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FOREWORD
THE VÕRSÁIPPER is presumed to understand, and he should
clearly anderstand, that the Jaina_worship is not intended to please or propitiate any real or imaginary gods and goddesses to obtain boons of them. In the iconoclastíc Jaina Faith there is no roöña for idolatry of this or any other type. It is ideal-atry which is tocómmended by Jainism, not idolatry! The Jaina Góds are never unpleased, so as to be influenced by devotion or praige. They have no boons to grant; rather, on the contrary, they enjoin a renunciation of all the good things of the world that can be the subjects of a devotee's prayers. The Gods are never in need of food, or unguents and scents, which the devotees may offer. The true idea underlying, the Jaina worship-ritual is that of the adoratiun; of the attributes of Divinity, which the devotee wishes to express in his own self. : He, therefore takes Those Holy Ones mlio haye already attained to the high Ideal as Models of Perfection for himself, to copy and imitate and to follotr. Hence, while offering different articles in the course of the ritual, he is never, for a moment, under the fatal delasion that he is offering them to the Deity, the Scripture, or the Saint, but believes that he is either mentally renouncing such things as cooling scents, the delicacies that tickle the palate, and the like, or that the offering lias a symbolical significance, e.g.s the emblematic rice (akehatár) that are referable to the indestructible seat (akshaya pada). The poetical ferrour of devotional compositions bas, indeed, þeen at times characterised by an overmastering enthusiasm that seelis to overstep the bonödary of precision of expression,.bat reflection reveals it to consist purely in a delightful weaving of a pattern: of thought which retains its native elegance even in the midst of a partly foreign setting. ..
· The Hindi text biás been adopted in preference to the Sanskrt one, by reason of its usefulness for a larger number of men. Nevertheless the Sapskrit text will. be found embodied in the Appendix for the ûge of those who are conversant with that language. The English translation of the one is almost that of the other, the difference being slight and negligible. ; is
The půjā selected for this little pamphlet is the one which, with slight modifications, is-in-yogae-generally arñong-the, Jainas of all sésts; . It is the one-thich is actually emplosed by the Tera.
