Book Title: Nav Smarana
Author(s): Vinod Kapashi
Publisher: Vinod Kapashi

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Page 168
________________ The ancient traditional yantra is found in most of the books and is also carved in some temples. This yantra has no circles except the middle lotus. The mantra inscribed within the squares is slightly longer then any of the mantras given in the above sources. Underneath the yantra it is repeated, viz: it is useful in making someone surrender to your wishes and becalming a rogue elephant. Conclusion: It probably does not matter about the variation in the wording but one thing seems to be fairly consistent, the mantra (for verse No 12) is to be used for making someone surrender to your wishes (be it a girl or a wild elephant or some people you know). I think that because this is to be used as a 'vashikaran', i.e. a surrender mantra, it can be interpreted as reciting for all sorts of such benefits. One can pacify the rogue elephant that is running towards him, or one can make his beloved woman to come back and marry him. It is merely the wishes of a worshipper. This way I think there is no discrepancy in the suggested results of the mantra. However there is one more point. The story associated with this verse narrates that a man's physical deformity was cured by the recitation of verse No 12. This is again difficult to comprehend because the mantra is to be used for one purpose, whereas the story suggests an entirely different purpose. This leads to many questions. The same type of exploration can be done for all the forty eight verses but this would fall beyond the scope of my work here. Therefore we will satisfy ourselves by considering one verse only, which we have done so far. The answers to these discrepancies may never be found. A Ritual of the Bhaktämara Poojan: The Bhaktamara Stotra is so popular that sometimes people arrange a special religious function to ceremoniously worship this stotra. Various rituals of worship have been devised by the Jain ächäryas over the last thousand or so years. The mass worship has one unique advantage. It brings the community together and creates a joyous and devotional atmosphere. One can go to such a function and witness an atmosphere, which is truly harmonious and full of the energy created by the faithful. The ritual of worship is indeed an interesting one and it is a joy to watch or participate in the ceremony. It must be noted that there are other rituals, which are also associated with other stotras. Another popular worship (pooja) is that of the Uvasaggaharam Poojan, The poojans of the Namaskära Mantra, the Santikaram Stotra and the Kalyan Mandir Stotra are also done in temple assembly halls. I have here described the pooja ritual of the Bhaktämara Stotra. This pooja was carried out in London. List of the ingredients and objects required: Saffron, a sacred powder väskshepa, made from a mixture of sandalwood; incense; golden and silver leaf paper (varakh); wick (cotton wool); ghee; matches to light the lamps (dipaks), forty-four such dipaks (glasses to light dipaks in there); milk; yoghurt; sugarcane juice; some silver coins; leaves of beetle nut (pän); rose water; holy water from any pilgrimage site; sacred threads (these are interlocked threads of various 168

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