42 Pratikraman
Each one of them would be five thousand to ten thousand feet tall . Their nose would be two hundred feet long ! But they would do exactly whatever they were told . They would do it from morning until night . If the Lord forgot to tell them to stop , they would not stop .
And if Lord Mahavir were to tell his disciples to do samayik for an hour and if after three minutes the Lord leaves to go out , they would keep looking at the hourglass .
Lord Mahavir recognized what his followers were like . They were not alert thinkers ( vichakshan ). The disciples of the middle twenty-two Tirthankars were alert thinkers . What is the meaning of vichakshan in Gujarati ?
Questioner : Very clever and shrewd ; like a fox . ( 40 )
Dadashri : No . Hey , you ! You took the wrong meaning of it by referring to a fox ! Vichakshan means to think from every moment to moment ( kshana to kshana ) – as to what is occurring . ‘ What occurred here ? That was wrong !’ And they immediately did pratikraman . They did not have to be told to do pratikraman . Pratikraman was done automatically . They did pratikraman the moment a fault occurred . Alert thinking ( vichakshan ) means they recognized that they made a mistake the moment it occurred . They recognized that the words that came out while they were speaking with another person , were harsh and , therefore , they did pratikraman right away . Or if you and I had a quarrel , if I had a negative thought towards you , then I would do pratikraman right away at that time , ‘ shooton-sight ’ pratikraman . Only then will that mistake be erased , otherwise it will not , will it ? Is it possible to remember the mistake if you wait twelve months to do pratikraman ?
So the disciples of the middle twenty-two Tirthankars were very good . They would instantly do pratikraman , on the spot , if they said anything negative . Only these disciples of Lord