Absent Lord Quotes

“The game has no beginning or end; it has been going on from beginningless time (anadi kal se, as Jains always say) and will continue for an infinite time to come (anant kal tak). Nor does it reflect the purposes of some divine creator; there is no rhyme or reason to it - the game simply is.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“One of the most striking features of Jainism, as we shall see, is that the monastic elite is utterly dependent on the laity. Therefore, a Jain tradition in the fullest sense, as opposed to a mere soteriology, cannot be for mendicants alone; it must bring ascetics and their followers into a system of belief and practice that serves the religious interests of both.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Jain teachings do not stand or fall on rational arguments; rather, the sole and sufficient guarantee of their validity is the Tirthankar's omniscience. These teachings are not only regarded as unconditionally true; they are also enunciated for one specific purpose and for no other reason. That purpose is the attainment of liberation from the world's bondage.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Central to the Jain view of the predicament of the soul is the distinctive Jain theory of karma....We act and experience the results of our acts; that is, we consume (and must consume) the fruit (phal) of our actions (karmas)....The accumulations of karma on the soul are responsible for the soul's bondage. This is because they cover the soul and occlude its true nature, which is omniscient bliss. The keys to liberation, therefore, are two. First, one must avoid the accumulation of future karma. Violent actions are particularly potent sources of karmic accumulation, and this is the foundation of the tradition's extraordinary emphasis on non-violence. Second, one must eliminate the karma already adhering to the soul...The behavior of men and women who are not Jains creates the most damage. The meat eaters of this world, the fighters of wars, the butchers, the choppers of trees, and so on, leave a vast trail of carnage wherever they go.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Saciya is, in effect, a vegetarian Durga, suitable for Osvals. She is a generalized Rajput lineage goddess, sanitized in such a way that she becomes an appropriate lineage goddess for those who once were Rajpur but have now become Jains.

It should be noted that the vegetarianization of a meat-eating goddess is not a purely Jain phenomenon, for there is a prominent Hindu example as well. The famed Hindu goddess Vaisno Devi was in all likelihood once a meat-eating goddess herself, who became "tamed" in accord with values deriving from the Hindu Vaisnavas. Her name derives from the term Vaisnava, and the Vaisnava tradition is strongly vegetarian; indeed, the term Vaisnava can mean, simply, "vegetarian.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Worshiping with flowers is in fact problematical for Jains because of the violence inflicted on the flowers and the plants from which they were picked. This leads Muktiprabhvijay to some fairly desperate casuistry (ibid.: 55-57). He says that the flowers in question are picked by the Mali (gardener) for his livelihood, and therefore when a layman pays a price for the flowers there can be no question of sin (pap) or fault (dos). He adds that when the layman purchases such flowers he should think that, if he does not buy them, they will go to some wrong believer (mithyatvi) who will burn them in a (Hindu-style) sacrifice. It could also be that these flowers might go to some debauched person who will make them into a necklace or bouquet to give to his mistress or concubine. The flowers might then become a bed to be wallowed upon in lust; or they might end up on some woman's neck, and in this way cause someone to become infatuated and thus pushed in the direction of sin.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“From the standpoint of Jainism's highest ideals, ascetics are not supposed to be magicians. As we have already seen in the case of Chagansagar, the hagiographers must therefore legitimize this power by establishing a Jain context for it. one legitimizing strategy is to accentuate the point that the miraculous power is associated with its possessor's asceticism. Another strategy is to stress that the purpose of the miracles was always to glorify Jain teachings or to help Jainism flourish.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“In the hagiographies the magic tends to be rationalized as a means of promulgating and protecting Jainism. In the cult of the Dadagurus this same magic is refocused as a source of aid to individuals.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“As we saw in the last chapter, the dreams have a double meaning: They are the dreams that announce the birth of a universal emperor, but they also announce the birth of a Tirthankar. In other words, a Tirthankar is one who might have been an earthly king but became an ascetic instead. In this connection, it is important to note that a Tirthankar-to-be is always born into a family belonging to the Kshatriya varna, the social class of warriors and kings.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Ascetics are completely dependent on the laity for the most basic necessities of life, including nourishment. The transaction in which ascetics are fed is probably the most important lay-ascetic interaction. ... Fundamental to this transaction is the idea that the food taken by an ascetic can never be prepared on his or her behalf. This has the effect of insulating the ascetic from the violence that went into the food's production and preparation; these things were not done at his or her instigation. The sin is that of the preparer of the food, but presumably, it is offset by the merit (punya) generated by feeding the ascetic.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Cort also points out, these ascetic institutions reflect the agnatic values prevailing in the wider social world: monks constitute the core of these entities, and nuns are attached to monks' lineages, just as women become attached to the families and lineages of their husbands by marriage.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Indeed, a layperson must make a vow before an ascetic (or in front of a Tirthankar-image if no ascetic is available) before undertaking ascetic practices such as fasts; without such a vow the exercise will be without results.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“The Jains have created a complex system of biological knowledge. It is a system that includes concepts of physiology, morphology, and modes of reproduction, but its main focus is taxonomy. It should not be thought of as a system of scientific analysis. Its basic motivation is soteriological, and the system may be seen as a conceptual scaffolding for the Jain vision of creaturely bondage and the path to liberation”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Humanity's physical surround is the terrestrial world, which is a flat disc with Mount Meru at its center. Here, and only here, are to be found human beings and animals. At the middle of this disc, and serving as Mount Meru's base, is a circular continent called Jambudvip, which is subdivided into seven regions separated by impassable mountains.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“A major field for religious donations is the support of important periodic rites. These are often held in conjunction with calendrical festivals and also on the founding anniversaries of temples. They are frequently occasions for the display of great wealth. Truly startling sums are often paid in the auctions held to determine who will have the honor of supporting particular parts of the ceremony or of assuming specific ceremonial roles. This aspect of sponsorship seems to function as a public validation of who's who in the wealth and power hierarchies of the Jain community.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Jain teachings do not stand or fall on rational arguments; rather, the sole and sufficient guarantee of their validity is the Tirthankars' omniscience. These teachings are not only regarded as unconditionally true; they are also enunciated for one specific purpose for no other reason.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

“Many Jains worship at Hindu temples and participate in Hindu festivals. These issues are, of course, greatly complicated by the fact that the status of "Hinduism" as a unified religious tradition is itself doubtful and contested, and that "Hindu identity" is a historically recent phenomenon. The modern tendency is probably in the direction of a Jain identity separate from that of Hindus, but this transformation is far from complete and will probably never be completed. There appear to be, moreover, countervailing forces. For example, my own general observation is that, as religious politics has become increasingly important in India, large numbers of Jains have identified with the Hindu nationalist viewpoint with hardly a second thought.”
― Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)