408
Aptavani-2
pratikraman and pratyakhyan?
Questioner : Yes. I do pratikraman yearly (samvatsari).
Dadashri : Let me explain how you should do your
pratikraman. Do you have a guru?
Questioner : No I do not.
Dadashri : If one happens to quarrel, it is because of his
unfolding karma and the tendency of his prakruti (the relative
self), but when this happens, he needs to recall his guru, recall
the Soul within the person he has hurt and do pratikraman
immediately. Atikraman is an act of aggression. If one does
atikraman with his boss, there too he can erase everything if he
does alochana, pratikraman and pratyakhyan, using his guru as
the witness. When he does this, instead of creating a tight solid
knot of karma through the atikraman, it becomes loose and it
will disintegrate upon the slightest touch in his next life. One
needs a guru, does he not? He needs someone to make his
confessions to, does he not? The only way to become free is
through pratikraman and pratyakhyan, there is no other way.
Atikraman and aakraman (excess atikraman) causes bondage.
The subtraction (pratikraman) must equal the addition (atikraman)
in order to zero out everything. Pratikraman is best done the
moment the atikraman occurs. A true Jain is constantly living by
alochana, pratikraman and pratyakhyan. The one who does
over five hundred or so pratikramans a day is a true a Jain.
One can reduce the ‘stickiness’ or the intensity of the
knots of attachment and abhorrence through constant pratikraman.
If the person you are dealing with is being awkward, the fault
lies with you. You have not erased your accounts with him and
if you have, then your effort was not proper. Whenever you
have free time, you should keep cleansing your sticky karmic
accounts you have pending with others. You will not have too
many, there may be five or ten such sticky files. You have to do
pratikraman for them. You have to keep washing away the