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Temples are for LIFE
Unlike Buddhists, Jain temples give a central place to idol-worship, signifying the elevated place accorded to Jaina Tirthankars, and intending their emulation by devotees. In time, similar honour was given to icons of Acharyas(teachers), Siddhas (englightened Ones), Sruta Devi(Goddess of Learning), and Yakshi (female folk deity). Icon took on symbolic form, such as the circle for Mahavira. First, though part of the Indian mainstream, Jain builders were not afraid to be inventive and strike out on their own. Second, temples are not simply structures of stone and mortar, but are living shrines of Jain values, with their dominant quality of compassion. Third, Jain temples unite nature with spirit, the sacred with the secular, and mutually hallow the affairs of heaven and earth. The challenge to us today is to break new ground in respect of an understanding of the role of the temple for each community. Temples must not be built as ego trips for the rich and famous, nor as comfortable country clubs for birds that get high on pluming and preening their own coloured feathers. We must transcend the tradition's historic error of being at ease in the temple and must reach out to the larger community. If people do not come to the temple, the temple must go out to the people. Each family then becomes an outpost of the temple, even within the forest of skyscrapers! I recall, it was Dr. Sulekh Jain who, at our first encounter, virtually conscripted me to deliver a speech at Morristown (near Detroit), where I called for the Jain community to build temples not just of bricks but of brains, which then sparked Sulekhji and others to found JAFNA (Jain Academic Foundation of North America). That man's initial compassion for me accounts for all of my involvement in the Jain community, though I am not a Jain. The bottom line is that building temples is significant to the extend that the builders have their eyes on the Lord and not a cheering public. Nothing must come in the way of that beatific vision. The magnificent Ranakpur temple enshrines this truth, for thought it is erected of 1,444 pillars, not a single pillar obstructs the view of the Lord from any nook or corner. Extract of article by Cromwell Crawford. The Crawford family has long roots in India, going back to 1761, with Henry Crawford serving as governor under Lord Hastings. Born in Jhansi and educated in the Bombay Scottish Orphanage, Mahim, and Serampore University, West Bengal, Cromwell emigrated to the U.S. where he earned a Ph.D. from The Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley. He currently teaches at the University of Hawaii and publishes in the area of Indian Medical ethics.
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