Chaturmas, is it really making sense to us

I asked someone what is Chaturmas, in Jain and I got the reply that our Sadhu/Sadhviji they stay at one place for four months or more as per Muhurat and then during this period, we (jains) do dharam-aaradhana and then they go for another place where they can do Chaturmas. I was surprised on this aspect but then I asked, I mean so basically this is more of a social gathering for you guys. I got the reply saying “you can say that but there are people who listens Pravachan and etc. I further asked that you also spend monies on lunch in many events done in this period, and I got the reply Yes, else public does not come”. 

Well that left me wondering whether this Chaturmas is what our ancient Sadhu/Sadhviji/Rishi had intended to

I was then reading Acharya Mahapragya literature and I found that he said “Chaturmas is not about changing your location—it is about changing your direction”. This made to me realise inner concept of Chaturmas

It is of no surprise that Chaturmas has become more of grand celebration and in that we are spending crores of money, ensuring celebrities to come (assuming they don’t come for free), destroying environment like cutting trees, killing animals, etc which are actually totally against Jain principles, etc and the grand celebration is done on first day of chaturmas where you can see crowd in huge numbers and then day after day the crowds gets lower and lower and only during Paryushan of 8 days crowds starts coming. 

Well, the question is whether the Chaturmas starts when the Sadhu/Sadhviji enters the Chaturmas place. The answers I got was YES but I personally feel NO a BIG NO. 

For me, the Chaturmas starts when one person intends to change or transform herself/himself and be a human for which it is naturally called for. 

Let’s understand what exactly Chaturmas is by way of TWO WOLVES story, as under: 

An old sage was explaining human nature to a young disciple. He said, “Inside every human being, two wolves are constantly fighting.” 

One wolf represents:

• Anger 
• Ego 
• Jealousy 
• Greed 
• Hatred 

The other wolf represents:

• Compassion 
• Forgiveness 
• Patience 
• Love 
• Wisdom 

The disciple asked, “Which wolf wins?”

The sage smiled and replied, “The one you feed every day.”

And now if this is connected with transformation of emotions, one will get the reply as to what is Chaturmas. 

“Every thought is food. Every reaction is food. Every habit is food. Chaturmas is the time to stop feeding anger and start feeding awareness.”

I can only say that in this Chaturmas period (of four months), let us ask ourselves every night—which wolf did I feed today?”

At end let me state what Acharya Mahapragya said, 

“Spend a few minutes every day observing yourself. Before finding faults in others, look within yourself.”