|| Michchhami Dukkadam ||

The most important festival of Jainism i.e. "Paryushan" is over.

One custom to be followed after the last day of Paryushan (Samvatsari) is that of saying " Michhami Dukkadam ".

On Samvatsari day the ritual of Pratikraman is performed. Since "Samvatsari" is an annual event so is the Samvatsari Pratikraman.

Under Samvatsari Pratikraman there comes the retrospection of all bad deeds and mistakes committed in the past year.

We are critical of the bad deeds and resolve not to let them happen in the future.

We also request forgiveness from all the living beings in the world if we might have knowingly or unknowingly caused harm to them.

Thus, after the Pratikraman it is customary to request forgiveness from everyone we know and meet by saying "Michhami Dukkadam".

The idea behind it being that - "After requesting forgiveness from all living beings in general as part of Pratikraman, I do so one-to-one with you."

We become more specific and personal by doing so. In addition to requesting forgiveness, one has to grant forgiveness too.

Thus by forgiving everyone and requesting forgiveness from all we ligthen ourselves and our mind from past year's misdeeds.

" Michchhami (Mithya) means fruitless / forgiven and Dukkadam (Dushkrit) means bad deeds.

Therefore the meaning of Michchhami Dukkadam is ' MY BAD DEEDS BE FRUITLESS '.

So the idea behind conveying Michchhami Dukkadam is that if I have caused any harm to you then may those bad deeds be forgiven, become fruitless.

MICHHAMI DUKKADAM ! Forgive me for my ignorance! 

" M I C H H A M I  D U K K A D A M  " from Alpesh Shah & Family