Within Jain Dharma, the strongest answer is this: the critique is partly aimed at distortions in practice, but it does not overturn the core Jain teaching. What it exposes is the gap between ideal Jain siddhānta and social/institutional behavior.

1) On Charitra and “dry externalism”

Jainism does not teach that external vows alone are enough. True charitra is the unity of:

• Samyak Darśana
• Samyak Jñāna
• Samyak Charitra

Without inner right vision and right knowledge, mere austerity is incomplete. In the Jain view, external discipline is a support, not the essence. So yes: if a monk or layperson reduces Jain practice to body-policing, ritual performance, or social control, that is a fall into partiality, not the full Jain path.

But it is also true that Jainism does not reject external discipline. Bodily restraint, vows, fasting, humility, and careful conduct are important because the soul is embodied while karma remains bound. The body is not worshiped; it is disciplined as an instrument for inner purification.

So the correct Jain position is:

• external practice without inner realization is incomplete
• inner realization without ethical discipline is also incomplete

This is why Jainism keeps both together.

2) On temple worship, idols, and “transactional” devotion

Jain temples are not meant to treat the Tīrthaṅkara as a worldly god who grants favors. A Tīrthaṅkara is absolutely detached, beyond desire, and does not intervene like a creator-deity.

In authentic Jain understanding:

• Dravya pūjā is an external act of reverence and concentration.
• Bhāva pūjā is the inward worship of pure qualities.
• The real goal is to remind the soul of its own purity.

If people approach worship for business success, marriage, wealth, or worldly gain, that is indeed worldly attachment, not pure Jain devotion. Such behavior reflects mishra bhāva or even mithyātva in practice.

But this again is a deviation in application, not the doctrine itself. Jain worship, properly understood, is meant to reduce ego, attachment, and delusion, not to reinforce them.

3) On Pancham Kāla and fatalism

Jainism does teach that the current era is spiritually degraded. In the traditional Jain time-cycle, the present age is not favorable for the highest spiritual attainments.

But this is not meant as an excuse for passivity.

The Jain teaching is:

• Purushārtha is always necessary
• karma is real, but effort is also real
• one must act right now with awareness, restraint, and discrimination

So Pancham Kāla is a diagnosis of the age, not a command to surrender. It means:

• do not expect the same conditions as in an ideal age
• do not become arrogant or complacent
• do not confuse limited results with no value at all

Even if final liberation is not attainable in this era according to the traditional Digambar view, inner purification, reduction of passions, and movement toward right faith are still meaningful and necessary. Jainism never teaches that effort is useless.

4) On “materialism” in followers

If some followers use Jain symbols for material gain, that is not Jainism’s spiritual core. That is human attachment entering religion.

Jain Dharma repeatedly warns against:

• rāga
• dveṣa
• moha
• mithyātva
• attachment to ritual without inner transformation

So if a community becomes socially ritual-heavy, that may reflect a cultural decline, but not the collapse of the philosophy itself.

5) The real Jain answer

The heart of Jainism is not:

• ritual for its own sake,
• social identity,
• bodily performance,
• or future reward.

The heart of Jainism is:

• self-discrimination
• restraint
• non-violence
• detachment
• right faith
• direct purification of consciousness

So the honest Jain response is:

• Yes, practice can become empty if inner awareness is lost.
• No, that does not negate Jainism.
• It only shows that people may fail to live up to it.

In Jain terms, the cure is not abandoning the tradition, but returning to:

• Bheda-jñāna
• Swādhyāya
• Bhāva-shuddhi
• Aparigraha
• Ahimsā
• Samyak-darśana

That is the living center of Jain Dharma.