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Sarana & Darshana       The main ritual of the sect is a complicated rite of prayer which is obligatory on all followers, monks, as well as laymen. Sarana (literally "shelter") and Darshana ("view") mark its aim to take refuge in Mahima Prabhu according to the concept of Bhakti in order to get his "view", i.e. to attain the consciousness of the union of one's own self with Mahima. Sarana and Darshana must be performed in the morning before sun-rise by turning towards the east and in the evening immediately before sunset by turning towards the west. In the Gaddi Mandira of Joranda these are carried out additionally for the third time at noon. Outwardly the rite consists of the seven time repetition of a minutely prescribed complicated sequence of prostrations, which are depicted with the Sanskrit terms Sastanga (eight parts of the being) Pranama (prostration). Between each Pranama the person praying stands again erect with raised hands and calls loudly (see fig. 74) . Thereafter, the believers worship the Samnyasis by prostrating themselves and then they worship each other.       Visvanatha Baba adds to this rituals two more kinds of Sarana: with the voice (vacika) and with the mind or the organ of perception (manasika). Vacika Sarana consists of shouts as for example "Arupa Svami", "Alekha", "Mahima Svami", which the person praying says loudly and it consists of prayers which he is said to recite, mostly short stanzas from the bhajanas (devotional songs) by Bhima Bhoi, Visvanatha Baba and others. They contain supplications to Mahima Prabhu who is the believer's father, mother and friend to rescue him from the friends of nescience (avidya) to protect the believers, as well as the whole world (jagat).       Manasika Sarna consists in meditating on the so called ajapa or Kumbhaka Mantra which consists of the Sanskrit word "hamsa". This Mantra is of great importance in Vaisnava Saskrit texts, as well as in the works of Panchasakha. The word hamsa literally means swan: it can, however, also signify the higher being, the gods Visnu, Narayana, Siva and the Sun god. It owes its use as Manntra to the fact that it can also be modified as "aha sahm" ("I am He").       The special connection between the prayer rite and the sun probably traces back to an original identification of sunya and sun as it is found for instance in the sect of Dharma. There Dharma is identified with the sun: Sunya is the "emptiness" in the first place and this means the "space" (akasa). The sun, moving in the space, is of nothing, i.e. it can only be portrayed with the round zero. The circle is also the image of the sun. The familiar identification of the god Sunya on the one hand and of sunya with the sun on the other. The sun god identified with Dharma is again called Gosain or goswami which further makes an influence of these conceptions on the Mahima Dharma practice probable.24       A further basis for the connection between sunya and sun is found in the text of Panchasakha where the "radiance" (Jyoti) of sunya brahma is talked of repeatedly out of which the sun has received a portion at the time of creation in order to rule over the earth.       The connection with the worship of sunya and sun is thoroughly substantiated, it is also found thoroughly discussed in the older texts of sect in which there is mention of the duty towards sunya darshana. It is, however, significant that Visvanatha Baba rejects such a connection with all firmness, and does not accept the link between the radiance of Alekha Parama Brahma and that of the sun which can be easily established. Significantly for his interpretation which somewhat dissociates itself from the connection with the regional traditions, he explains prostration towards the east and the west has been prescribed by Mahima Gosvami, but it has no significance, since Parama Brahma is omnipresent. 24 S.B. Dasgupta, O.P. Cit. (1969), p.291 ff.

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