City Jains queue up to see a temple being built, on film

Mumbai: It’s called the breakfast show. The one in which you wake up, shower, wear clothes fit for a temple visit, scurry to the closest cinema, slip out of your footwear, sit in a padmasan pose and join your palms. Jains across the city have been booking tickets for a movie that has encapsulated the making of a temple in Vile Parle. Such is the demand that entire cinema halls are being booked.
Some call it the perfect precursor to Paryushan, the ongoing eight-day-long holy festival which derives its meaning from par (all kinds) and ushan (to burn) all karmas.Compiled by the Shree Kundkund Kahan Digambar Jain Mumukshu Mandal (the followers of Kanji Swami), the film has been travelling across Mumbai’s suburbs on demand from the local Jain community.
The 8.30am show was first released in a Juhu theatre across its five screens, followed by one in Ghatkopar, where it was broadcast on all its three screens.
The movie captures the Panch Kalyanak Mahotsav, the celebration that marks the five momentous milestones of life: Conception, birth, deeksha divas (attainment of monkhood), kaivalya gyan (enlightenment) and moksha of the 16th Tirthankar, Shri Shantinath Bhagwan. The festival, which took place last year, saw thousands of Jains throng Bhavan’s College grounds for five days back to back.
Scooping out the vital bits, this three-hour movie, with the ceremonial half-time popcorn break, takes the audience back eons to Hastinapur, the deity’s birthplace. Events from his life are depicted in the form of plays and songs. During the Mahotsav, celebrations and acts were performed as per the scriptures in a way that devotees felt they are witnessing the august events of the lord. Stone and metal statues of Tirthankars were brought as mere idols and rituals performed on them before they are seated in the temple.
“The idea to convert this into a movie was two-pronged. One that the young generation needed to realize what goes into the coming up of a temple,” says one of the committee members. “Second, the Panchkalyanak Pratishtha is also festival for an ‘Atma’ to become ‘Parmatma’—that is, to show mortals the process to attain Moksha for eternal bliss.”
The Sree Simandarswamy Jain Jin Mandir has a 79-inch omniscient centerpiece carved from flawless white Vietnam marble. And a level below is a life-size statue of Gurudevshree Kanji swami prepared in Canada by sculptor Jamie Salmon.
A level above, miniatures of all the temples from Songad, where Kanji swamy delivered his sermons for over 40 years, have been installed.
The entire temple follows a white and gold colour scheme and the film closes with its founding.