________________ It is believed that the Jain society and the community associated significantly progress spiritually and materially with Anjan Shalaka Murti in the temple. The spiritual progress is attributed to the Anjan Shalaka murti. After the complete Pancha Kalvanak ceremony, the spiritual aura of the Tirthankar murti covers a much larger area of the community. Hence spiritual progress occurs. The material progress is provided by the Shasan Devata, who is a demigod of Bhavanpati category and who is always present with Anjan Shalaka murti. The Shasan Devata will be pleased if we do the daily Puja and Arti with proper reflection, and he will provide the material prosperity to the individuals and to the society. However, if we do not perform Puja and other required rituals daily, then he will be unhappy and the society and all members will suffer severely. To be pleased or to be unhappy is one of the characteristics of demigods of Bhavanpati. This is why it is absolutely necessary to perform daily and yearly rituals on an Anjan-Shalaka Murti to make the Shasan Devata happy. Employing a Pujari for Daily Rituals In India and now outside India including America, Jain societies employ pujaris to perform the daily rituals on the Prana Pratistha | Anjan Shalaka Murtis. Also, in India almost all pujaris are non-Jains in the Swetambar Murtipujak tradition. Jain societies need to hire Pujari because the members do not have time to come to the temple every day and spend few hours to perform daily rituals. Such practice grossly violates the basic principles of the Jain religion. Not a single Jain scripture or any ancient or contemporary Jain literature supports such a practice. If we have to pay someone to fulfill our religious obligations then it is absolutely clear that we do not follow our religious practice and we are in clear violation of Lord Mahavir's preaching. Spiritually we cheat ourselves. We cannot progress spiritually with this type of the arrangement. On the contrary it only boosts our ego that in America, our temple has a murti with Anjan-Shalaka or our temple is the first one with Anjan-Shalaka murti in USA. In fact, during the 3rd Svetambar Jain Murtipujak Muni Sammelan under the leadership of Acharya Shri Omkar-Suriji - year 1988, a resolution was introduced and passed unanimously by all Acharyas that, "A Puja cannot be considered a valid puja to an Anjan-Shalaka murti if only puja is done by a paid Pujari." This convention was represented by all 18 Swetambar Jain Gacchadhipati Acharyas. However, there is no system existing amongst Jain communities to enforce the resolution passed unanimously by the conventions of Jain Acharyas and monks. Scholars' Opinion: Most of the Jain scholars who regularly visit various Jain societies of America indicate that we should not install any murti with Anjan-Shalaka ritual in America. However there are several Jain Acharyas in India, who strongly recommend to their American followers that, every Jain temple should have Anjan Shalaka Murtis to progress spiritually and materially in America. The Story of Shatrunjay Tirtha at Palitana: Shatrunjay Tirth (Palitana) is one of the most popular and pious Tirths of Shvetambar Murtipujak Jains. On mount Shatrunjay there are more than 20,000 murtis with Anjan-Shalaka. On any regular day, most of the pilgrims pay homage to the main murti Shri Adinath Bhagwan of the main temple and visit a few nearby temples. They hardly do puja of 10 to 20 murtis and hardly do "Darshan" of another 100 to 200 murtis. Less than 1.00% of the people travel via the Nava Tuk route (long route) where the majority of the murtis exist. There are several thousand murtis which no pilgrims visit.
