Significance
Ayambil is a form of restraint rather than complete fasting: a single meal a day of plain, boiled, tasteless food, taken without spices, oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar, fruit, or green and raw vegetables. Its purpose is the subduing of taste and craving (rasa-tyag) rather than mere abstention from food.
The nine days correspond to the Navpad, the nine venerated entities: Arihant, Siddha, Acharya, Upadhyaya, Sadhu, and samyak darshan, samyak jnana, samyak charitra and samyak tap. One is contemplated and worshipped on each successive day.
The observance is kept twice a year, in Chaitra and in Ashwin, both being periods of seasonal transition; keeping it continuously over a span of years is regarded as a complete course of the austerity.
The practice is associated in tradition with Shripal and Mayanasundari, whose story of devotion to the Navpad is recounted during these days.
How it is observed
- Taking one ayambil meal a day for the nine days, prepared plain and without the prohibited ingredients; many sanghs run an ayambil shala providing the meal.
- Daily puja of the Siddhachakra or Navpad yantra, with each day's worship directed to that day's pad.
- Jap of the mantra pad associated with the day, along with khamasanas and kayotsarga as guided by one's tradition.
- Recitation and listening to the Shripal Raja no Ras over the course of the nine days.
- Increased samayik, pratikraman and swadhyay, with reduced worldly activity.
- The observance concludes on Purnima, and is commonly undertaken again in the corresponding month six months later.
At a Glance
- Lunar date
- Chaitra Shukla Saptami to Purnima, and Ashwin Shukla Saptami to Purnima (nine days, twice a year)
- Tradition
- Shwetambar tradition