Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 546

518
The Unknown Pilgrims
revert to one's previous state, before the occurrence of the fault.163 It constitutes at one and the same time an åvaśyaka and a preparation for the prāyaścitta. Pratikramana as an inner attitude is indispensable to all sincere confession; in reality, the acknowledgement of a fault, the condemnation of it and the spontaneous accompanying desire to expiate it is already in itself a form of expiation.
As for ubhaya (which includes both confession and repentance), this is listed as a prāyaścitta, but it is simply a confirmation of the truth that alocană-pratikramanā go hand in hand. 164
ii) Vyutsarga and tapas, both of which are constituent parts of the ascetic life, are also prāyaścittas
1. Vyutsarga or kåyotsarga, the fifth āvašyaka, is an expression of the attitude of inner radical detachment that goes as far as to renounce all bodily activity in a gesture of disavowal of ownership for a limited period, an attitude which is also essential for dhyāna. On account of the value accruing from this detachment as practised in immobility, vyutsarga is performed several times during the rite of the avasyakas and in the course of important activities such as, for example, on return from gocari. Its intrinsic value makes it, furthermore, an ideal prāyaścitta.
2. Tapas under its two forms, upavāsa (fasting) and avamodarikā (abstinence), is a concrete and efficacious means of purification. Fasting and abstinence are the prāyaścittas par excellence and are by far the most commonly employed. 165 Their role is of great
163 Cf. P 324 ff.; 705.
164 Cf. P 370. also for viveka.
165 Upavāsa, on account of its purificatory function, is presented in its various forms, each carefully elaborated. Thus the types of upavāsa have greatly multiplied in number; cf. Deo, 1956, pp. 189-198, for a description of different sorts of fast according to the Angas and the Müla-sútra, p. 251 ditto according to the Cheda-sūtras and niryuktis; pp. 375 and 419 for the later period; cf. also Sths 511a US XXX, 9-24.