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The Unknown Pilgrims
and the elder sādhvis, because they are already well-advanced on the path and it is they who transmit the teaching of Mahāvira.
D - Pratikramana: Repentance for and ritual confession of faults
The fourth ăvaśyaka possesses one specific function, namely purification. When combined with the other āvaśyakas, it subsumes, so to speak, the whole lot so efficiently that the morning and evening rite incorporating all the avaśyakas is commonly termed pratikramana.
The etymology of the word clearly indicates the function of this āvasyaka: prati, backwards, return, and kramana, walk; it means to make a walk back, come back, return, in this instance to return to the state which preceded that of impurity due to offences committed. Each āvasyaka, it is true, has to a different degree a purifying effect, but pratikramaņa exercises a direct role in purification, through the contents of its numerous sūtras, in proportion to the conviction with which they are recited.
The sūtras take as their theme the specific faults for which repentance is being expressed. This is a community rite, a shared general confession for all the faults that can be committed, especially through negligence, inattention and weakness.27 It is to be distinguished from the alocană, personal confession to a guruņi (or to the ācārya), which is always followed by a prāyaścitta; reparation to be made in the form of a penance prescribed by the guruņi (or ācārya)28
Master, what fruits accrue to the jiva from pratikramana? Through pratikramanna the jiva makes reparation for lapses
27 Cf. P 112-113 for the rite of pratikramaņa at the time of Pārsvanātha and from the time of Mahāvira onwards i.e. our own epoch.
28 The alocană and the prāyaścittas do not figure in the list of avaśyakas; however, two of the avasyakas, namely, pratikramana and kayotsarga, are also considered as being expiatory. Furthermore, pratikramana requires the same sincerity of intention as the alocană; cf. MA II, 56-58; P 369 ff.; 514 ff.
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