Theory of Karman in Indian Thought

Author(s): Koshelya Walli
Publisher: Bharat Manisha

Page 52

[ 38 ]
on the first day and every day one morsel is reduced till on 14th day one morsel is taken and on Amavasya a complete fast is observed. On the first day of the bright half one morsel is taken i. e. goes on increasing one morsel each day till on the fifteenth (on Pūrṇamāsī) fifteen morsels are taken. Here in between nothing is taken and the largest number of morsels are taken in the beginning and at the end. Hence it is named Pipilikāmadhya There are different views regarding Candrāyaṇa.2
According to Yajnavalkya, taking of 240 morsels during a month is known as Candrayana Vrata.3
The entire course of self-purification by penance is worth consideration. Certain principles have to be involved. Leaving aside confession, repentance, gifts, prāṇāyāma, Mantrajapa and other gentle means of self purification and coming down to actual penance, certain principles seem to be involved. Fast is an important factor, so also Vedic mantra. Pañcagavya is a very notable factor.
Non-performance of Prayaścitta-What will happen to La grave sinner who has not gone through the prayaścitta rite? Such a man is said to suffer torments in hells and is afterwards born as an insect or lower animal or a tree due to his sins still left over. If born as a man he is afflicted with diseases or defects. Such cases are described to great length in works dealing with Karmavipāka.4
1. Yajnavalkya III, 323
Manu XI. 21
2. Vide Haradatta on Gautama 27.12-15
3. Yajnavalkya Smrti 111. 324
4. This shows that a man with grave sins bears some signs for seven births. A person with Upapataka bears these signs after five births, and a person with sins for three births, so for es details are concerned we may not find a consensus of opinion, but the belief of the existence of causal relation between a particular disease or a particular animal and the particular sin in carlier human life is persistant.