Editor Aparigraha Jain
Editor Carla Geerdes
Day 3 started for some newcomers near to exhaustion. They had started their trip one or two days before, and reached Ladnun in the early morning hours only. After a short nap in the park, they recovered speedily. Except for a few guesthouses on the campus, there was no further facility for accomodation.
After Acharyashree's morning lecture, people went for lunch, and then relaxed in the park. In the afternoon, a very special ceremony was expected, it was nearly touchable in the atmosphere...
Like in the morning, people started to swarm to and gather again in the big Assembly Hall. There was this nervousness in the air, announcing special ceremonies to come.
Then it was visible: the saints all had gathered like a living wall at the boundary of the Assembly Hall. Just as seen on the photo, the monks started to encircle the left side, where the male lay followers were sitting.
They turned their backs to the outside, as if to protect the Sangh from any outer influence. The Sangh's attention was already focussed on the inner activities, even those sitting outside the circle, were following nearly breathlessly the ongoing activities. We did not know what was about to happen, but increasing silence among the audience made it not difficult to guess that something important was going to be watched.
The monks gazed at Acharyshree with folded hands and made clear by body language, that this situation was very meaningful for them.
Then we succeeded to get nearer to the stage, and found it left by all monks, nuns, and Samanijis. Acharya Mahaprajna, Yuvacharya Mahashraman, Sadhvi Pramukha Kanakprabha were the only three persons on the stage. In front of them, all Sadhvishrees and Samanijis were standing. They had encircled the female lay followers up to the boundaries of the hall.
They all were solemnly reciting together something, that sounded like promise containing prayer to our ears. Then someone told us, that they were renewing their vows of paying obeisance to their Acharya, the one and only head of the order. This ceremony was preceded by the reading of the letter of Acharya Bikshu, the founder of the order, where he had laid down the rules of conduct. This commitment to accept the rules of conduct as monks, nuns, and Samanis was renewed annually at Maryada Mahotsav.
All female mendicants came forward to their head and renewed publicly their obeisance to the rules of ascetic conduct, as noted about 200 years ago.
Then it was the monk's turn.
They approached the stage one after the other, in order of their date of Diksha.
They were followed by those who took Diksha later.
The last in that row was the newly ordained Muni, whose Diksha was the last one. Then the two Samanjis concluded the row.