Rituals are meant to be Adaptive and are not Universal...

Q20. Are rituals meant to be adaptive? Do rituals need to change based on environment and place or in other words, are rituals universal? As an example, why are Samayik and Pratikraman rituals not allowed in the temple and is that applicable in all countries?

 

First let’s talk about what are rituals, the purpose of rituals and how they should be performed. Then we will talk about the adaptability and applicability of rituals in different environments/countries.

 

Rituals – What/Why/How

Ritual, in the religious context, is a set of activities performed to remind basic principles of the religion. Rituals have a symbolic and spiritual significance to the performer.

 

Rituals are important for any religion to build a culture, to strengthen their religious values, to create a sense of community, and for survival of a religion. Rituals are required and play a significant role to instill values and build up religious interest in children, youth, and future generations.

 

End Goals of Rituals

Rituals performed with proper understanding ultimately help us:

·        Reduces our kashayas (anger, ego, greed, deceit)

·        Reduces our attachment to worldly objects and physical relationships

·        Increase compassion toward other living beings

·        Realize true nature of the soul and ultimately lead to liberation

And achieving the above is essentially the aim of religion.

 

How to Perform Rituals

Rituals must be performed with proper knowledge, understanding and reflection. Practicing of any ritual should start with understanding the spiritual purpose of the rituals.

As we are performing any ritual, we need to pause and ask ourselves honestly: Am I doing this ritual with the right knowledge and understanding? Am I doing this ritual with proper yoga posture, proper recitation of sutra, and meditation? Am I reflecting on how this ritual is helping me?

With such reflections, it ends up being primary means of inner transformation.

Rituals performed mechanically, out of fear, ego, greed, deceit, or personal gain, are pointless and provide no spiritual benefit.  On the contrary it further degrades us spiritually because we practice the religion under fear and greed.

 

Please refer to “Rituals: What, Why, How” article for additional details.

 

Rituals are created by the people, and for the people. They are meant to be something that can be easily followed by the laypeople on daily basis in their current environment. Otherwise, it ends up becoming a paper exercise and not something that can be or will be followed by people.

 

 

Rituals are meant to be adaptive

If the rituals are adaptive and responsive to different cultures and social climates, then the rituals and religion remain relevant and vibrant. Hence people continue to stay actively involved. We have seen over history that rituals have changed to suit the needs of the changing times, but values and spiritual intent were kept intact.

As an example, there are distinct differences in the way rituals were performed during Lord Parshwanath’s time vs. Lord Mahavir’s time.

 

During Lord Parshvanath’s time, repentance ritual was performed only if one made a mistake or violated a vow. If an induvial made a mistake multiple times, then the repentance ritual was performed multiple times in a day. And if an individual didn’t make any mistake or violated a vow, then the repentance ritual was not performed.

 

Whereas during Lord Mahavir’s time, he introduced discipline around rituals. He introduced six essential rituals for laypeople like Samayik, Chauvisathho, Vandana, Pratikraman, Kayotsarg and Pacchakhan. This is an example of how the rituals were adjusted in accordance with time, but the spiritual intent of eliminating our Mithyatva and reducing kashayas remained the same.

 

There are rituals around seasons in India. The seasons are different in America, so the seasons related rituals won't be necessarily applicable. For example, there are areas in USA and Canada were sunset occurs sometimes around 3 PM. Will it be practical for individuals in those areas to follow not eating after sunset ritual?  

 

Another example is not eating mangoes during monsoon months in India. Is that applicable in America since it rains almost all year around in many parts of the country?

 

 

Rituals are not universal

Rituals depend on place, time, and environment we live in. But the purpose and spiritual intent remains the same. So, some rituals will be pertinent regardless of the country and some rituals won’t be. We must use our own wisdom to determine the rituals applicability in our current environment. 

Practicing of rituals starts with understanding the spiritual purpose of the ritual and practical applicability to follow the ritual while meeting all the responsibilities as laypeople. This becomes especially important when people migrate from one place to another.

There are many rituals in place today that are rooted from generations of history and they are performed with the mindset that “this is how it’s always been done”. In some cases, these rituals are done in Mithyatva (ignorance), not knowing the spiritual intent but instead following it mechanically. This Mithyatva can be seeded from lack of knowledge, lack of desire to gain information, blindly following rituals, believing in the wrong beliefs, lack of alignment with Jain values/principles, or fear of challenging that status quo.

 

Ritual should not be mistaken as a religion

Ritual should not be mistaken as a religion, but rather the spiritual benefit that we gain directly/indirectly by performing a ritual is the religion. If we are getting spiritual benefit from a ritual, then it is a proper ritual versus a ritual just carried mechanically. Whatever rituals we do, we need to understand the spiritual purpose behind it and then see if we are achieving and/or improving towards achieving that purpose.

