Jain Spirit 2003 12 No 17

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

Page 46

WORSHIP s
100
RITUALS ARE PREGNANT
44
WITH MEANING
Lawrence Babb analyses several poojas to demonstrate this
WOULD LIKE TO CHALLENGE THE INTELLECTUAL bias that inserts the word 'mere' (visibly or by implication) in front of the word 'ritual', thereby dismissing ritual as inconsequential or trivial. In my opinion, the careful study of religious traditions reveals that rites and ceremonies can be an integral part of the religious experience. Rituals often serve as a crucial medium in which belief is constructed and articulated. Moreover, participation in the ritual is, for many, a means by which personal religious belief and commitment are expressed. Because this mode of expression so often involves the artistry of motion, poetry, song and visual images, it can be considered as part of the 'art' of living religiously.
In what follows, I want to show how Jainism illustrates these ideas. Before proceeding, however, I must indicate that what I have to say on this subject reflects the Jain tradition I am most familiar with, namely that of the image-worshiping Shvetambara Jains associated with the Khartar Gacch. I am well aware that other Jain traditions promote different ideas of the value of image-worship and it is certainly not my intention to try to sort out this old and important debate. My hope is only that I can share some of my own personal appreciation for the rituals that have been my privilege to study.
My thesis is that image-worship can be considered a special way of encountering basic Jain teachings. One can, of course, encounter and absorb these teachings by means of words alone - as, for example, in a religious discourse or in a book about religious doctrine. In rites or worship, however, participants engage with beliefs at multiple levels. They hear, sing, see and act in a way that fully connects hearts and minds with the tradition's teachings. To show what I mean by this, I describe three rites. Each brings a key theme in Jainism dramatically to the fore.
My first example is the Snatra Pooja. This is a rite that enacts the birth and first ritual bath (abhisheka) of a Tirthankara. It consists of a complex sequence of scripted activities focused on a Tirthankara image. The most important part of the rite is the participants' singing of a text, which should be done with maximum devotional spirit (bhav). The text used in the Khartar Gacch tradition was authored by a distinguished monk named Devchandraji (1689-1775). It tells the story of how one who is to become a Tirthankara acquires the Tirthankara-nama-karma, and then describes his mother's
Jain Spirit December 2003 February 2004
Snatra Pooja
000
auspicious visions, his holy birth and the gods' responses to the birth. Its climax, of course, is the transfer of the infant Tirthankara to Mount Meru where, seated on Indra's lap, he
PHOTO: ATUL K. SHAH