Introducing Jainism

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 12

INTRODUCING JAINISM
(dhrti), merit (punya), and the purity of mind (višuddhir manasah) are the tīrthas of all the tirthas.”
It is a fact worth noting that the Tirthankaras have got all the qualities mentioned in the verse to become Tirthankaras. And that is why, they are men who attained the god-hood after their Nirvāṇas.
The designation ārhata shows that Jina is "worthy of adoration and worship". Arhat Parameșthi is, therefore, the Lord worshipped by all the Jains5".
"He is represented by a pratibimba or an image which is installed in a caityālaya (a Jaina temple) built for the purpose. The pratibimba is always in the form of a human being, because it represents the Jina or the Tirthankara who spent the last portion of his life on earth in the noble task of proclaiming to the world the Mokşamārga ('path to salvation'). The idol will be either in a standing posture or kāyotsarga ('renunciation of body'), or in the posture of padmāsana. Whether standing or sitting it represents the Divine Lord absorbed in the self-realisation as a result of tapas or yoga. Therefore the facial expression would reveal the intrinsic spiritual bliss as a result of self-realisation and omniscient knowledge (kevala-jñana). People who worship the Jina in this form installed in Jinālaya (Jaina temple) and who follow the religious tenets proclaimed by the Jina are called the Jainas and their religion is Jainism"6
The Jina is the divine person (sarvajña) who lived in the world with his body, and “it refers to the period after attaining sarvajña-hood and the last period of the parinirvāṇa, when the body is cast away and the self resumes its own intrinsic pure spiritual nature and it becomes Paramātmā or Siddha"?. This is the last stage of spiritual development and is identical with the Self which attains Moksa. This Siddhasvarūpa or Paramātmā-svarūpa is without body (aśarīra) and without form (arūpa). Hence its nature can be understood
5. Chakravarti, ibid., p. 80. 6. Chakravarti, ibid., p. 80. 7. Chakravarti, ibid., p. 80.