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Their Religious Symbols, Drawings and Expressions : 195 hands on the hips. The section from the feet to the waist represents the hells (ürdhva-loka), the waist corresponds to the middle-world, our world, (madhya-loka), and the section from the waist to the neck to the celestial abode (adho-loka). His forehead bears a crescent of moon for the world of the Siddha (siddha-loka) and above it a point for the liberated soul. The adepts have taken this "cosmic man" as symbol of the Jainism. They draw, in the part of this man from the waist to the feet, an open hand, the thumb on the right, and inside the palm the "wheel of religious law” (dharma cakra) with, in its centre, the word “Ahimsa" stylised. The Jains living in India put the traditional “swastika” above the wheel, in the part from the waist to the neck to depict the four kinds of worldly existence (human, animal and plant, celestial and infernal beings), three dots are set for the three jewels” and a moon which represents the "Siddhasilā” with, in its centre another dot evoking the liberated soul. In order to avoid confusion with the nazi “swastika”, this Indian symbol is replaced in the West by the mantra “Aum" in a stylised form, called “Oṁkāra”, that includes the five first letters of “Arhat”, “Aśarīrī,” “Acārya”, "Upādhyāya” and “Muni”. Written underneath is the motto “parasparopagraho-jīvānām” (living beings are interdependent and have to manifest between them a muiual support). Note that the word "aśarīri" means "without body" i.e. "Siddha” and that in the West another Jain motto is "Live and let live”.
Sometimes, one may see also in Jain temples a human form as a hollow in a metallic holder. It symbolizes the perfect soul without any tie. This invites devotees to meditate on the abandonment of the 'body and on the liberation of karmic matter of the soul.
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Their symbol - practices
We have already seen it is necessary to avoid taking a great number of Jain religious practices on first sight. So, for instance, the offerings
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