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