Pratikramana Full Version

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 48

[2] Every Religion Supports Pratikraman
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Pratikraman
should be done so that that particular fault is erased.
you within an hour!
Demerit karma cannot be cut with a knife. It cannot be cut into slices. It has to be destroyed to ashes (destroyed by Gnan in the Gnan Vidhi).
Questioner: What do they mean when they say to censure the self? What is that?
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Questioner: Even the Catholic Priests say, 'Come to us and confess and all your sins will be destroyed.'
Dadashri: Is it easy to make a confession? Are you able to make a confession? Confessions are done in the dark. The person who confesses does not show his face. He will only go to confession at night.
Whereas here, with me, forty thousand men and women have confessed everything to me. Many young ladies have made confessions to me. They confess everything. They gave me their confessions in writing. When the confessions are done openly, will the paap not be destroyed?!! It is not so easy to confess.
Questioner: So this pratikraman and confession, they are both the same thing, are they not?
Dadashri: No, they cannot be the same. Pratikraman is to keep washing off after an atikraman (aggression through thoughts, speech or action) occurs, and when new stains' occur, one has to keep washing them off. And confession of one's sins or wrong action is a different thing.
Questioner: What is the difference between pratikraman and repentance (prashchyataap)?
Dadashri: Prashchyataap is repentance and is general in its application and for a number of faults but not specific to any particular fault. Christians do a general confession of their faults every Sunday. Pratikraman, on the other hand, is specific to a fault. The one who commits the atikraman does pratikraman. Pratikraman is done instantly; it is done the moment atikraman takes place. 'Shoot-on-sight' pratikraman
Dadashri: That means to accept your mistake, ask for forgiveness, to repent; all that is censuring. Now the Self is not to be censured. Pratishthit atma (the relative self) has to be censured. Pratikraman Destroys Wandering of Life after
Life Without pratikraman, there is no path to liberation. The path where there is no pratikraman is a wrong path. If the Jains were to do real pratikraman, their tubers of inner anger, pride, deceit, greed (kashays) would wither away and become lost. and would be gone in their next life. Who do 'we' call a Jain'? It is the one who does pratikraman the moment anger-pridedeceit-greed occurs; it is the one who practices the Lord's Agna (special directive). Tirthankars have left this pratikraman for people to follow because humans will not refrain from making mistakes. The celestials make mistakes, the humans make mistakes. The entire chaturgati (the four worlds of existence within which the soul migrates) makes mistakes. They do not refrain from making mistakes. What is the solution for destroying those mistakes? The answer is 'alochana, pratikraman and pratyakhyan.'
What is the basis of the world's existence? Fault of transgression (atikraman dosh) is the cause of its existence. Those who do pratikraman and pratyakhyan daily are considered sadhus (those who live and strive for only the state of the Self), upadhyayas (those who have attained Self-realization and help others attain it) and acharyas (Self-realized masters). The world is not likely to let anyone go to moksha. It will hook you and pull you back in it, in every way that it can. And that