Aptavani-2
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lead you to the path ahead.” But how have people interpreted
the meaning of pratikraman? There is a road sign showing the
‘Way to Santa Cruz’, but here one keeps saying ‘Way to Santa
Cruz. Way to Santa Cruz’, while sitting in Dadar. In doing this,
the actual process of going Santa Cruz is set aside and he
becomes intoxicated with ‘trying to go to Santa Cruz’.
People have not understood pratikraman in countless past
lives. They have never stopped to think about what they are
doing and they keep talking about Lord Mahavir’s pratikraman,
without understanding it. It has become a meaningless routine.
Pratikraman removes the stains of atikraman
Dadashri : What do you do when you have tea stains on
your clothes?
Questioner : I would wash it off immediately?
Dadashri : You are so particular here about washing the
stain right away because you know that the stain will set in, but
you do not know about the stain that is left within. Atikraman
means creating stains and pratikraman means washing them off.
Those who do not have any stains do not need any pratikraman.
The Gnani Purush does not need to do pratikraman.
People are quick to wash the tea stains off their clothes;
they are never lax in that matter. Gnani however falls short in that
matter, but never when it comes to the inner stains. The Gnani
Purush does not have stains because He, ‘cleans’ and makes
others do the same, whereas elsewhere they (the gurus) make
others clean but they do not do the same and hence their stains
remain. What happens when you do not know how to remove
a tea stain? If you wash it with milk, the milk will leave a stain,
and then if you wash it with oil, the oil will make that stain even
stronger. What kind of pratikraman do people do today? They
do dravya alochana, pratikraman and pratyakhyan as a kriya
shown in the Jain scriptures. They simply recite these as a