The Dnyani, however, because he knows the Truth by actual experience, is utterly free from these bindings, and he therefore knows that, as a Dnyani, he is exempt from the law of karma. Since he knows the nature of good and evil, he also knows that no one is to be blamed for anything he thinks or feels or says or does. And the Dnyani knows too that the sequels to good and evil, such as heaven and hell, dying and being born and born again, are the results of God’s Will functioning through karmic law, but also that they exist only because ignorance makes them exist. Thus the Dnyani, who may often intercede with God for his devotees and humanity at large, never repents to God and never asks forgiveness for anything concerning himself.
By special dispensation of God also, the very highest type of devotee, whose whole being is permanently focussed on the Divine Beloved, is as completely exempt from the law of karma as the Dnyani. Unlike the Dnyani, however, such a devotee is utterly ignorant of this exemption.
But the ordinary devotee, no matter how sincere his devotion, remains bound by the law of karma, and so his best course is to apply this law to his own spiritual advantage by the constant practice of virtue and the constant abstention from evil. And when he fails in virtue or falls into sins, he must throw himself on the boundless mercy of God and ask His forgiveness.
The Repentance Prayer for forgiveness will now be uttered for me, for you, and for all who are connected with me. Maybe some of you, or many of you, have no bindings of desires and attachments, but here today, as I am in the state of a devotee, I would like you all to join me and encourage me in asking God’s forgiveness.
Baba stood up and asked the following persons to repeat aloud the following names of God seven times each, as they had done before. He also asked the gathering to stand and mentally repeat wholeheartedly with them: Nilu “Om Parabrahma Paramatma!” Padri “Ya Yezdan!” Baidul “La Ilah Illallah!” Eruch “O God, Father in Heaven!”
After invoking God through the repetition of His names, Baba asked Donkin to read the Prayer of Repentance in English:
We repent, O God Most Merciful, for all our sins;
for every thought that was false or unjust or unclean;
for every word spoken that ought not to have been spoken;
for every deed done that ought not to have been done.
We repent for every deed and word
and thought inspired by selfishness;
and for every deed and word and thought inspired by hatred.
We repent most specially for every lustful thought
and every lustful action, for every lie, for all hypocrisy,
for every promise given but not fulfilled,
and for all slander and backbiting.
Most specially also, we repent for every action
that has brought ruin to others,
for every word and deed that has given others pain,
and for every wish that pain should befall others.
In Your Unbounded Mercy! We ask You to forgive us, O God!
for all these sins committed by us,
and to forgive us for our constant failures to think
and speak and act according to Your Will.
This prayer had been dictated by Baba in Khuldabad exactly a year previously, in November 1951, but it was first recited aloud this day. As the prayer was being said, Baba lightly slapped his cheeks throughout the recitation, the gesture in India for seeking forgiveness, promising never to repeat the act.
–Lord Meher (First Ed), p3949