What’s the difference between prayaschitta ( atonement ) and paschyatap ( remorse )?

What’s the difference between prayaschitta ( atonement ) and paschyatap ( remorse )?What’s the difference between prayaschitta ( atonement ) and paschyatap ( remorse )?
Answer
admin Staff answered 4 days ago

It is given that prayaschitta and paschyatap don’t have appropriate corresponding words in English, which can mimic the depth of these two beautiful Sanskrit words.

Prayaschitta means resetting the mind.

If I get angry suddenly, my thinking process will be –

How did I get angry?
Anger is not my nature.
I’m a nice person, otherwise.
There must be some external cause that made me angry.

I’ll repent a little and then return to my original self, an angry person.

This is prayaschitta – resetting oneself to one’s original belief about oneself, and going back to life as if it never happened; my image about myself will remain well preserved in my mind.

Paschyatap, on the other hand, is a deep contemplation about what happened.

This will involve closing your eyes and meditating on your own angerful event.

A deep contemplation will happen in the presence of pure consciousness, where you will be a criminal, and consciousness, the judge.

Consciousness is the purest entity possible, and standing in front of it is not easy; one has to feel the “heat” ( taap ) of the consciousness, because consciousness is the truth, and truth is always unpleasant.

This way, the heat of consciousness will burn you from within; it will be an unpleasant experience, and you will realize your fault, but it will bring a transformation from within.

This way, develop a habit of doing a paschyatap about your negativities and see the power of consciousness cleansing you from within.