Morning and evening, and climactically once a year, the Jain turns back over the day's harms — in thought, word, and deed — and asks forgiveness of every living being.
Tagged: Prayer Remembrance Repentance Jain
How It Is Practiced
The rite retraces the period since the last pratikramaṇa: the practitioner confesses, in set formulas, harm done to beings of every class — one-sensed through five-sensed — repents it, vows restraint, and pronounces the universal pardon: khāmemi savva-jīvāṇaṃ, savve jīvā khamaṃtu me — 'I forgive all living beings; may all living beings forgive me.' The annual Samvatsarī pratikramaṇa, at the close of the Paryuṣaṇa festival, is the year's summit: afterward, Jains greet every acquaintance with 'Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ' — may my faults be forgiven, may they be fruitless.
Purpose and Meaning
No other devotion in this collection is so exactly an audit. Jain ethics holds that karma sticks through action and through the passions that accompany it; pratikramaṇa is the scheduled un-sticking — confession, contrition, pardon asked and granted, and resolve — applied not to a deity, for Jainism has no creator to forgive, but to the injured beings themselves and to one's own soul.
References
- Pratikramana — Wikipedia Free / open access
Related Practices
- Sāmāyika — The Meditation of Equanimity — For forty-eight minutes — one muhūrta — the Jain layperson sits in renunciation: no harm, no business, no distinction between friend and stranger.
- Recitation of the Ṇamokāra Mantra — Jainism's supreme prayer bows to no god: it salutes the five supreme ones — the conquerors, the liberated, the teachers, the preceptors, and all monks.
- Prostrations and Bows — Orthodox prayer is prayed with the body: bows from the waist and full prostrations punctuate the daily rule and the services.
Related Across the Site
- First Fridays Devotion Devotion — The First Fridays devotion joins Mass and Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays to the promises of the Sacred Heart.
- Novena Devotion — A novena is a prayer or set of prayers repeated on nine consecutive days for a particular intention.
- Pilgrimage (Catholic) Devotion — Catholic pilgrimage is a journey to a shrine undertaken as prayer, penance, thanksgiving, or petition.
- Recitation of the Ṇamokāra Mantra Devotion — Jainism's supreme prayer bows to no god: it salutes the five supreme ones — the conquerors, the liberated, the teachers, the preceptors, and all monks.
- Stations of the Cross Devotion — The Stations of the Cross walk the worshipper through fourteen scenes of Christ's journey to the crucifixion.
- The Angelus Devotion — The Angelus is a short prayer on the Incarnation, prayed at morning, noon, and evening at the sound of a bell.
- Dhikr Prayer or Creed — The remembrance of God through repeated short formulas of glory, praise, and greatness.
- Namokar Mantra Prayer or Creed — Jainism's central mantra of homage to the five supreme beings, recited at the start of prayer and meditation.