________________
panthi sect of the Digambara community in their daily worship. The Svetambara sect use ornaments and clothes also in their ritual, for the decoration of the Images of the Tirthamkaras ; but this is not the practice of the other sect, the ,Digambaras, The Bisa-panthis, among the. Digambaras, apply saffron or sandal. wood paste to the toes of the Images, and also decorate then with fresh flowers, but the Tera-panthis regard this as an act of inter. ference with the Divine Forn, which is Nirgrantha (Nude) and anadorned. The nse of fresh flowers also involves avoidable himsa (injury).
The merit of the Jaina prtjů is great; it enables each devotee - there are no priests aniong the Jainas to obtain mercenary merit for their employers--- to directly place himself (or herself] in actual contact with the Form Divine, as long as he is cngaged in its performance. It fills his leart also with faith in the practical realizability of lis Ideal, inasmuch as he has before him the Image of a man who actually realized it in his own Self. Further it enables the mind to be concentrated in holy meditation with the greatest ease, since all the time spent in the worship of the Deity is time actually spent in the contemplation of soul's diqinity, and on allied subjects, meditation on which constitutes what is known as the Dharma Dhyana (meritorious or religious meditation), There are several other forms of puja, but they are not obligatory. Even with the form here given, it is possible for the devotee to perform only the arghya portion of it, if he he unable to recite the whole ritual. The " Adoration" again is not compulsory if there be no time for its recitation. But the prakshala is compulsory, as there can be no pajů, properly so called, without it. There must also be at least the arghya to follow the prakshalu, unless the material has been defiled, or rendered unfit for the purposes of the púja for some other reason. Those who have leisure, spend hours in their morning worship, performing every part of the holy ritual, with great enthusiasm, and thereby earning accumulated merit which is, indeed, not easy to be acquired by the householder outside the precincts of the Temple itself.
It only remains to be said that there are two aspects of the Jaina ritual, namely, (i) the material (dravya), and (ii) the mental (bhápa). The dravya půja consists in the ceremonious ritual that is accompanied, by the offering. of different kinds of things, tater scents, and others, to be described in the following pages. The
