Sinful Reactions - an essential subject

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As soon as we take birth in this material world, we are destined to perform activities. These activities we perform can bring us good reactions or bad reactions. Due to the taste or lust for sense gratification we are pushed to engage in sinful activities and for which we will definitely get sinful reactions. We suffer severely for those bad actions and sometimes those actions may lead us to the point of death. Covered by our lusty desires we forget all the severe pain we have been through, we again engage in sinful activities and for which we suffer even more pain. The only way we can be freed from suffering is by taking shelter of the Lord and His devotees. The spiritual master being a pure devotee of the Lord, accepts us under his shelter. He guides us and sometimes suffers the result of sinful reactions. Therefore we have to surrender to the Lord and His devotees.

Another way we can free ourselves from sinful reaction is by the process of chanting or calling out the names of God. The names of the lord are so powerful that just by chanting those names our sinful reactions are neutralized.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Sinful Reactions category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 16 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		A devotee sometimes accepts a sinful person as his disciple, and to counteract the sinful reactions he accepts from the disciple, he has to see a bad dream. Nonetheless, the spiritual master is so kind that in spite of having bad dreams due to the sinful disciple, he accepts this troublesome business for the deliverance of the victims of Kali-yuga. After initiation, therefore, a disciple should be extremely careful not to commit again any sinful act that might cause difficulties for himself and the spiritual master. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 8.4.15)



vanipedia.org 		When a man earns money by unfair means and maintains his family and himself with that money, the money is enjoyed by many members of the family, but he alone goes to hell. A person who enjoys life by earning money or by envying another's life, and who enjoys with family and friends, will have to enjoy alone the resultant sinful reactions accrued from such violent and illicit life. For example, if a man secures some money by killing someone and with that money maintains his family, those who enjoy the black money earned by him are also partially responsible and are also sent to hell, but he who is the leader is especially punished. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.30.31)



vanipedia.org 		A Vaiṣṇava guru accepts money or other contributions, but he does not employ such contributions for sense gratification. A pure Vaiṣṇava thinks himself unfit to help free even one person from the reactions of sinful life, but he engages one's hard-earned money in the service of the Lord and thus frees one from sinful reactions. A Vaiṣṇava guru is never dependent on the contributions of his disciples. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā 3.139)



vanipedia.org 		Although ritualistic atonement may free one from sinful reactions, it does not awaken devotional service, unlike the chanting of the Lord's names, which reminds one of the Lord's fame, qualities, attributes, pastimes and paraphernalia.To chant the holy name and dance in ecstasy is so easy and sublime that one can achieve all the benefits of spiritual life simply by following this process. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.2.11)



vanipedia.org 		Although we may take so many precautions against these vices and sinful reactions, even in the course of ordinary business exchanges and ventures we have to commit so many sins. For instance, we find it necessary and unavoidable in business dealings to speak lies—not to mention the volumes of lies that are spoken by members of the legal profession. Lawyers have to resort to all sorts of trickery to get around a law in which they have become professionally entangled. Those who are in the service of other professions have to do the same kind of thing without fail. Intentionally or unintentionally, one has to commit such sins—and incur the sinful reactions—without any doubt. (Message of Godhead, Chapter 2)



vanipedia.org 		Fire will act, regardless of whether handled by an innocent child or by someone well aware of its power. For example, if a field of straw or dry grass is set afire, either by an elderly man who knows the power of fire or by a child who does not, the grass will be burned to ashes. Similarly, one may or may not know the power of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, but if one chants the holy name he will become free from all sinful reactions. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.2.18)



vanipedia.org 		If one engages in the service of a pure devotee, the reactions of one's sinful life are vanquished automatically. Devotional service is necessary not to drive away an insignificant stock of sins, but to awaken our dormant love for Kṛṣṇa. As fog is vanquished at the first glimpse of sunlight, one's sinful reactions are automatically vanquished as soon as one begins serving a pure devotee; no separate endeavor is required. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.16)



