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Recently I have come across a few stotras with phalasruthi saying that these stotras can cleanse the past life sins. I'm citing Dwadasa jyotirlinga stotra as an example.
एतानि ज्योतिर्लिङ्गानि सायं प्रातः पठेन्नरः । सप्त जन्म कृतं पापं स्मरणेन विनश्यति ॥
Someone please explain about how this is possible.
Verse in your question says सप्त जन्म कृतं पापं. It doesn’t say karma.
You are mistaking by thinking that Prarabhdha karma are only Sins. Prarabhdha karma can also be any karma (even good) that is tied to worldly desires.
When verse says that paap/sins are destroyed, it literally means sins. Sins are like bad karma. We commit sins from mind, speech and body. Details are given in Padma Purana
मानवा मर्त्यलोके च पापं कुर्वंति दारुणम् । तेषां कर्मविपाकं च मातले वद सांप्रतम् ॥ २ ॥
This will help you understand here what sins are.
These kind of sinful acts are destroyed by pilgrimage or chanting stotrams. But Prarabdha karma can never be destroyed.
One for example
Verse from Lingashtakam that clarifies it is “sanchit paap”.
कुङ्कुमचन्दनलेपितलिङ्गं पङ्कजहारसुशोभितलिङ्गम् । सञ्चितपापविनाशनलिङ्गं तत् प्रणमामि सदाशिवलिङ्गम् ॥५॥
To provide you example to understand your dilemma : Story of Jad Bharat from Srimad Bhagvatam.
Bharatji got attached to deer so much that it disturbed his spiritual practices. He didn’t commit any sin as such. It was just his karmas towards deer (and past actions towards sons) that he had fall from spiritual practice and had to reborn.
What I meant to tell you is that karmas which are not necessarily sinful , and tied to worldly desires are the blocker for liberation and (those karma) cannot be destroyed by any means. Only sinful karmas can be destroyed.
Hence verses are correct when they says sins are destroyed. Verses don’t say Prarabdha karma are destroyed. Hope it clarifies.
It is not possible that reciting that stotra will clean up sins of 7 births. Such statements are arthavad and not meant to be taken literally. More precisely it is an example of stuti.
Arthavada is of four kinds, ninda (censure), stuti (eulogy), parakrti (performance by another great person) and purakalpa (what happened in bygone ages).
A concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism by Swami Harshananda
Why is it a stuti? Why can't it be understood literally?
It can't be understood literally since it is not possible to attain moksha just by reading any scripture let alone clean up sins of seven births. If by reading a stotra or scripture one can help attain moksha then there will be no need to do dhyana or japa or puja.
Sastras
They study the Vedas and discuss. But they do not realize the Ultimate Reality just as a spoon does not know the taste of food.
The head carries the flowers, the nose knows the scent. The people study the Vedas. But, very few persons understand the same.
Not knowing the Reality of the self, a fool is infatuated by the sastras. When the goat stands in the shed, the shepherd seeks for it in the well in vain.
The knowledge of the sastras is not competent to destroy the infatuation accruing from worldly affairs.
….
Having studied the Vedas and realized their essence the wise man should leave all the sastras just as one desiring corn leaves the husk.
Just as one satiated with nectar has no use of food, no one who is in search of Reality has anything to do with the sastras.
One cannot obtain release by reading the Vedas or the sastras. Release comes from experience, not otherwise, O son of Vinata.
[Garuda Purana, Dharma Khanda, Chapter XLIX]
Since one cannot understand the statement literally, one is forced to explore alternative meanings. The statement is encouraging the reader to engage in spiritual practices in order to attain mental purity.
For the attainment of mental purity, spiritual aspirants (Yogins) perform action devoid of attachment, with their body, mind, intellect or even merely with their senses.
Gita 5.11
The stotra is making the case that by constantly reading it, i.e. engaging one's intellect in spiritual matters, will gradually lead to spiritual practices like dhyana, japa, puja that will purify the mind of the reader and ultimately lead to moksha.
