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The Siddhacakra and Namokāra Mantra : 93
arising from his meditation in order to create a pure divine body for worship.”23 The processes of purification and divinization of the self through bhūtasuddhi and Nyāsa were evidently so foundational to Indian tantra that Jainism could not easily ignore them, for doing so would risk the losing followers who were drawn to such elaborate and systematic methods towards salvation, while also making conversion to Jainism less appealing due to an alternatively difficult process of salvation through mere rigorous austerity and meditation on the pure self. Bhūtasuddhi and nyāsa were so foundational to tantric systematics that Jainism evidently saw it to its advantage to appropriate these methods into its own Yoga/tantric system rather than to criticize and abstain from them. Gavin Flood confirms the
dational nature of bhutasuddhi and nyāsa in saying, "if anything is common to tantric traditions it is the divinization of the body through the processes we have described:, "mantra, the bhutaśuddhi, Nyāsa and so on.” 24 Attaining yoga or union with one's Ista-devatā as a tantric meditational practice
Another foundational element of Tantric Sādhanā is the notion that through meditation on one's Ista-devatā in devotion one may acquire likeness or identity with that diety. Arthur Avalon, recognized as one of the first western scholars to seriously study Indian Tantra remarks “So the Mind which thinks of the divinity which it worships, (ista-devatā) is at length, through continued devotion transformed into the likeness of that Devatā. By allowing the Devatā thus to occupy the mind for long it becomes as pure as the Devatā. This is the fundamental principle of Tāntrika Sādhanā or religious practice."25
Just as the laity clearly identifies with the gods as proto-exemplars of the ideal Jain devotee, the Siddhacakra and Namokāra mantra appear to encourage the devotee to meditate on the 108 divine qualities so as to identify with the ascetic and the Arihant himself. This process of identifying with the Arihant through the systematic worship of his divine attributes becomes quite clear when reading
