As the New Year begins, people start making New Year's Resolutions. These resolutions are mostly about getting in shape and eating right. For me, and my fellow Jains in the world, we usually don't have a problem with eating well, we just have a problem with food, in general.

The challenge for any minority faith is the ability to participate on both levels - creating awareness of one's faith and energizing members in the values of the faith to, in turn, express those values through projects which can benefit the world around them.

The Hindu concept of oneness of the universe and the Jain concept of nonviolence are most urgently required today to save the planet from ultimate ecological destruction.

By dying in meditation the aspirants are able to die with the mind being in complete awareness, calm and undisturbed by pain or emotions. Moreover, the aspirants practice their ultimate belief that their body and the material world are not their pure self and that they detach from them.