Pratikramana Full Version

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 33

[1] The True Nature of Pratikraman
Pratikraman
karma have nothing to do with each other. If you do good deeds, you are doing dharma, nothing else. When you do bad deeds, you are doing adharma. If you do good deeds, people will say that you are a good person.
Doing good deeds is called dharma and doing bad deeds is called adharma and to transcend dharma and adharma (good deeds and bad deeds) is called Atma-dharma - the religion of the Self. If you do good deeds, you get credit and so you have to come back to enjoy that credit. When you do bad deeds, you create a debit and for that you have to suffer the debit in the next life. Where there is neither credit nor debit, the Self is attained. Where there is not even a dollar's worth of credit or a debit, there the Self is attained.
Purity Through Repentance Seeker: Having come into the worldly life, karma is inevitable. What should we do if we knowingly or unknowingly create wrong karma?
Dadashri: If that occurs, there is a remedy for it. Once a wrong karma - anything that hurts others through thoughts, speech or action-occurs, repentance should follow immediately. Repentance should be done wholeheartedly and with sincerity. Even after repentance, should it occur again there is no need to worry, just repent again. You are not aware of the science behind all this, so you may feel that despite your repentance, the wrong karma does not stop. Why it does not stop is also a science in itself. You should simply carry on repenting. If you repent for the wrong karma wholeheartedly, all of it will be washed away. If you hurt someone, then you should absolutely repent.
Seeker: When we carry out our normal daily activities of the body, do we have to repent for it?
Dadashri: Yes of course! Until you become Self-realized, if you fail to repent, you will continue to bind more karma.
Repentance will loosen the entangled knots of karma. If not, the result of the wrongful action you bind will be so horrendous that you may even forfeit human birth in your next life. And if you manage to attain human life again, it will be full of suffering and misery. You will be deprived of food and respect, and you will suffer constant insults. That is why repentance along with other rituals becomes necessary. This is called paroksha bhakti - indirect worship. Indirect worship is necessary until one attains Self-realization.
Now who should be a witness to your repentance? It should be done in the presence of the God you believe in, whether it is Lord Krishna, Dada Bhagwan or any other God. There is a cure for everything in this world. First the cure is born, and then the problem or affliction arises.
Today, the cure for all the diseases that have emerged in the world has already arisen. There is already a medicinal plant growing, and then later the disease arises. Therefore, the world is very exact. You have to go for the cure and solution. The cure is already there!
Kraman, Atikraman, Pratikraman
Why has the world come into existence? It is due to atikraman (aggression towards other living beings through thoughts, speech and action). Kraman (neutral actions; actions that do not have any good or bad implications) alone does not cause any problems. For example, if you go to a restaurant and break two dishes, and leave after paying for them, then it is not considered atikraman and, therefore, pratikraman is not necessary. But if you tell the manager that his waiter has broken them, then that is atikraman. Pratikraman has to be done for the atikraman that was done. Everything else is just kraman anyway. Natural and spontaneous talk is kraman, and there is no problem with that. However, atikraman occurs in this inevitably. Therefore, do pratikraman for it.
(Gujarati Book Page-4)