Jain Funeral Procedures

Author(s): Tansukh J Salgia
Publisher: Tansukh J Salgia

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Second Reading Sermon (optional - if a religious saint is in attendance): A sermon (short) declaring the hope of Jain faith may be preached.
Statement of Jain 'Creed' (or Belief). The presider now recites the Jain Creed (or requests the gathering to recite it together. The
people may remain seated or be asked to stand.) (Page 2 in the Mantra Booklet): The Jain Creed:
I believe in the Jain Creed which asserts six truths underlying human happiness and purpose. 1. I believe in the existence of independent Soul. 2. That Soul is eternal and is the source of my consciousness, happiness and life energy. 3. That Soul is the doer of my actions. 4. That Soul is the knower, and experiences the results of my actions. 5. That there is liberation of Soul from karmic, material bondage and the cycle of re-births. 6. That there is a way to Soul liberation that I can follow; which is through Right Faith, Right
Knowledge, and Right Conduct. This, as a Jain, I believe.
Prayers which include a) Awareness of the Rare Opportunity of Human Birth, b) Affirmation of Faith, c) Comfort, Remembrance, and Bidding Farewell, and may be stated:
a) Prayer of Awareness of Rare Opportunity of Human Birth for True Insight:
Being born as a human allows us to become aware of four (4) rare, auspicious opportunities in this life.
Attainment of true insight is most difficult. Self-realization is attained through the personal effort that accompanies true insight. Without the faculty of true insight it is not possible to traverse the path that leads to liberation from the vicious whirlpools of re-births. The first rare opportunity: Of all the conditions of mundane existence it is only in human life that it becomes possible to free the Self from sensual desires, and to shed the shackles of karmic bondage through religious practices. Only the extremely meritorious Souls take birth as humans.
The second rare opportunity: Even in human destiny it is only rarely that one has the purity of Soul to come in contact with the knowledge of the true path to travel to self-realization. For it is the knowledge of the true path to self-purification and spiritual progress that leads to enlightenment - the acquisition of true insight
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