Absent Lord: Reflexivity

Jains worship ascetics. But Jains also live in the world. What then is to be the relationship between one who lives in the world and the ascetic? All ascetic traditions must grapple with this problem. In Jainism, however, the problem is particularly acute. This is so because the asceticism of the tradition's most idealized ascetics, the Tirthankars, is so complete that they cannot engage in transactions of any kind with those who worship them. This dilemma is dramatized by the ordinary daily rite of temple worship to which we now turn.