Jain Spirit 2002 03 No 10

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 46

The act of worship requires a trust in divine intelligence. Whether it's having faith in gods, the divine in oneself or the power of the Absolute, we have to believe that we are connected to something greater than ourselves in order to benefit from ritual. Each person derives meaning from life and ritual based on his or her capacity for knowledge. A woman might engage in a complex ritual for example a time consuming yantra (a symbolic formula of lines used to attract the energy of a deity into a sacred space), to propitiate a god in order to land a good husband. She firmly believes that by following this ritual devoutly, she will eventually get married. If the ritual "doesn't work," she'll be very disappointed. Another person may engage in exactly the same ritual, but her every move is informed by a deep study of herself. Every line she draws, every lamp she lights is a way for her to sense her own relationship to herself and the divine forces within. This way of being with herself creates a magnetism that may attract a husband or may change the young woman's life entirely. The medieval Christian mystic Meister Eckart once said, "True prayer is knowing." Yet another person can do all the movements, draw the lines, light the candles but because her mind is one place and her heart someplace else, her spirit non-existent, she will feel and gain nothing.
In ancient times, people performed rituals in fear of their gods to appease them, to beg for good fortune, to know the future - as if these gods sat in the clouds somewhere holding power over them. But each god is really within you. The Catholic religion says that "God is everywhere and in all things." The Indian greeting "Namaste" means "I salute the divine in you." In the book, Meeting God, author Stephen P. Huyler observes that in India, "...today the observance of household poojas is of equal importance to the neurosurgeon and the farmer, the nuclear physicist and the fisherman, the computer technician and the weaver." This is because in India there is still a belief that the divine is everywhere, from a blade of grass to the flowing river. Recent scientific theories agree that everything is indeed inhabited by a connecting intelligence. Scientist Rupert Sheldrake has named this phenomenon "the morphic resonance". It explains why our ear looks like a nautilus shell. Why birds in London learn to open milk bottles and suddenly birds all over England know how to do the same thing. Even how you know the phone is about to
SHEENA CLOVER
வரசி
Sceptics Lose Out
Children conducting an aarti at school during Mahavir Jyanti
ring. Perhaps if we in the West could re-connect with this greater intelligence, our lives would begin to have more meaning than "whoever dies with the most toys wins."
After the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, communities around the world held prayer vigils. In some they walked slowly, in some they sang, they built shrines, read poems and prayers. For a moment, the entire world was connected through ritual. It helped to heal wounds, bring peace and create planetary unity. This event proved that the need for ritual still lies deep within each human. However, perhaps it's time to re-examine our rituals and develop something that is appropriate for the people we have become. Many centuries ago, the proper ritual involved sacrifice the killing of an animal or sometimes even a human being. So many animals were needlessly killed because people had lost the true meaning of ritual. The Jains were some of the people responsible for the ending of this tradition. All over the world, people stopped using animal and human sacrifice, and new rituals more appropriate to the people were developed.
What are the rituals for a technological people? For a religion dispersed around the globe? For a civilization that is beginning to realise that like Sheldrake's "morphic field", we are all connected? Perhaps Jains will once again lead the way. Surely, the whole world needs it now.
Lavinia Plonka is an artist and writer based in New Jersey, USA
March-May 2002 Jain Spirit 45