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Penances
185 1. Expiation (the sense of guilt)
The Prāyaścitta samuccaya says that without prāyaścitta here cannot be any conduct, without conduct no piety, withput piety no detachment, and without detachment all vows ire futile.1 It is said that one should not try to conceal his defects from a benevolent king, doctor and teacher.2
While prescribing a prāyaścitta, time, place, availability of food, and individual capacity are to be kept in view.3 In fact, there are as many prāyaścittas as there are shades of faults and, therefore, no body can draw up an exhaustive list of all the prāyaścittas. 4 It should also be kept in mind while prescribing a prāyaścitta whether the sinner has transgressed the law under some pressure or wilfully, once or repeatedly, follow the teaching of (truth) or otherwise, and whether resisting the temptation for sin or not.5
Prāyaścitta includes the following ten :-6 1. Self-criticism (ālocanā) 2. Self-repentence (pratikrmana) 3. Both, confession and self-repentence (tadubhaya). 4. Renunciation of a bad thing (viveka). 5. To engage oneself in Vyutsarga (kāyotsarga). 6. Fasting or external penances (tapas) 7. Cutting short the life of monkhood (cheda ) 8. Reordainment in monkhood (mūla)
9. Expulsion from monkhood (parihāra) 10. Re-establishing belief in the true order (Sraddhāra)
The Tattvārthas ütra enumerates only nine of these eliminating fraddhā the last and mentioning the eighth as upasthāpana.? Alocanā (Self-criticism)
Alocanā is meant for lapses in the movements of body,
1. Prayascittasamuccaya, 5. 2. Cülika (Prāyaścitta), 163. 3. Prayascittasamuccaya, 130-180. 4. Cālikā, 163 5. Prāyaścittasamuccaya, 18-22. 6. Mülācāra, 5.165; Virasena on
p. 60). 7. Cf. Tattvārthasūtra, 9.22.
Satkhandāgama, 5.4.26 (Vol. XIII,
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