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15th Biennial JAINA Convention 2009
Ecology - The Jain Way
GREEN PRATIKRAMAN: A FRIENDLY PROPOSAL FOR GLOBAL JAINS John E. Cort, PhD cort@denison.edu
Lakh, or 'Seven-hundred Thousand' (these are the first two words of the recitation), in which the person engages in a critical self-examination (Alochana) of all the myriad ways he or she has caused harm to all manner of embodied souls (iv). Here is an English translation of the passage as performed in the Shvetambara Tapa Gachchha:
Dr. John E. Cort is Professor of Asian and 700,000 earth bodies, Comparative Religions at Denison University in
700,000 water bodies, Granville, Ohio. He is the author of Jains in the 700,000 fire bodies, World: Religious Values and Ideology in India 700,000 air bodies, (Oxford University Press, 2001) and Framing the 1,000,000 separate plant bodies, Jina: Jain Narratives of Icons and Idols (Oxford
1,400,000 aggregated plant bodies, University Press, forthcoming), as well as several 200,000 two-sensed beings, dozen essays on a wide range of subjects related
erts related 200,000 three-sensed beings, to the study of Jainism.
200,000 four-sensed beings,
400,000 divine five-sensed beings, At the heart of the Jain moral universe is the 400,000 infernal five-sensed beings, recognition that each and every living being, in 400,000 plant-and-animal five-sensed beings, nearly each and every moment of its existence,
1,400,000 humans: by nearly everything it does, says and thinks,
In this way there are 8,400,000 forms of inevitably causes harm (himsa) to countless other
existence. living beings. This is a defining aspect of our very
Whatever harm I have done, embodiment. It is the cause of untold suffering to Caused to be done, other beings and to ourselves, and binds us to the Or approved of, continuing round of rebirth, suffering and redeath. By mind,
Speech, In response to this inevitable harm that each one
Or body, of us causes, Jains developed the ritual of Against any of them: Pratikraman. In this ritual, performed annually by May that harm be without consequence. most Jains in India during the observance of Paryushan, and twice daily by all monks and nuns
In other words, the person enumerates all the as a foundational aspect of their practice, the possible classes in which souls may be embodied, person performs special gestures and recites
and recognizes that he or she has caused harm to phrases in order to negate the karmic impact of
beings in every single one. This is a powerful all the harm he or she has caused since the last statement of the impact each one of us has upon performance of Pratikraman. Much of what the the environment. person recites is in the form of mantras and sutras, sacred phrases that, if pronounced In an essay I published in Jainism and Ecology, correctly, have the automatic effect of reducing the 2002 book edited by Christopher Key Chapple the effects of past karma. These mantras and and published by the Center for the Study of sutras are in Prakrit and Sanskrit. Key passages World Religions of Harvard University, I suggested that the person recites are in the vernacular- that Sat Lakh 'could be creatively adopted by Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, and other modern Jains as an environmental ritual,' a ritual that I Indian languages. Here the point is not that the termed 'Green Pratikramana.' This poses a person recites a sacred sound, but that he or she problem, however, in the new globalized setting in consciously thinks about the meaning of what he which many Jains find themselves-especially or she is saying. It is important that the person those from North America, such as those consciously and intentionally express regret for all attending the 15 Biennial JAINA Convention in the harmful things he or she has done, said or Buena Park. The older generation knows the Hindi thought, in order that he or she can make a
or Gujarati or other vernacular language in which concerted effort to do better in the future.
Sat Lakh (or the equivalent recitation in other Jain
communities) is recited. An increasing number of Among the vernacular phrases in Pratikraman is younger Jains who are born outside of India do a passage known in Hindi and Gujarati as Sat not understand its meaning. As a result, instead
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