The Jain 1992 04 Special Issue

Author(s): Natubhai Shah, Vinod Kapashi
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 20

inquire formally after their well-being and to perform for them various personal services, including the provision of medicaments for the sick. His work must then claim his undivided attention. Unfortunately in this country there are no monks or nuns, hence it is impossible to observe the avasyakas.
When he returns from the place of business he is to carry out the noon puja, after providing food and other necessities for any monks who may require to be fed, he is to take his midday meal, eating in moderation. He will then reaffirm the pratyakhyana and meditate on the meaning of the scriptures. At the close of the afternoon he performs the evening puja which includes Aarati and the six avasyakas. He is then to engage in svadhyaya and if necessary to minister to the bodily needs of the ascetics by massaging their limbs and in other ways.
Finally, he goes home after doing necessary household duties, goes to bed meditating on mantra Namaskara.
He (or she) stands before the main Tirthankara image first (the other images may be worshipped later) and with folded hands says the Namokkara Mantra (Namo arihantanam...), or simply Namo Jinanam, 'I bow to the Jina', and then walks three times around the shrine. (The shrine is normally set forward from the temple wall, providing an ambulatory for this purpose. The circumambulation is clockwise so that the image is kept at the worshipper's right hand.) During this a suitable invocation is recited : one such relates the three turns around the image to the Three Jewels of the Jain religion, Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. Once more facing the image, a short verse of praise is uttered, and the worshipper marks his forehead with a tilak, or dot, in sandalwood paste which is kept outside the main temple and il signifies to obey Jina's teachings. He (or she) then ties the mukhakosa (a handkerchief or small cloth used for this purpose), or the end of the cloth worn on the upper part of the body, to cover the mouth. This is to prevent the breath from polluting the image or offerings, or from harming tiny living beings of the air. Then (saying nisihi) the worshipper goes into the shrine and cleans off the flowers and sandalwood paste from the previous day from the image using a soft brush usually made of peacock feathers and a moistened cloth. Then follows the jala puja or abhiseka puja. Water containing the 'live nectars', pancamrita, milk, curds, ghee, sugar and flowers, is poured over the image from a spouted vessel, followed by pure water. This recalls the bathing of the newborn Tirthankara by the king of the gods on Mount Meru, and a recitation relating to this is said. The image is then wiped dry with three cloths. That completes the first puja. There is a Sanskrit mantra (scntence) offering each of the cight substances to the Supreme Lord (the Jina) which may be repeated at the end of each stage of the eightfold puja.
(All the rituals in dina charya have special meaning. Details of this and details about the Puja, the Caitya Vandana and various avasyakas will be discussed separately in this issue as well as other articles in "The Jain".)
DEVA PUJA
This is the worship (puja) of the god (deva), that is, the Tirthankara, or murti puja, worship of the image. It is a daily ritual performed by the pious lay person. As it involves cight offerings to the Jina image it is also known as the astakari puja, eightfold puja. The following account shows the basic sequence of the ritual. Whilst it remains the same in general outline, there can be considerable variations in practice. As this is generally a personal individual ritual the individual may give it his or her own particular order and character. The eightfold list of offerings is expanded to seventeen or twenty-one traditional texts and the sequence of the different stages of the ritual are not invariable. There is a fairly wide choice of prayers and invocations which are mainly in the vernacular.
The next stage involves anointing the image with sandalwood paste on the big toes, knees, wrists, shoulders, top of the head, forehead, neck, chest and navel. There are appropriate verses, said in the vernacular, to accompany each of these actions. The image may be further adorned with gold or silver leaf.
The worshipper, bathed and in clean clothes (usually two pieces of unstitched cloth for a man), enters the temple saying Nisihi. This word, literally meaning *prohibited', has been subject to a good deal of interpretation by writers. Basically it indicates that the worshipper puts away all outside activities on entering the temple. It is repeated when he or she leaves the main body of the temple to enter the garbha griba (the inner shrine where the principal images are situated). It is said a third time at the conclusion of the Deva Puja, when the worshipper may move on to the further stage of worship in the Caitya Vandana (sce later).
Thirdly, flowers are placed on the Jina image or a garland is placed around the image's neck. The flowers should not be broken or cut into for that would involve violence or himsa. There is a verse (in the vernacular) to accompany this offering.
For the next two stages the worshipper first offers incense (chupa), waving the burning incense before the iamge, and then light (dipa) in the form of a lamp of ghee with camphor. There are suitable recitations at the same time.
20 Jain Education Interational 2010_03