Pratikraman: The Key That Resolves All Conflicts (Full Version) Pratikraman: The Key That Resolves All Conflicts | Page 102

[3] These Are Not Lord Mahavir’s Pratikramans
43
Mahavir keep it pending, ‘I will do padakmanu (Jain ritual of
doing pratikraman) when paryushan (once a year Jain ritual of
doing pratikraman) comes.’ Then, when that time comes, they
go and say, ‘Michhami dukkadam.’
Now who understands what this means? They do not
even understand what the term ‘padakmanu—slang term for
pratikraman’ means. Now what do you do with that? There
was a seventy-year-old Jain sitting amongst a few of us. I wanted
to help him and so I said to him, ‘They do not understand
padakmanu and they say they do padakmanu.’ I called out to
one old man, ‘Sir, come here.’ He asked, ‘What is it?’ I asked
him, ‘Where did you go?’ He told me, ‘I went and did
padakmanu.’ So I asked him, ‘What is padakmanu?’ He said,
‘I have been doing it for forty years, but I do not know what
it means. Tomorrow I will ask the maharaj.’ God bless! Is that
Lord Mahavir’s fortune or someone else’s? What luck that all
this goes on! ‘I will go and ask the maharaj!’ Now how can
one tackle all this?!
Do you do padakmanu or not?
Seeker: Yes, I do, only once a year. That day I ask for
forgiveness for the whole year.
Dadashri: Is that it? Then is it all resolved that day?
You have been doing it for forty years! Should you not
ask? If you do something, should you not ask, ‘Sir, what is all
this? Why am I doing it?’ Is there not a need to ask this? Who
is going to tell you off if you ask?
When these people do pratikraman once a year, they
wear new clothes. What is pratikraman for? Is it for getting
married or what? To do pratikraman means one has to repent
so much. Why does one need to wear new clothes for that? Are
they getting married? In addition, they do early morning
pratikraman (rayshi), and late evening pratikraman (devshi).