Pratikramana Full Version

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 56

[3] These Are Not Lord Mahavir's Pratikramans
Pratikraman
Questioner: But what I am saying is that only liberation can be the intent behind pratikraman. How can the path of worldly happiness be applicable to pratikraman?
Dadashri: The meaning of pratikraman is, 'I am asking for forgiveness for my wrong actions of today,' and so that wrong action is erased and one binds merit karma (punya). Once merit karma is bound, one is compelled to enjoy its fruit.
Questioner: But the same is applicable in the path of moksha, is it not? So that is pratikraman and so is this one?
Dadashri: Everyone's intentions are different. Everyone's intentions and goals are different.
padakmanu, they will reply that it has to do with doing pratikraman, but not a single mistake gets cleansed. If, despite using soap and clean water, the stain on the cloth does not go away, is it because one used the wrong soap, or was there something wrong with the water, or is the one doing the washing at fault? Not even a single mistake is reduced. Why is that? One does so many pratikramans every dayyou are aware of that, are you not? Have you gone to a maharaj to do pratikraman? Questioner: Yes, I have.
(46) Dadashri: Despite doing padakmanu, why has not a single mistake been erased? It is because the pratikraman is done in the Maagdhi language. Even when a parrot says, 'Ram has come... Ram has gone...'even when the parrot speaks of moksha, etc., what good does it do for us? So to take the Lord's name like a parrot is the same as doing pratikraman without the understanding.
Mistakes can only be cleansed if prarikraman is done with the understanding. That is why I told the maharaj to conduct pratikraman in Gujarati. Only if people understand it will they realize that they are doing pratikraman, and that previously they did not do it correctly. Should there not be a benefit of doing pratikraman?
One Attains According to the Goal
Questioner: You said that during the time of the middle twenty-two Tirthankars, people used to do 'shoot-on-sight pratikraman, they were aware from moment to moment, and they used to do pratikraman for both worldly happiness and moksha.
Questioner: But pratikraman has to do with one's mistakes. Whatever mistakes or wrong actions take place, one has to do prarikraman. So to cleanse the mistakes means to go to moksha?
Dadashri: No, it is not like that.
Questioner: How is it? Please explain to me that by doing one kind of pratikraman we bind merit karma and...
Dadashri: The pratikraman we have here in the path of Akram Vignan) is for the intention of attaining moksha. But the pratikraman that takes place in the worldly life is for erasing mistakes connected with the worldly life; they are done for the purpose of attaining worldly happiness. Whatever their intent is behind doing pratikraman, the merit karma caused will bring that goal.
Questioner: That is correct. I am trying to understand that you have talked about two types of pratikraman, in which the result of one pratikraman...
Dadashri: Not two types of pratikraman, there is only one type of pratikraman.
Dadashri: No, not for that kind of happiness. Many did it to attain liberation, many had other intents and for some it was happiness. With this pratikraman, whatever one's intent was, he derived the benefits accordingly.