Find your guides to ignite your spirit By Chintav Shah

Chintav Shah

Chintav received his education at the University of Pennsylvania and currently works as a strategy and technology consultant with a background in marketing, operations, and systems engineering. Based in New York City, Chintav is also committed to his personal interests in Jainism, spirituality, and philosophy. He has served in leadership roles within YJA for several years and continues to be involved with the community in NYC and across the country.

In Jainism, the Navkar Mantra is a general chant to venerate and seek blessings of all gods, sages, and saints that highlights the importance of learning from them. These spiritual beings, known as Arihants, Siddhas, Acharyas, Upadhyays, and Sadhus, serve as role models and guides on the path of spiritual purification. The prayer venerates the qualities, attainments and characteristics of the noble souls who descended on this earth, lived nobles lives and showed the path to enlightenment for all the beings. In the past, these figures were often priests, shamans, sages, monks, and nuns, and they played a crucial role in providing spiritual guidance and inspiration to their communities. In today!s globally connected community, we need to realign ourselves to learn from a wide range of spiritual leaders, including Jain leaders/Acharyas, online personalities, and figures from other religious traditions such as Sadhguru, the Dalai Lama and others.

The most important message in Jainism is to remind us that we must uncover self-realized mentors, role models, and guides in our lives that will inspire us to become better at maintaining, living, and embodying a Jain way of life. These guides have the ability to inspire us to move away from greed, materialism, and ego, and towards the path of awakening, non-attachment, and self-realization. Their sermons can show us the dangers of getting caught up in the hedonistic treadmill of chasing pleasure and avoiding pain - leading to greed, control, fear, and selfishness. Thriving communities and civilizations have long relied on these guides who help individuals awaken and live from a place of freedom, discipline, collaboration, and love.

Even Shrimad Rajchandra, in Atma Siddhi Shashtra, underscores the significance of having a living guru as crucial to one's spiritual growth. In recent years, living spiritual leaders like Late Guruji Chitrabhanu, Gurudevshri Rakeshji, and Acharya Chandanaji have exemplified the qualities of a true guru, providing guidance and support to their communities through challenging times. Through their teachings and discussions, they have helped their followers overcome doubts and ego, gain a deeper understanding of the nature of suffering, and learn to find growth in even the most difficult experiences. Here are a few things we can do to benefit from the guidance and wisdom of living gurus:

1. Seek out spiritual guides and Gurus by attending religious or spiritual events in your community and speaking about these topics with friends and family

2. Spend time listening to these figures in sermons and discussions (online or in person), until you trust their judgment and have understood their worldview

3. Remember their point of view and keep it top of mind during your daily decisions and actions

4. Commit to learning from these spiritual teachers for at least a few hours each week or month

5. Take on practices that they recommend, such as daily meditation, reading, intermittent fasting, and reflection, in order to ignite your own spiritual progression

In this way, we can draw upon the wisdom of spiritual teachers to inspire our own spiritual growth and awaken the power within us. The many Gurus and guides I have learned from and grown with in the past decade have largely transformed mylife, enabling myown spiritual purification and upliftment.I lookforward to seeing all the spiritual teachers and seekers congregate in Lakeland, Florida, this summer for JAINA 2023, as we learn and grow together towards creating a better individual and collective community.