Thus Spake the Divine - Papa and Punya

Thus Spake the Divine

Papa and Punya

(Good and Evil Deeds)

None of us in this world will ever want to remain sinners. All of us aspire to reap the fruits of good deeds. But, in reality, we don’t really do many good deeds. Moreover, we tend to indulge in evil acts.

“Nobody wants to commit sin. Nevertheless Krishna! What is it that drives a man violently towards committing sins? Krishna answered, “Kama, the desire! It is one’s desires that drive him to commit sins!”

Kama (Lust, desire) and Krodh (Anger, fury) are the two evils that tend to drive people away from the Codes of Dharma. When we have a strong liking towards something, we want to possess it at any cost. That makes us totally violate the Codes of Dharma. If that desire is fulfilled, then, does anyone

remain content? No. If we pour ghee on the fire, does the fire go extinct? It gets more intensified. Similarly, when one desire gets fulfilled, another bigger desire explodes.

In that case, can we say it is better that we will keep our desires unfulfilled? That is also not correct! We become angry when our desires are not fulfilled. As the ball hitting a wall bounces back, unfulfilled desires bounce back on us furiously and drive us into committing further more sins. Krishna also talks of anger, a direct progeny of Kama, the desire. This means that if a person wants to refrain from committing sins, the only way is to renounce desires.

How does one renounce desires? We cannot remain passive by not doing any act. Even when the body does not engage in any activity, the mind keeps engaging in some activity or the other. The job of the mind is to keep on thinking about something. Thus, all activities carried out by both our body and mind keep revolving around our own desires and needs. These, in turn, push us more and more towards sinful acts. In that case, is it good to remain just sedentary without doing anything? The human nature does not permit us to do that.

Thayumana Swamigal says, “It is an exceptional skill to have the mind under control and be not doing anything”. Even if one stops the physical activity for a while, the mental activity refuses to stop. The mind, when working, also stimulates the body to act.

Thus, neither are we able to bring a halt to our desires, nor are we able to refrain from doing our activities. Is there then no salvation for us from this world? Is there not a solution for this problem? Yes! There is a solution!! Under the given state of affairs, we don’t need to totally stop the activities. But we should alter our current state, in which we engage in activities to fulfil our own desires, to a state in which we engage ourselves in activities that do not bring in material (short-lived) benefits. We should engage in acts for the development of our own soul and the society. By doing so, desires will keep diminishing, so will sins diminish and good deeds increase. What it means is that we should start doing our activities without attaching any desires to them. The deeds of Punya are those, which are done without attaching any string of desire to an action.

We commit sins in four ways. Wicked activities through the body; gossip and untruth through the mouth; evil thoughts in the mind; and no need to mention the evil acts carried out using our hands and money. The four media using which we commit sins should instead be focussed on doing good deeds. Involving the body into service of people, going around temples (Prathakshinam) and prostrating in front of God (Namaskaram) etc., are the acts which, add to good deeds. By mouth, we should constantly chant the name of God and add to the account of our good deeds. It is acceptable that one need not create time specifically for this purpose amidst day-to-day activities. One can recite the name of God even while travelling to office by bus or train! Whatever one earns by endlessly running around, not one single paisa will accompany him when he leaves this earth! The valid currency in the other world is only the name of God!

The mind (heart) is the abode of God. We have turned it into a dustbin. We should clean up our mind and make God seated into it and we should also sit in absolute silence. We should meditate like this every day at least for five minutes. The whole world may sink, but this act should continue to happen uninterruptedly. Why? This is because it is meditation to God that will extend a helping hand when the world really sinks. One should also do lot of good deeds by giving money in different ways to God and the poor.

Sins have two kinds of capabilities. One is they force us to commit wrong deeds today. Second is they instigate us do the same wrong deeds tomorrow too. For example, the habit of using nasal snuff will cause some harm today; nevertheless, it will instigate one to use the nasal snuff again tomorrow. This is what is known as “vasana” (the karmic imprint, which influences the present behaviour of a person). We should detoxify this instinct of doing bad deeds and enhance the fragrance of good deeds.

It is the vasana alone that drive us into clutches of sin. Now, we don’t need to panic. There are people who are like us. There are those who are even worse sinners than us. But they have turned to be great devotees and Jnyanis. If God does not sanctify the sinners, then what is so great about Him? That’s why He has been given the award “Sanctifier of the Sinner”. Lord Krishna extends an uncompromising promise of protection to sinners and says, “Surrender to me alone! I will liberate you from all sins; Fear not!”

Therefore, let us be brave. Irrespective of the number of rotations of rope in a knot, once we rotate the rope reversely that many times, the knot will unknot. In order to extricate the vasana of sin, we should do good deeds to that extent. Let us not be hasty and rushing. If we do so, there will be more tangles and the knot will become tougher to unknot. If we adhere to Codes of Dharma and trust in God, He will definitely help us.

All religions have emerged only with the objective of redirecting people’s minds towards God from the material transactions involving the material and sensory pleasures. Each and every sage has emerged to provide a religion to people only with the objective of liberating them from the sins committed when fulfilling their material pleasures. The happiness arising out of physical pleasures is very short-lived. The motto of every religion is to liberate the individual from worldly bindings and unify him with God.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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