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322
The Unknown Pilgrims
is she in good health, with the senses well-controlled and the spirit free?
Then follows the request for pardon for the faults of the day (or night); no specific personal fault is mentioned, but a general sincere repentance for all faults is expressed.
At this point, with the request for pardon, the second aspect of vandana comes to the fore, that aspect that stresses the nature of the faults from which one must be purified, lesser faults involving a greater or less great degree of culpability, infringements of the rules of less or more importance due more particularly to negligence which is recognised as the fault against which one must guard oneself in order to avoid the slippery downward path of evil. These faults have various names.
Atikrama is an inclination or tendency to evil, however slight it be.
Vyatikrama denotes a certain, even though minimal, consent to evil.
Āśātana is lack of respect or deference towards the guruni and other sadhvis. It is especially from this type of fault, imperfection and negligence that one must purify oneself during the vandana, āśātanā can adopt different guises, hence the request for pardon for duşkṛtas, blameworthy acts of thought, word and deed, due to the four passions.
Aticăra, i.e., even the slightest violation or transgression of the vows by some minor infidelity.23
These notions relate to slight offences where the will is only slightly or even not at all involved; the important point in this context where all is centred upon the purification of one's being and on respect towards all other beings, is equally the actual fault - because of its repercussions both on the person who commits it and also on other
23 Cf. SramanS, pp. 287-290; no order of gravity of faults is followed within
any one sutra.
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