Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
The cosmos as visualized by the Jains is one to which radical asceticism is the only rational and moral response. Whether radical world rejection is an emotional or practical possibility for most people is another matter. In their persons, ascetics exemplify the path to liberation; in their interactions with nonascetics they draw others - less advanced than they - along in the right direction. Given these roles, ascetics emerge as the only beings truly worthy of worship. The Tirthankars, as the ultimate ascetics, epitomize worship-worthiness, and Parsvanath's five-kalyanak puja has taught us what the ingredients of this kind of worship-worthiness are. Living ascetics partake of the same qualities, though in far lesser degree. They too are worthy of worship, though not to the same extent.
The Tirthankars and living ascetics may therefore be said to represent the two poles of a continuum of worship-worthiness. As will be seen in Chapters Three and Four, the middle region of this continuum is, in fact, populated. Here we find distinguished deceased ascetics, the Dadagurus, who are not Tirthankars but whose veneration is nonetheless of great importance for the Svetambar Jains of Rajasthan. These figures turn out to be vital elements in the integration of the Svetambar Jain tradition as manifested in Jaipur.
This chapter has examined the role of objects of worship among temple-going Svetambar Jains. Jains, we see, worship ascetics - of various degrees and kinds. It is now time to turn the matter around. Who, we must now ask, are these Jains who worship ascetics? How is their identity constructed in ritual? Of what significance for the worshiper is the fact that the object of his worship is an ascetic? These are questions to be addressed in the next chapter.
