begin this from our house décor. 

Jainism gives you a path to eliminate bad karmas through easy but detailed ideas. 

The kitchen in the  house could be as per your Vastu advisor, and mostly in the South east zone of your house, but most important thing in the kitchen is the use of kitchen-aids. Since we have to live, we have to eat. Our kitchen provides us the best health. So let us look at the kitchen décor. 

The Earthen water pot: Choose any place (North- east is preferred by vastu experts), but ensure that water is filtered before it is poured into the pot. You should have 2 spare pots and should be replaced every day with completely dry one. The pot has to be kept covered all the time. The used water glasses should never be dipped into this pot. Jainism is a science with micro study on every element in this universe. Water itself is a “Jeeva” living being as individual soul and every micro drop of it has more than 36000 living organisms. Saving water, is like caring about the living beings in the water. Remember, Punya can be earned every day with this carefulness.

The Gas Stove: Use the best quality gas burners, and it should be on the south eastern side of the kitchen or the house. Most important is to cover the gas burners with the lid, once you finish cooking. These lids are made of fabric with the either elastic or a string to tie it. This would prevent Ants, Mosquitoes, and such small creature to enter the holes of the burners. If kept uncovered, eventually those creatures would get burnt alive. This is generation of Paap karma and wastage of punya karma. Every morning, when you open the lid, have a close look at the burners and the surroundings to see any ant or similar creatures moving around the lid, stove or the platform. Very carefully you can remove these creatures on a plate with the help of Treadle ( Supdi) and put them into the safe place. This will benefit in making you a person of big heart, a focused person and prevent you from lots of monetary losses.

The Bedroom: The Master’s bedroom or the person taking care of finances of the house should have his bedroom in the southwest most corner of the house according to vastu experts, Jain experts would always try to save you from getting into a new karma cycle. Bed should always have distinctive legs and no storage below the bed (People in metropolitan, might find space constraints, but living in constraint is better than generating bad karmas and bad future births).  The storage below the bed, may contain books, old antiques, some frames, idols, some papers, old clothes, bedsheets, pillows, etc. and many more things. Ideally things that are not useful should be discarded and few useful things should be stored with care and respect. It is not good to store books below the bed, as it attracts “Gyanavarniya karma” The karma that may result into illiteracy, poverty and illness or not be able to get better education in this birth or the coming one. The Old items accumulated below the bed may bring misfortune to you in this birth and result in greediness as your nature, you never know.  Never eat on the bed for many reasons of vastu. 

The Worshipping space: There has to be a worship space in the house where you can peacefully sit and pray for a while. While you are happy or tensed, you can spend some time with spirituality. The Place should need not be in the kitchen. It could be any quite corner of your house (Vastu Experts prefer North-East, East or North for setting up the house temple. You should face East, North east or North, while praying). While you pray, or do the ‘Jaap’ (Reciting of Mantra or Name of the god), you actually divert your focus from uneasiness to a bit if more comfort. This takes you away from your paap karma (Sins) and you earn a lot of punya (Brownie points). 

There are many more things that can be discussed about the living in the house with earning more punya and eliminating Paap karmas. This was just a glimpse of it. People don’t know why they have all the luxuries or little lesser or in poverty…. It is all the outcome of your karma and while living the luxury that you own, never forget that you have put in humungous  efforts and hard work with pain to earn it. Live with satisfaction, in most minimalistic way to achieve the permanent happiness.