Micchami Dukkadam,
A Soul-felt Sorry…
The Cosmic Heart
Spiritual Pathway
“If I have offended you in any way, knowingly or unknowingly, in thought, word or deed, then I seek your forgiveness.” Says the agonizingly, beautiful Jain prayer. And as we fill ourselves with the implications...
We discover this prayer is elaborated on by texts like The Iryapathiki Sutra... of which a free-flowing translation reads as...
“If I have inflicted pain on any living being,
Violated them,
Blocked their path,
Buried them with dust,
Caused them anguish,
Killed, Tormented, Totured,
By any of the 10 terrible violations
Interrupted the flow of their life
{abhihaya, vattiya, lesiya, sanghaiya, sanghattiya, pariyaviya, kilamiya, uddhaviya, thanao thanam sankamiya, jiviyao vavaroviya},
Then by repentance,
may these sins of mine be erased…The glorious Sutra lists the innumerable violations we commit, so many unknowingly. Then, after listing out the 10 deadly sins, we reach for forgiveness, in the Jain tradition by uttering ‘Michami Dukkadam’...
But obviously is it enough to mouth the words? And not live it? And so we complete this thought with a poem Tarun penned.
Do Sorry:
“Do not forgive me if only my lips say sorry.
Let me Do Sorry.“Do not forgive me if I only do sorry
But do not mean sorry.“But if I am ignorant that I should say sorry, at all,
Or do sorry, or be sorry,
Then yes, I am unforgiveable.
But am I unsalvageable?“Then you who are the ultimate principle, please do not forgive me,
But find it in your heart to nudge, or shove me to that place
Where I can at least realize, I need to ask for forgiveness.”
But while this may work with some, there are those who even the ultimate cannot move and eternity cannot wear down... Besides, me saying sorry, keeps the whole argument at a human level, for why should a wolf apologise to a deer? Yes what happens as we expand to an evolutionary perspective, a cosmic viewpoint? What when one ascends to the heights of Oneness? What then? And so we reflect on it and arrive at a still deeper prayer-poem...
How Say Sorry When The Oneness is Complicit in My Agony?
“I am The Oneness not knowing I am The Oneness,
I am The Ripple of Oneness not knowing I am The Ripple of Oneness,
I am The Ripple of The Ripple of The Ripple of Oneness not knowing
there is such a thing as Oneness.“Placed here I have done terrible things, sometimes,
not knowing they are terrible things.
Should I say sorry?
Why the f*** should I say sorry to you?
Dear God*, you sit on your throne and send me to do shit,
why should I say sorry, to you?
“But I look at the cut forests, the poisoned rivers, the burnt air,
The chicken in cages, the blinded rabbits, the cows with their breasts bleeding and I say sorry... I say sorry to them...
So I eventually say sorry to You.“I try,
I know some of the things I say sorry for today, however sincerely,
I will repeat.
Ok I may turn veg, but how will that stop us from cutting down
the last forest?
Exterminate us I say, but will the planet of apes be an improvement?“You come down and hold my hand.
{Or should I say you rise up through me and illuminate my head?}
And I see a million ways in which I enrich the earth.
I smile.
It’s a funny smile.It spreads across the universe.”
-- Love & God Tarun & Celia Cherian
* While Jainism does not believe in God. It does propose many celestial beings, like Bhavanavāsī, Vyantara, Jyotiṣka, Vaimānika. Also The Siddhas who have attained Moksha maybe considered Life's pinnacle or Lokkaash's pinnacle... Be it the soaring Celestials, or Siddhas, these pinnacle points of consciousness above existence can be referred loosely as God.
If you would like to explore the idea of The Price of Life do go watch the video Who will cut the wings of the swan? Sometimes we believe that we are innocent of the ravages inflicted on the earth, but are we?
If you love the images used in the article please do go to Gift Yantras that Heal and Art that Blesses!