258. Sins and Suffering

One of the common fears of humanity is about committing sins (paap). Every culture evolved around sin and the common belief is that all our sufferings are because of sins committed by us in this birth or the previous ones. Religions thrive on our guilt of committing sins. Even Arjun's despondency is because of his belief that he will incur sin by slaying his elders, teachers and relatives. That's why Krishna elaborates on this issue on various occasions in the Bhagavad Gita.

Firstly, paramatma takes no account of anyone’s virtue or sin. It is the problem of human beings who are deluded as their knowledge is covered by moha (delusion or ignorance) (5.15). Secondly, one hoping for nought, with a controlled mind and body, doing mere bodily actions, incurs no sin (4.21). Even if we are the most sinful of sinners, we shall safely cross the sea of sin by the raft of wisdom (4.36). The wisdom is realising ‘that’ by which we will see all beings in the self (4.35).

Thirdly, for a karma yogi, no sin would be committed if a karma is performed by keeping pleasure-pain; gain-loss; and victory-defeat with equipoise (2.38). Krishna calls this equanimity as param bhakti (supreme devotion) (18.54). Finally, Krishna says, "Abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, grieve not" (18.66).

While learning addition, a kid may say that two plus two equals to five which can't be termed a sin. It is just ignorance. Similarly, a sin is merely an ignorant action due to knowledge being covered by moha. One way to remove this ignorance is to light a candle of wisdom and another path is taking refuge in paramatma. Suffering disappears once this isrealised.