Notes on Modern Jainism

SR No.: 007307
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1910
Total Pages: 142
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

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MODERN JAINISM.
This is followed by evening praise, Sajhaya Stavana (4 244), and lastly by a vow not to eat till sunrise, or Coviharanam Pucukhana (24). After this he is free to go home and please himself till bed time, when he must tell his beads and offer salutation to the Five before going to sleep.
Daily Worship of a S'veta'mbara Layman.
A S'vetambara Layman at Girnar was kind enough to give me some details of his daily worship, which we afterwards compared with the worship we saw performed in a little temple in Rajkot. The worshipper, we learnt, generally rose at seven A. M. and bathed, wearing a special dhoti, and his sacred thread round his waist, which Jaina (unlike Brahmans) only wear during worship. He might bathe either at home or at the temple, but he must be careful to choose a dry spot and to use as little water as possible.* After bathing, he donned, if he had time, the special seamless clothes (which are kept for worshippers in a room at the temple) consisting of either blanket or
Vestments.
dhoti, uttarasana, (GR) and an eight-fold mukhakosa (14), and marked his forehead with a candalo (1871).
Next he walked three times round the temple-this is called Pradaksina (Helen-and whilst doing so meditated on the Three Jewels, and then entering Pradaksina'. the temple uttered thrice the "Nisahi" that bids all worldly eares begone.
*Jaina are not supposed to bathe in rivers, tanks, lakes or the sea for fear of disturbing the water, but as a great many of them can swim, this prohibition is obviously often honoured in the breach.