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(3) These Are Not Lord Mahavir's Pratikramans
55
Pratikraman
Questioner: So by doing prarikraman, the old mistake is gone?
(52)
Dadashri: Yes, it is gone.
Questioner: Then You said that as long as darshan mohaniya (karma) prevails, one binds new karma. He makes new mistakes for sure.
Dadashri: The new mistakes will continue for sure.
Questioner: The fruit of which he will bear in his next life. Whatever negative comments he made, he erased that much but he continues to make new mistakes.
morning pratikraman (rayshi) and evening pratikraman (devshi), they will reduce their mistakes by that much. However, as long as darshan mohaniya prevails, there can never be liberation; the mistakes will continue to arise. However many pratikraman one does, he will erase that many mistakes.
Questioner: Please give us an example of that. During the time of the twenty-two Tirthankars, what mistakes were created and how did one do pratikraman?
Dadashri: Exactly in the same manner as we do over here. Whatever mistakes one made, it was done in the same manner. Just as we do pratikraman for the mistakes we see, that is how they did it.
Questioner: If a person stole something or said something wrong, then he would feel that he did wrong and that he ought not to do so.
Dadashri: Yes, and so he will not say the wrong thing again.
Questioner: So his new karma bondage was one of, 'I should say the right things,' is that it?
Dadashri: That will occur again.
Questioner: So the entire procedure is changed in this manner?
Dadashri: Yes. There is darshan mohaniya! So it occurs this time round. For the next life, the bondage will be just like that.
Dadashri: Yes, but the mistake of speaking negatively is gone in this life. And so he will not speak negatively in this life. But in his next life, if he meets people who give him a different understanding, then he will develop the habit again. Everything continues to grow because of darshan moha.
Questioner: But how did he get rid of that mistake? Was it because he did pratikraman at the time?
Dadashri: Based on the scriptures, 'This is wrong, this should not be so,' that is what he will say. 'I am doing pratikraman, pratyakhyan, and I will not speak this way again,' that is what he decides. So that entire mistake is cleansed and that much time he spends for his Self. In that, there is nothing of the physical self and so he binds punya - merit karma.
Have you ever seen an elephant? Do you know what the elephant does after it takes a bath?
Questioner: It is called gajsnanvatta! It throws dirt all over its body again.
Dadashri: Then it washes it off again. Therefore, as long
Questioner: So the 'negative speaking comes to an end and the charging is that of speaking positively'?
Dadashri: It will be corrected only in this very life. In the next life, if he meets the wrong kind of people, he will learn to speak negatively again.