Practices
Pratikramana
Purificatory Practices
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Origin 300 BCE to 200 CE
The formal review of one's conduct and repentance for the injury done in it. Pratikramana means turning back, and the practice is the retracing of a period of life to find where one has departed from the vows.
It is performed at intervals that nest inside one another: twice daily by ascetics and observant lay Jains, at the close of a fortnight, at four months, and once a year at Samvatsari, the last day of Paryushana, when it is performed by the whole community together and lasts several hours. Each occasion covers the period since the last.
Its structure is a recitation of the vows and the transgressions possible against each, undertaken in the awareness that a Jain cannot avoid injury altogether. Walking, sitting, eating, washing and speaking all destroy life, much of it invisible, and the practice does not pretend otherwise. What it asks is that the injury be recognised specifically rather than in general, regretted, and not repeated where avoidance is possible.
The annual observance ends with the asking of forgiveness, and it is asked of everyone rather than of God. Jains approach family, friends, colleagues and those they have quarrelled with, and say micchami dukkadam, may the wrong I have done be without effect, and the address is now sent by message and post across the world on the day. There is nothing to be absolved by, since Jainism has no deity who forgives and holds karma to be matter that no one can remit. The forgiveness sought is the other person's, and its function is the removal of the residue of enmity in oneself, which is what continues to bind.
Facts
Practice
Category of PracticePenitential and obligatory: the formal review of one's conduct and repentance for injury done, performed twice daily by observant Jains and, once a year at Samvatsari, by the whole community together. 1 Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 ObligationObligatory 1Tradition: Jainism Solitary or CommunalPerformed alone or together 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionThe annual forgiveness that closes Pratikramana is asked of other people rather than of God, since Jainism holds no deity who forgives and treats karma as matter that no one can remit on another's behalf; what the rite removes is the residue of enmity in the person asking, which is the part that continues to bind. 1 Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginThe Indian subcontinent 1 One of the six essential Jain daily observances. Meaning
Literal MeaningPratikramana means turning back, and the practice is the retracing of a period of life to find where one has departed from the vows. 2 Learn More
Turning Back
Pratikramana is the Jain rite of repentance and self-review, a periodic examination of conscience in which the practitioner recalls the faults committed since the last such rite, confesses them, repents, and resolves against their repetition. The word means "turning back", a return from transgression toward one's true nature and toward the vows one has undertaken. Central to the rite is the asking of forgiveness from all living beings for any harm done to them, whether knowingly or unknowingly, and the granting of forgiveness to all in return, an act that flows directly from the Jain commitment to non-violence, ahimsa, toward every form of life.
Because even the most careful Jain cannot avoid all harm, walking, breathing and eating unavoidably injure minute living things, pratikramana serves as the regular cleansing of the soul from the subtle karmic matter that such unavoidable and avoidable faults accumulate. It is performed daily by the devout, morning and evening, and at longer intervals, the observance growing in fullness on the annual occasion of its greatest importance.
The Great Forgiveness
The most solemn pratikramana falls during Paryushana (or, among the Digambara Jains, Das Lakshana), the chief annual festival of self-purification, culminating on its final day in Samvatsari, the yearly rite of universal forgiveness. On that day Jains everywhere perform the great pratikramana and utter the phrase Micchami Dukkadam, roughly, "may all the wrong I have done be as nothing", to family, friends, acquaintances and strangers alike, seeking pardon for any hurt caused over the past year and freely extending it to others. The custom reaches beyond the immediate community, with letters and messages of forgiveness exchanged across distances, so that the year's accumulated grievances are deliberately set down.
This annual clearing of the moral ledger gives concrete social form to the Jain conviction that enmity and the harm it breeds bind the soul, and that forgiveness, both sought and granted, is a discipline essential to liberation. Pratikramana thus unites the private examination of conscience with a communal ethic of reconciliation, and stands among the practices by which Jainism translates its rigorous doctrine of non-violence into the texture of everyday life.
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