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[23] When the Mind Becomes Turbulent
401
have to ask for forgiveness for yourself. Keep asking for forgiveness until you forget the words you had uttered. If you have said anything negative about Mahavir, you have to keep asking for forgiveness and it will be immediately erased. The 'arrow' you fired does reach Him, but He does not accept it.
That is the Result of Defilement
Questioner: There are forty Jain temples (derasars) in our town, but what kind of irreverence (ashatna) or other such reasons would have occurred that, to this day, there is no abhyudaya (prosperity or uplifting in the worldly life) in our town?
Dadashri: It will occur. Prosperity will come. Now the time has come for prosperity.
Questioner: Did some kind of sacrilege occur?
Dadashri: Nothing like this will occur without sacrilege. Nothing but sacrilege and defilement has occurred; what else is there?
Questioner: What can we do to prevent that from occurring? What can we do to remove it?
Dadashri: It can be removed if you repent; if you do real pratikraman, it can be removed. There is no other way it can be removed. Keep repenting for the fact that sacrilege did occur; some changes will take place then. But only when everyone repents will the change take place. How much can you accomplish if you alone were to do it?
[24]
Gnan Rescues Those Drowning in the River of Worldly Life after Life
That Which Comes in Memory Calls for Pratikraman
Questioner: Is it possible to 'see' past faults by trying to remember them?
Dadashri: Past faults can only be 'seen' by applied, focused awareness of the Self (upayog) and not by recalling them through the memory. You have to work hard to try and recall, do you not? They need recalling when a veil comes over them. If you had some problems with 'Chandulal' and you did his pratikraman, 'Chandulal's' presence will be there. You need to apply this awareness. In this path of Akram there is nothing to remember or recall. Recollection of events is dependent upon memory. Whatever events spontaneously arise in the mind come in order to become cleansed by pratikraman. They come so that they may be cleansed. (382)
This memory itself tells you, 'Get rid of me; wash everything off.' If it did not come into the memory, there would be all kinds of problems. What would you 'wash' off if it did not come? How would you know where the attachment-abhorrence (raagdwesh) lies? The memory comes on its own to be settled. It comes so that the 'stickiness' can be removed. So wash off whatever comes into the memory, clear it all, so that it will be erased from the memory. The reason it comes in the memory is because of your 'sticking point.' Erase it, repent for it and make