Jain Spirit 2002 10 No 12

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 46

WORSHIP
CHANDU SHAH
REPENT AND RENEW
Vinod Kapashi explains the essence of Pratikraman
karma. This is the advantage of dravya-pratikraman when you sit in a quiet place, wear light, clean clothing and keep the muhpatti (a piece of cloth required to cover the mouth).
The muhpatti is also unfolded and folded in a systematic way during the ritual. This is the muhpatti padilehan when one unfolds the muhpatti carefully, examines it and then folds it once again whilst reciting a few sacred words. For example, he says, "I give up my ego, anger, my greed and illusion. He also accepts good things by gently touching muhpatti on arms and other parts of the body. This takes only a few seconds and one is supposed to say fifty small phrases whilst doing it. You may keep a rosary for counting beads while reciting.
TF PRATIKRAMAN MEANS REFLECTING UPON ONE'S BAD
thoughts and behaviour, or confessing one's own
mistakes and making a resolve to tread the right path, then pratikraman can be done anywhere and at any time. You do not need to go to a temple and sit upon a piece of woolly-cloth or place a handkerchief on your mouth to conduct pratikraman. In fact, you could do pratikraman even when sitting on the metro or underground train!
Pratikraman means removing all of your bad thoughts, cleansing your mind and removing the malice you might have towards any living being on the earth, forgetting your ego, giving up your anger and having your mind firmly fixed on the sublime nature of your soul. It means forgiving everyone and forgetting all things unpleasant.
Pratikraman should be done after one has attained the samayika stage. This is the stage when one prepares oneself for the noble idea of forgiving and begging forgiveness from everybody. One should prepare oneself mentally and be in the correct frame of mind whereby all thoughts of hatred are replaced by peace and love. All worries should be replaced by faith and one should lift oneself above all the worldly attachments and aversions.
You can do pratikraman without conducting a lengthy ritual and without using all the paraphernalia. Once you attain a state of equanimity and return to a right and noble path, you have done pratikraman. Jainism says that this is called mental-pratikraman or bhav-pratikraman. The ritualistic pratikraman is called dravya-pratikraman.
Jain scholars and learned monks have always maintained that bhav-pratikraman is better then dravya-pratikraman. This is because if your mind is tense whilst doing dravya-pratikraman and you can't get rid of your hatred or bad thoughts then you won't be able to achieve the required result. You will just be performing a ritual without doing the proper inner cleansing. You may find that whilst conducting dravya-pratikraman, you are distracted and may loose your trail of thought.
Mahavir once said that one can achieve 'savadhya-yoga veerati' upon doing samayika. This means that upon doing pratikraman one refrains from doing any mental or physical
A pratikraman in action
44 Jain Spirit . September - November 2002 Jain Education International 2010_03