Jain Theism

SR No.: 006509
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemant Shah
Publisher: Hemant Shah
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 218
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Religion
File Size: 10 MB

Page 154

Theistic Color of Popular Beliefs and Sadhana
135 Divinity. This is known as Darśan (looking on) which is the shortest form of the Deva-Pajā. Some Jains who are religiously, comparatively more staunch and they immediately after taking the bath and putting on the special Pujā-dress (mostly silken) go to the temple. They first perform the Darśana and then they perform the full Dravya Pūjā ritual before the image or images of the Jina into the temple. The complete Deva-Pūjā rituals as described by prof. P. S. Jaini is like this:
"As a Jain enters the temple, he typically wears only three simple pieces of clothing and carries a plate filled with flowers, fruit, camphor, uncooked rice and incense. Having approached the main shrine, he will bow down, utter the Namāskāra litany. And circumambulate the image and, using rice grains, forms a Svastika on a plate or wooden plank. (This ancient symbol, as we have seen, signifies the four possible Sāmsăric destinies.) Above it he places three dots, standing for the "three jewels" (Ratnatraya): true insight (Samyak-Darśana), right knowledge (Samyak-Jõāna). And proper conduct (Samyak Cāritra). These three provide the means of escape from the cycle of bondage represented by the Svastika. Finally, at the very top, he makes a small crescent with a dot mounted upon it; thus is suggested the uppermost portion of the universe, with the liberated soul resting just within its edge. The completed figure appears below.
::.
By forming these symbols prior to actual worship of the Tīrthankara, one shows that his Pūjā has as its ultimate purpose the attainment of liberation. Such preliminaries completed, he performs the Anapana or Abhiseka ceremony, in which holy water is sprinkled over a small image placed near the foot of the main one for this purpose. The water thus used for "bathing" the Jina must first have been sterilized