 

So, now that we understand rituals should be adaptive and they are not meant to be universal, let’s talk about specific question related Samayik and Pratikraman in detail:

 

 

Why does Jainism not allow Samayik and Pratikraman rituals in the temple and is that applicable in America?

This question has come up at the several Jain centers in America. Many of the small centers don’t have enough space to accommodate various simultaneous. Pratikramans during specifically during Paryushan to include Shvetämbar, Digambar, Sthanakvasi, Youth Pratikaman or Pratikaman performed in English language and so on.

Let’s first understand the purpose of Samayik and Pratikraman:

Samayik: The purpose of Samayik is to remain calm, undisturbed and in the state of equanimity for at least 48 minutes daily. This daily practice is intended to raise our spirituality and inner strength such that we can maintain the state of equanimity throughout the day.

Pratikraman: The purpose of Pratikraman is to reflect, repent, and re-approach upon wrong thoughts, words and actions and ask for forgiveness for the same. This daily practice keeps us constantly awake and aware about our way of living life.

The aims of both rituals are to prepare us in attaining divinity in our thoughts, words, and conduct through awareness and moment to moment mindfulness.

In our effort to understand if there are any scriptures or principles driven reasons for not performing such pious and spiritually uplifting rituals in the temple, we have found none. However, we were given some traditional reasons. We have also provided our perspective and logic for each of the reasons below:

Acharyas and Scholars indicate the following 4 reasons why we are not allowed to do Samayik and Pratikraman in the temple

1.     The primary function of temple is to do Puja and Chaitya Vandan of Tirthankar.  Samayik and Pratikraman are for self-reflection and meditation.  This may take long time.  During this time people sweat perspire and that degrades piousness of temple. 

2.     Samayik and Pratikraman when performed in a group, people seat around the circle and Sthapnacharya in the middle.  This will create Ashatana condition to Tirthankar because few people’s back will be in front of Tirthankar Murti.

3.     In Pratikraman vidhi, when Guru vandan vidhi occurs, if we to do it in the presence of Tirthankar then this is also considered Ashatana.

4.     Anybody can walk-into the temple and will disturb people’s Kaussag, Samayik, or Svadhyay, or meditation.

We need to evaluate the above reasons in different environment and culture from a logical and spiritual viewpoint:

1.     Originally the temples were meant for meditation, the murtis were used as symbol for meditation, and Jainism as well as Buddhism were against murti puja. Later, various rituals got introduced and meditative intent got lost. Also, if the length of the rituals is a concern, then why are Siddhachakra poojans performed in the temple which takes couple of hours? If poojans are allowed, then why not Samayik and Pratikraman?

2.     Regarding Ashatana because of people’s back in front of the murti, why not sit such that no one’s back is towards Tirthankar?

3.     Tirthankar are our first spiritual teachers / gurus then why can’t we recite guru vandan in front of our tirthankars? We do recite Ichcchami Khamasaman in front of tirthankara and monks/nuns and only difference is the number of times it is performed. We recite it for three times in the temple vs. two times in front of monks/nuns.

4.     The concern that anybody can walk in anytime and disturb meditation is more applicable in India since people come and go anytime, but not in USA, Canada, and many other countries.

As we can see that the reasons provided have no spiritual significance.  It is more driven by the culture and tradition in certain sects of Jainism. In America, during Samvatsari Pratikraman more space is required because the entire community does Pratikraman at the same time but in different rooms, such as Shvetambar hall, Sthanakvast hall, Shrimad hall, English Pratikraman hall. 

To indicate that we can do Samayik and Partikraman in a pious place like temple is logical as well as spiritual. The main goal for us is to achieve our spiritual (meditative) intent of these rituals in our current environment.

 

In Summary

We need to have clear understanding of the rituals and the purpose of rituals. For rituals to remain relevant, they need to be adaptive and we must use our own wisdom to determine the rituals applicability in our current environment. 

“Whatever I say, you must test this with your own reasoning and verify it through your own experience. Do not accept what I say blindly by faith alone until it passes the litmus test of intellect.”  – Tirthankar Mahavir

The above is the key message from Mahavir Swami, but the unfortunate situation is performing rituals without proper understanding and then not questioning it under the pretense of faith in religion. We must think about all the information holistically and make our decision keeping the spiritual aim in the forefront.

The ultimate purpose of any ritual is our inner transformation and we are the only ones who can track our progress honestly.

The intent is not to challenge or change a tradition just for sake of it but to understand principles and awareness, such that if a change is required in our current environment, then we can use our own wisdom and not become rigid or timid followers of cultural/legacy traditions.