________________
World Peace and Pratikramaņa (Confession) : 73
roved
does deceitful confession, gets more repentance than the straightforward confessor.'' So this quality of straight-forwardness is not only necessary and beneficial for personal-cum-spiritual upliftment, at the same time it is also essential for solving the problems of crimes and external imposed punishments in the society. Pratikramaņa : Self Purification through Repentance Repenting the sins committed knowingly or unknowingly forms an essential part of the devotional practices of Jains. This form of confession is very unique. Confession consists in saying certain formula, in which the offences are systematically counted and a pious person expresses his repentance in this way. I come back from the sins committed earlier, I blame them, repent them, I absolve myself of them. One repents for the 84,00,000 different types of living beings, if one of these beings are hurt with his mind, speech or body, or one has allowed someone else to harm them or appro someone harming them. This form of expressing general apology for the offence committed against the commandments of ahiṁsā is the only possible one, for no one can know how many insects or elementary beings he has injured or killed while walking, even though as this is prescribed for the ascetics, he pays careful attention to the path.18 Another formula often used by Svetāmbaras enumerates eighteen sources of sin (athāraha pāpasthāna), as they are the infringement of the small vows, passions, etc., and conclude with an affirmation of the repentance. Jains know, beside this general confession, an articular confession (ālocanā) in which special sins are enumerated. A layman makes this confession before his Guru or some other monk and an ascetic before his Guru or senior. Frequency of confession depends upon the piousness of an individual. It is recommended that one should confess ones sins as often as possible because there is no fix time of the completion of present life-span karma. Moreover through regular confession the binding up of the karma can be prevented." By expiation of sins (pratikramaņa), he obviates transgressions of the vows; thereby stops the Asrava, (inflow of karmas) preserves a
