[ 3 ] These Are Not Lord Mahavir ’ s Pratikramans 77
once a year . On that day , people soak their clothes !
‘ Our ’ pratikraman is called ‘ shoot-on-sight ’ pratikraman . What you are doing is not called pratikraman because not a single piece of clothing of yours becomes clean , whereas here in our path , all our clothes have become clean and spotless . Pratikraman is that where all the stains ( atikraman ) are removed and the clothes become immaculate .
You have to wash each item of clothing every day . Whereas over there , they gather one year ’ s worth of washing and they wash all of them on that one day . They accumulate a year ’ s worth of dirty laundry and then attempt to wash it all at once . That is not acceptable with the Lord . These people soak their clothes in steaming water once a year , don ’ t they ? Here each clothing item needs to be washed separately with great care . When you manage to wash at least five hundred a day , you will make progress .
However many faults you are able to see within , that many faults will decrease . What is the reason that you are not able to see these faults ? It is because of that much weaknessunawareness . Is it because you have become free from your faults that you are not able to see them ?
The Lord has emphasized the need to do pratikraman daily , but people only do it once a year during Paryushan . The Lord said that a true merchant is the one who keeps an account in his record book for the entire day , tallying his ledger in the evening . If he were to log everything just once a year , how would he manage to remember all his accounts and set his books straight ? The Lord has stressed the importance of keeping a logbook for the entire day , as a true merchant would . If an entry is made incorrectly , that is if a misdeed occurs , it should be erased with pratikraman .
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