praRiDAna
praṇidhāna , nt. ( m. modifiers Bhad 58 ; = Pali paṇidhāna; like praṇidhi , n. act. to praṇidadhāti, praṇidheti ), fixation of mind (ceto-pra° Mv i.239.5 ; iii.138.19 ; Pali ceto-paṇidhi), and so ardent desire, earnest wish, vow ; sometimes (but rarely) of purely worldly desires, which are reprobated, praṇidhāna-vivarjitam SP 142.8 ( vs ); usually religious at least in basis, fulfilment being expected on the ground of acts of merit, which are often mentioned in a solemn declaration of wish; the thing desired may nevertheless be worldly (wealth, or special marks of grace), tho often the intention is stated to use it for religious-purposes: Mv i.302.19 (magic possession of garlands); iii.414.12 (fortunate rebirths); Divy 23.17 ; 65.10 (to become a cakravartin); or it may be truly religious, yet not Buddhahood or Bodhisattvahood, SP 242.4 (here made by a past Buddha, to do services to Buddhas to come); most commonly to win enlightenment, i.e. to become a Buddha, SP 43.12 ; LV 31.22 (°na-paripūryai, so with mss. ; cf. praṇidhi- paripūriye); 180.1 ; 415.15 ; Mv i.39.8 ; 104.3 ; 239.5 ; iii.138.19 ; Divy 66.22 ; 90.3 ; Av i.8.12 ; praṇidhāna-caryā, a whole course of praṇidhānas , Mv i.1.3 , see s.v. caryā ; when made by a Bodhisattva it may mean rather the vow to follow the Bodhisattva-course, and may then be called specifically caryā-pra° SP 64.13, 14 , or bhadracarī-pra° Bhad 2 , etc. ; praṇidhāna is one of the ten bala of a Bodhisattva, Mvy 764 , and one of his vaśitā, Mvy 778 ; anuloma-pra° Mv i.1.11 , continued successive pra° , seems to mean a pra° repeated by the same individual (Śākyamuni in previous incarnations as cakravartin), in similar terms, as described later in i.48.17 ff. ; there are ten mahāpraṇidhāna of a Bodhisattva, Dbh 14.15 ff. , described at length (ten such are referred to in Sūtrāl. iv.12 , but the list quoted from another source by Lévi, note to Transl. , is quite different from the Dbh list); four pūrva-praṇidhāna-padāni LV 204.16 , each described in the sequel in an entire paragraph; three kinds of pra° Dharmas 112 , viz. susthāna-prābandhikam (see prābandhika ), sattvārtha-prābandhikam, buddhakṣetra-pariśodhakam. Rarely prārthanā , q.v. , appears to be used of the ‘earnest wish’ for enlightenment.