JAINA Convention 1999 07 Philadelphia

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 55

SAMARPAN
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JAINISM IN THE NEXT MILLENNIUM BLIND RITUALS OR A NEW SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
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Today we are very proud as Jain community to have Jain centers in every state and in every S metropolitan area, thanks to the vision of JAINAS and visionary leaders like Gurudev Chitrabhanu and Acharya Shushilkumarji.
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સમ્યગ –દર્શન –જ્ઞાન ન્યાય મોક્ષમાર્ગ તત્વાર્થે શ્રધ્ધાને સમ્યકદર્શનમ
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As we are on the threshold of the next millennium, we need to stop and do some soul N searching to find out what is our purpose on this earth, who am I, what is my true form, and how I can fulfil my dreams spiritually, socially, emotionally, economically, and be worthy to my fellow Jain brothers and sisters. We need to examine our inner soul to answer some questions. For example, we as Jain community have spent millions of dollars and countless years of devoted effort to build very valuable Jain centers and beautiful Jain temples in N America. Are we making good use of these centers for the benefit of our fellow men? Are we E advancing spiritually every year? Or are we falling in power struggle and mechanical and W routine rituals with blind faith?
According to the most respected Jain text Tatvarthsutra, our main objective of this human life is to attain self realization by devoting major portion of our time to study of the Scrintures
10th Biennial JAINA Convention
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Dr. Pravin L. Shah, Reading PA I
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(તત્વાર્થ સૂત્ર - આ. ઉમાસ્વાતિ)
PHILADELPHIA, PA
Let us examine typical activities of a Jain temple. It usually consists of conducting monthly Pujas (Mostly Snatra Pupa or PanchKlyank Pupa), Mahavir Jayanti celebration, Parushana activity with big event being the Swpana Darsan, and Diwali and New Year Manglik Japs. If we take a percentage of time and effort we spend in temples, it will work out like almost 75 % of our activities are mostly ritualistic ones involving a Snatra Pupa, playing of Dandiya Ras, some Ghee Boli, and doing the Shanti Kalas. In performing these rituals, we have often ignored the real purpose of these Pudas. Great Jain Masters with a depth of spiritual meaning designed various Pujas such as Snatra or Antray Karma Nivaran. Unfortunately we have chosen to conduct them as means of social entertainment with major emphasis on mechanical aspects of how well we are dressed up to stand up with a Divo, how fast we can recite the Chaityavandan, etc.
Does it not seem like we have been following the rituals blindfolded without ever thinking the spiritual meaning of each Puja or event? Do we want to spend rest of our life in performing robotic rituals or do we want a true spiritual awakening? Great Jain Master Shrimad Rajchandra warns us on our ritualistic activity in Atmasiddhishastra as follows.
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In other words, first we must prepare our self to study the great Jain Tatvagnan, including the properties of soul and matter, theories of karma, and perform all our activities in such a way M that it allows us to grow spiritually. This can only happen if we change our course of religious practices from mechanical Kriyakand to Swadhayay and self-introspection.
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