Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
Rites generate fruits. The nature of the fruits produced by Jain rites of worship, however, is an ambiguous matter. As we shall learn, many Jains, especially ascetics, stress the soteriological benefits of rites; from this perspective they are seen as mere aids along the way to the sole legitimate goal, which is liberation from worldly bondage. But rites of worship also bear worldly fruits. Thus, there is potentially more than one way in which a Jain worshiper can interpret his or her acts of worship. The coconuts deposited for each of Parsvanath's five kalyanak 's in the rite with which we began the preceding chapter clearly stand for good results, but what good results? As this chapter will show, this doubleness of potential interpretation - worldly versus spiritual benefits - is a deep feature of the Jain worldview.
In the actual theatrics of ritual performances, the emphasis often seems to be on the worldly side of the equation. Suggestions of prosperity, increase, and worldly benefit abound. Many major rites, for example, end on a note of true sumptuousness. An elaborated svastik (of the design called nandyavart) is often executed on a large table standing in front of the image being worshiped. Here a huge pile of sweets and fruit is deposited by multiple participants just prior to the final lamp offering. Although the sweets and fruit are construed quite differently in normative interpretations of worship (as we shall see later in this chapter), in this context they strongly suggest overflow and abundance. Rites I saw in Ahmedabad often ended in a ceremony of benediction (called santi kalas) in which liquids used in the preceding puja are poured into a pot until it overflows. The pouring is done in a continuous stream until the accompanying verbal formulas have been completed. At the moment of overflow, participants throw rice and reach for the liquid, which they apply to their heads and foreheads; a female participant then circumambulates the ritual site with the pot on her head and takes it as a moveable blessing to another location. The liquid carries a kind of beneficial power which, among other things, can aid those seeking children.[1]
In rites of this sort the juxtapositions of worldliness and otherworldliness are startling, even jarring. The appearance of overflow and abundance is mobilized in a celebration; and, indeed, people believe that the celebration itself can bring into existence the very overflow and abundance-even fertility - that outward appearance suggests. But the celebration is of a state of being that is the very negation of overflow and abundance. Devotees belt out songs in jubilation, but the songs are about the cessation of all jubilation - indeed, the cessation of all affect. What, then, is the devotee doing? What does it mean for the devotee's identity that the object of his or her devotion is an ascetic who pushes asceticism to its practical and even logical limit? Who is such a devotee? This chapter deals with these questions by examining two rites of worship. One, the snatra puja, dramatizes with particular vividness the ritually constructed persona of the Jain worshiper. The second rite, the astprakari puja or "eightfold worship," illustrates the peculiar consequences of the asceticism of the object of worship for the relationship between the Jain worshiper and the object or his or her worship. We shall see that this relationship is - in Svetambar ritual culture - am-biguous, tense, and finally unstable.
