This Is Available Online at Insidethenavkar.Com
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This is available online at InsidetheNavkar.com Given that the Navkar Mantra connects all of us Jains – regardless of whether you are Digamber, Swetamber, Sthanakvasi or Terapanthi – these next few pages are for you regardless of the sub sect you are. To all Jains, the Navkar Mantra is the Bible. But did you ever open the book? The Navkar Mantra: 9 lines of a message. Of a language. And within those words, within those 9 lines within the message, there is meaning. The last 2 lines of the Navkar Mantra mean ‘Of all things auspicious, treasured, valuable, and desired, the Navkar Mantra is the first and foremost.’ The Navkar Mantra is worth more than all of Bill Gates' wealth, more auspicious than all of the temple ceremonies you do, more to be desired than the CEO's chair of the company you work at, or the valedictorian’s position of the school you go to. Yet is this the way we feel? Ever cross your mind, 'Maybe I'm not completely doing it right...'? The Navkar Mantra is extraordinarily detailed, deep, and valuable, but only to those souls who can fully uncover it or correctly do it. So educate yourself. Not on just the meaning, but the actual perspective within the livelihoods of each of the 5 Panch Parmesthi. And so, in order to benefit each person in this building during this time, you can read something that you have likely never been able to come across. A greater understanding of the Navkar Mantra. Upon understanding this, you can start to see the importance in learning the meaning behind the things you encounter. And it is important to invoke that meaning every time you say the Navkar Mantra – not just run through the words with no regard for the mind. The goal of this writing is to help you learn and understand the perspectives of the people we should always appreciate (the Panch Parmesthis) and guide our lives in the right direction. This is all written by someone who is three or four years within your age so have faith that you will understand how all the pieces fit together as you read further on. If you have any curiosity as to what you believe in so heavily but may not even know, you will read on; if not, look within yourself first. First, what you may already know. The Navkar Mantra contains nine lines which are: Namo Arihantanam | I bow down to the Arihant (enlightened beings who know truth and establish religion) Namo Siddhanam | I bow down to the Siddha (enlightened, liberated souls free from suffering and karma) Namo Ayariyanam | I bow down to the Acharya (spiritual leaders that guide the community of the Jains) Namo Uvajjhayanam | I bow down to the Upadhyay (spiritual teachers who are wise enough to show the path) Namo Loe Savva-sahunam | I bow down to the Sadhu/Sadhvi (spiritual students who have given up the material world) Eso Panch Namokaro | These five acts of bowing down Savva-pavappanasano | Destroy all sins, karma, and pain Manglananch Savvesim | Among all things auspicious in the universe Padhamam Havei Mangalam | The Navkar Mantra is the first and foremost The Navkar Mantra is split into 3 parts, at first glance. The first five lines are an act of respect for five different types of beings that exist in Jainism – the Panch Parmesthis. But if each is a line in the Navkar Mantra, there is a lot more to be understood about the perspective, accomplishments, and responsibilities of each of those five types of beings. The next two lines (6 and 7) are very similar to an if- then statement that serves as a guide describing how one should live life. If you take it for what it is – the two lines are a cause and effect: Bowing down to these five types of beings correctly |leads to| the destruction of your sins, your karmas. And this will really be understood later on. And the final two lines (8 and 9) try to urge the reader or hearer of these words that these simple words should be valued above all else in life – at whatever the cost it should be the listener or reader’s goal to treasure, fully understand, and then act upon the depths within these previous 7 lines. Just take a second and think for a second: If 2 of the 9 most important lines that are meant to be kept sacred, remembered, and understood for centuries past and centuries to come – if two lines are spent just trying to state the amount of importance that should be placed on this, then isn’t it clear that the meaning and depth within the first 7 lines should be the main goal of every human being to uncover? So the first five lines are an attempt to pay respect to the five types of beings known as the Panch Parmesthis: Arihant, Siddhas, Acharyas, Upadhyays, and Sadhus. The best way to pay respect to them: fully understand their role, fully realize who you are appreciating and why you are appreciating them, and hope that one day you can give back to the world what they had given to you. This is how the Navkar Mantra should be done – all of these sentences, these pages below should be ideas and thoughts that should go through your head on your own. The Navkar Mantra should be done so that the sentences below can be created from your mind on its own because that is the way you truly feel. Let’s begin. Namo Arihantanam. I bow down to all of the Arihants of the past, present, and future. I bow down to all of the beings that were able to rise up and teach from within themselves what is right and wrong to the rest of the world. I bow down to the beings who were able to free their souls by being victorious over their inner enemies that lie within each human being, allowing their soul to become enlightened to the truth and liberated from all suffering. The word Arihant means itself destroyer of inner enemies - the four main inner enemies are called the kashays which are anger, ego, deceit, and greed. I bow down to the Arihants because they were able to free the soul and allow it to become its true nature which it achieves when someone has no attachments, desires, worries, or greed. Enlightenment, illumination of the truth – this is a different, higher level stage that is more than living a virtuous, good, non-violent life. It is more, and it is what makes the being of an Arihant so rare and reputable. To be able to overcome all of one’s attachments and desires, feelings of inadequacy and doubts about existence – the ability to stay completely calm no matter what one is faced with, always understanding that events in life occur for a greater purpose that isn’t immediately observable – to live in accordance with these ideas is extremely difficult to achieve. Mahavir Swami is the most widely known and well known Arihant throughout Jainism, but there are many others that came before him (24 Tirthankars) and some that even exist today in other worlds. I bow down to those beings who were able to put into the most perfect words, who were able to say in the most perfect way, a message that would be received correctly by all future beings that may read or hear them. I bow down to the 24 Tirthankars who were Arihants of the past of humanity who were able to change entire civilizations, who were able to directly influence the world with their thoughts. Not only were they able to spread the truth in the most easy to understand manner but they were able to extinguish all the doubts of the people around them and create a collective population of human beings that are able to live to their full potential, experience their full human-ness, and live in continuous peace and appreciation. I appreciate the 24 Tirthankars and each of their 12 qualities specific to their being (108 beads on a Navkar Vali represent 108 qualities of the Panch Parmesthi – Arihants have 12, Siddhas 8, Acharyas 36, Upadhyays 25, Sadhus 27). I appreciate and bow down to the fact that these beings establish the Sangh – composed of monks, nuns, and common people (Sadhus, Sadhvis, Shravaks, Shravikas) to come together under an umbrella of truth and stop wandering in the ocean for answers on their own – I respect these beings for being the leaders and speakers of such truth that they are able to create such a thing. Of those 12 qualities mentioned earlier, I bow down to some in particular. Gnanatishay – these beings are enlightened, supreme knowledge of the world and full understanding of the nature of reality and the nature of themselves. This is self-realization to a far greater extent where everything is seen from an objective point of view, they know all of the doubts that all humans face and all of the fears and ingrained flaws that are present in the mind that prevent us from reaching enlightenment. To have such powerful and valuable knowledge that can aid a human being to go from the dark depths of the world to a spiritual rebirth – I bow down to and respect. I appreciate that their words were able to be so highly valued by people that it was able to travel through hundreds of years, different writers, different interpreters – and finally reach me in the present moment and come into contact with my life.