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PRATIKRAMAN - OBSERVANCE OF SELF-REFLECTION
It generates feelings of friendliness and love towards all. Pratikraman (self-analysis) can make our lives happy and peaceful as well as build a harmonious society.
Dravya and Bhäva Pratikraman
The Jain ethics system outlines 5 great vows to be practiced by monks and nuns who have totally renounced worldly life. However for lay people, it outlines 12 vows (Vratas) of limited nature that are less intense than those followed by monks and nuns. Jainism defines that everyone should strive to adopt these vows according to one's individual capacity and circumstances. The ultimate goal is to accept them as full vows.
In order to effectively avoid sinful activities, one should abandon wrong belief (Mithyätva), an un-restrained lifestyle (Avirati), unawareness, laziness, or lethargy (Pramäda), passions (Kashaya) and inauspicious activities of body, speech, and mind (Aprashasta Yoga).
To accept right faith or conviction, achieve self-restraint, become spiritually vigilant, cultivate good qualities like compassion and nonviolence, and attain the true nature of soul after giving up worldly activities is the essence of Pratikraman. In other words, it means returning to and reaffirming the path of nonviolence, truthfulness, and non-attachment.
During Pratikraman, a lay person reflects on these vows and repents and requests for forgiveness for minor violations (known as Atichär) that may have been committed knowingly or unknowingly. Contemplation on each of these vows takes place so that we are more aware of such circumstances and can avoid such minor violations of vows in the future.
If Pratikraman is performed only to confess past sinful acts and with an open declaration not to commit them in future, but the individual readily commits sinful activities, then this type of recitation of the ritual is called Dravya or external Pratikraman. Dravya Pratikraman is not useful; on the contrary, it is harmful. It deceives one's own self and is meant simply to deceive others.
If after the performance of Pratikraman ritual, an individual minimizes or eliminates sinful activities in real life, then the
PRATIKRAMAN SUTRA BOOK
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