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Their Religious Symbols, Drawings and Expressions : 187 If Jains worship so much these eminent beings it is because they are sure they have shown the right way to obtain liberation. They think that in imitating them and in taking them as models, they have the power to gain their same strength, courage and valour. By seeing and contemplating them under various forms, like images or statues, they feel themselves quasi magically pervaded with their benefice influence. They consider they may so already enjoy a tiny part of their own future bliss. In praising and honouring them, they have the feeling that their own efforts and sacrifices will be likewise rewarded. They feel as transported to their future “Paradise“. The influence of these “Conquerors” on their life, on their behaviour and their state of mind, is boundless. They are hallowed, purified by their contemplation (darśana), by their meditation on them and by following their example. These beings are the symbols of those each Jain aspires to be after his (her) life.
It is nearly the same for the celestial beings, who dwell, according to the Jain tradition, in the upper world, for variable times. Sure, these ones do not enjoy liberation yet, but they will obtain it after a rebirth as human beings, more quickly if they are in one of the highest heavens. These are the symbols of souls who have nearly attained the so wished aim. Jains regard them as having an existence that is neither totally happy nor absolutely free of worldly worries, but already better than on earth. They also think that these beings have benefice powers. It is why they devote to them a sort of cult, including prayers, to receive various favours just, like Christians from some of their saints. On the other hand, they fear the evil influences of beings they think dwelling in the underworld (or hell), those who, during their lives on earth have been slaves of their passions and have so accumulated bad “karma “in their soul. These are more inauspicious they are suffering for a long time severe pains in a dark and lowest hell.
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