Pratikramana Freedom Through Apology and Repentance

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 52

90
Pratikraman
Pratikraman
Questioner: Those who have departed cannot do anything for others. So if you say anything negative about Lord Mahavir, does it reach him?
Dadashri: Yes it reaches him, but he does not accept it, and it is returned to you along with double the repercussions. So you have to ask for forgiveness for yourself. Keep asking for forgiveness until you forget the words you had uttered. If you have said anything negative about Mahavir, you have to keep asking for forgiveness and it will be immediately erased. Your arrows will reach him but he does not accept them. (P.329) 24. Gnan Rescues Those Drowning In The Ocean
Of Life Questioner: Can one see one's past faults by remembering them?
Dadashri: Past faults can really only be seen by focusing the awareness of The Self on a specific topic such as anger, greed, and pride etc, and not by recalling through memory. You have to work hard to try and recall them. They need to be recalled because they have become obscured. If you had some problems with Chandulal and you did his pratikraman, Chandulal's presence will be there. You need to apply this awareness. In this path of Akram it is not necessary to draw upon memory. Recollection of events is dependent upon memory. Whatever events come to mind spontaneously, are there for you to do pratikraman. They come so that you can purify them.
Have you not already made the decision that you do not want any worldly things when you say in your prayers, 'I do not want any temporary things of this life except for the experience of the absolute Self"? Despite this why do you keep remembering certain things? For that you must continue your pratikraman.
Understand that in spite of doing pratikraman, if you remember things, it means that they are still pending and require more pratikraman.
(P.330) It is because of your attachment and abhorrence that you remember things. If they did not come into your mind, then you would forget the mistakes you have made. Why do you not remember the people you met in passing but you remember the loved ones who are now dead? It is because you still have some pending attachment and doing pratikraman will dissolve this attachment.
Desires come to you because you have not done pratyakhyan and past events come to your mind because you have not done pratikraman.
Questioner: Is pratikraman to be done for the ownership claimed?
Dadashri: For ownership you have to do pratyakhyan. For the faults there is pratikraman.
Questioner: Even after doing pratikraman, if the same faults come to mind, does it mean that we are not free of those faults?
Dadashri: The faults are layered like an onion. As you peel the outer layer of an onion, there is yet another layer beneath. These faults have a lot of layers. So with each pratikraman you do, you shed one layer. In this way when you do a hundred or more pratikramans, the fault will eventually go. Some faults will go away after five pratikramans and some may require more. A fault requires as many pratikraman as the number of layers it has. The longer it takes for pratikraman, the bigger and heavier the fault.
(P.332)