The Guide To Understanding The Namokar Mantra

The Namokar Mantra is one of the significant mantras in Jainism. This prayer is the first one that is recited by the Jains during meditation. This is done while the mantra is recited. There is no specific person or god recognized during the meditation.

While meditating, the devotee pays respect by bowing to the Supreme Five (the Panch Parameshti). They include:

The liberated souls (Siddha)
Those who destroyed the inimical karmas (Arihant)
The sages and monks around the world (Sadhu)
The Preceptors or spiritual leaders (Acharyas)
The Preceptor of ascetics less advanced (Upadhayaya)


These are the souls that are liberated. The souls are no longer with us in this realm because their complete cycle of birth and death has ended. This means they have reached the highest possible level, or state, of salvation. As a result, they do not have any karmas left, and they no longer connect new karmas. This true freedom is a state called Moksha.


This is a word that is made up of two smaller words. The first word, Ari, means enemies and hanta means enemy destroyer. However, these are not enemies in the physical world. Instead, these enemies are passions or inner desires like:


These are the inner enemies that are inside of all of us. Once a soul (person) is victorious over these inner desires, the soul is called Arihanta. Then, the Arihanta is able to destroy the four ghati karmas.

These karmas are Jnanavarniya, or knowledge blocking and Darshanavarniya, or perception blocking. The other two are Mohniya, or passion causing and Antaraya, or obstacle causing.


When householders become more detached from the worldly parts of their lives and gain a desire for spiritual growth, they give up the worldly lives, they become sadhvis (nuns) and sadhus (monks). It is at this time, the sadhu or sadhvi voluntarily decides to obey several major vows for the rest of their life.


These are the spiritual leaders and they spread the message of Jina. They must complete in-depth studies to achieve a high level of spiritual excellence. Acharyas also have the ability to lead sadhus and sadhvis.


This is the title given to sadhus who have gotten knowledge about the philosophical systems. They teach important Jain scriptures to nuns and monks.

These are the principles of the Namokar Mantra. The significance of this mantra is the level of spiritual excellence the devotee will acquire throughout time .