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CHAPTER VII
WORSHIP, RITUAL, FASTS & FESTIVALS
It would, at first sight, look like a paradox that Jainism, which does not recognize any Supreme Being, supernatural power, incarnation, god or goddess, who can judge, reward or punish human beings, grant them favours or condemn them to perdition, does not disallow worship and ritual of a sort. People usually pray to, worship, or propitiate the force or forces which they think can, if pleased, give them their heart's desire, and, if annoyed, throw them into all kinds of trouble and misery. The deity, as conceived in Jainism, is, by its very nature, incapable of doing any such thing, notwithstanding its omniscience and omnipotence.
The simple reason is that the 'deity' is at the same time absolutely devoid of love and hatred, attachment and aversion. It is also krta-krtya, the one who has achieved every thing that was to be achieved; nothing is left undone, and there is not anything which is to be done. And, it is perfectly and eternally happy; meddling in the affairs of the world is bound to detract from that state of unalloyed supreme bliss.
So, the deity has nothing to do with the world and does not interfere with man's affairs. It does not answer man's prayers, devotion, worship, invocation or propitiation. According to Jainism, every body reaps what he has sown; one enjoys the fruits of his good actions and suffers from the results of
