The Jain 1992 04 Special Issue

Author(s): Natubhai Shah, Vinod Kapashi
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 27

Jain
regard to eating and drinking, in regard to vinaya and vaiydvrttya, in regard to speech and conversation, in regard to seating oneself at a higher or at the same level as the guru, or in interrupting him when he is speaking, or speaking louder than he may whatever offence against vinaya, great or small, which you know and I do not know, have been done in vain.
In all these formulae the word dai-asika will be replaced by the appropriate variant if the pratikramana refers to the night or to some other period.
The great importance of the pratikramana in Jainism is evident from the way in which the meaning of the term is extended to cover an edifying religious practices, the scope of the numerous pratikramanasutras being very wide indeed. Amongst the faults to be avowed are all forbidden things done and all duties left undone, all infringements of the twelve vratas, all offences against the ratnatraya, all the evil results of parigraha and arambha, all actions motivated by passion and hate, all partiality for false creeds and, dissemination of false dogmas, and all wrong done in the course of one's daily business or one's household duties.
The best-known pratikramana commentary is the Vandaru-vrtti of Devendra. Here as elsewhere pratikramana for the eighteen sources of sin (papasthanas) is recommended. It may therefore be not inappropriate to list these here.
Five Anu-vratas
(1) killing (prani-vadha,himsa) (2) lying (asatya)
(3) thieving (adattadana)
(4) unchastity (abrahma, maithuna)
(5) acquisitiveness (parigraha)
Four Kasays
(6) anger (krodha)
(7) pride (mana)
(8) deceit (maya)
(9) greed (lobha)
(10) attachment (raga, preman)
(11) hatred (dvesa)
(12) disputation (kalaha)
(13) false accusation (abhyakhyana) (14) backbiting (paisunya)
(15) denigration (parivada, ninda) (16) depression and clation (arati-rati) (17) deceitful speech (maya-mrsa) (18) false belief (mithyatva).
In another version of the eighteen papa-sthanas eating by night (ratri-bhojana) is inserted in the list after parigaha and arati-rati omitted.
The keynote of the pratikramana is best expressed in the well known verse from the sutra:
khamemi savva-jive savve jive khamantu me metti me savva-bhuesu veram majjha na kenavi
I ask pardon of all living creatures, may all of them pardon me, may I have friendship with all beings and enmity with none.
It is probably because in this way the pratikramana represents the pervasion of the mind by the feeling of ahimsa that it comes to be regarded as the central feature of the avasyakas. Like the other avasyakas it may be performed either in the temple or in a posadhasala, or in the presence of a monk or at home, and like them it requires the elimination of all arta-dhyana. It is sometimes said that like pratyakhyana it is best expressed three times, first mentally when alone, then before the image of the Jina, and finally aloud before the guru. It is not always necessarily confined to past time and may therefore overlap with pratyakhyana.
Together with alocana it is often given the designation of prayascitta but the kayotsarga too is a form of prayascitta.
The rite of Pratikramana, as performed by Swetambers, contains all the six avasyka kriya (necessary rite), namely Samayika, CaturuinsaritiStava, Vandana, Pratikramana, Kayotsarga and Pratyakhyana.
THE PRATYAKHYANA
THIS, the fifth, or, according to the Digambaras, the sixth, avasyaka has been defined by Amitagati as the avoidance of what is unfitting in order to prevent the commission of sin in the future. In a sense it is the equivalent of pratikramana translated into future time. Ideally it should be performed three times in solitude, before the Jina image and in the presence of a guru when it is linked with the vandnaka. It is also known as Pachhakhana.
Pratyakkyana is said to be of two kinds according to whether it relates to the mula-gunas (i.e. in the case of laymen the anu-vratas) or to the uttara-gunas (i.e. the guna- and siksa-vratas), many of which may in fact be regarded as expressions of pratyakhyana; that is particularly true of the dig-, desavakasika-, bhogopabkoga-, and posadhopavasa-vratas. Renunciation of any form of enjoyment is implicit in the concept but in practice it most often implies abstention from food, or from a particular kind of food, for a certain period of time.
There are traditionally ten categories of pratyakhyana; but Hemacandra, recognizing that these are without relevance for the lay doctrine, has preferred to discuss only the ninth and tenth: sanketa-pratyakhyana and addha-pratya-khyana, which, he says, are, in daily use. The former, as its name indicates, is symbolic; the devotee refrains from taking food for as long, for example, as he keeps his hand clenched, and by this