vanipedia.org 		As for being freed from all sinful reactions by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa only once, one must chant the holy name without committing any offenses. Then chanting one name is sufficient to rescue a living being from all sinful reactions. Such a person who chants the holy name of the Lord offenselessly is very important and woshipable. Indeed, the nine devotional processes, beginning with śravaṇa and kīrtana, can all be attained at once if one simply chants the holy name of the Lord offenselessly. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.107)



vanipedia.org 		If one has caught even a slight glimpse of devotional service, all needs to undergo prāyaścitta, atonement, are superseded. Therefore atonement is certainly unnecessary when one has achieved spontaneous love and, above that, attachment with love, which are signs of increasing advancement in kādācitkī. Even in the stage of ābhāsa-rūpā bhakti, all the reactions of sinful life are uprooted and vanquished. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.15)



vanipedia.org 		One is prone to commit sinful activities even after atonement, which is therefore very inadequate for purification. On the path of speculative knowledge one becomes free from sinful life by understanding things as they are. Therefore the acquirement of speculative knowledge is also considered a method of atonement. While performing fruitive activities one can become free from the actions of sinful life through austerity, penance, celibacy, control of the mind and senses, truthfulness and the practice of mystic yoga. By awakening knowledge one may also neutralize sinful reactions. Neither of these methods, however, can free one from the tendency to commit sinful activities. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1 Summary)



vanipedia.org 		By performing Vedic ritualistic activities, by giving money in charity and by undergoing austerity, one can temporarily become free from the reactions of sinful activities, but at the next moment he must again become engaged in sinful activities. For example, a person suffering from venereal disease on account of excessive indulgence in sex life has to undergo some severe pain in medical treatment, and he is then cured for the time being. But because he has not been able to remove the sex desire from his heart, he must again indulge in the same thing and become a victim of the same disease. (Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 1)



vanipedia.org 		Intelligent men decide to solve all problems by adopting the devotional service of chanting the holy name of the Lord, who is situated in everyone's heart and who is a mine of all auspicious qualities. Such persons are not within my jurisdiction for punishment. Generally they never commit sinful activities, but even if by mistake or because of bewilderment or illusion they sometimes commit sinful acts, they are protected from sinful reactions because they always chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.3.26)



vanipedia.org 		Only a rare person who has adopted complete, unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can uproot the weeds of sinful actions with no possibility that they will revive. He can do this simply by discharging devotional service, just as the sun can immediately dissipate fog by its rays." (SB 6.1.15) If one is under the protection of a devotee and sincerely renders service unto him, by this process of bhakti-yoga one is certainly able to counteract all sinful reactions. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.9.6)



vanipedia.org 		Only one who has become free from all sinful reactions can take to the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thus one may think that unless he is free from all sinful reactions he cannot take to the surrendering process. To such doubts it is here said that even if one is not free from all sinful reactions, simply by the process of surrendering to Śrī Kṛṣṇa he is automatically freed. There is no need of strenuous effort to free oneself from sinful reactions. (Bhagavad-gītā 18.66)



vanipedia.org 		What cannot be achieved through the performance of Vedic rituals can be easily achieved through the chanting of the Lord's holy name. To chant the holy name and dance in ecstasy is so easy and sublime that one can achieve all the benefits of spiritual life simply by following this process. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu declares, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam: "All glories to Śrī Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana!" The saṅkīrtana movement we have started offers the best process for becoming purified of all sinful reactions and coming immediately to the platform of spiritual life. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.2.11)



vanipedia.org 		Too much eating means eating more than is required to keep the body and soul together. There is no need for men to eat animals, because there is an ample supply of grains, vegetables, fruits and milk. Such simple foodstuff is considered to be in the mode of goodness according to the Bhagavad-gītā. Animal food is for those in the mode of ignorance. Therefore, those who indulge in animal food, drinking, smoking and eating food which is not first offered to Kṛṣṇa will suffer sinful reactions because of eating only polluted things. (Bhagavad-gītā 6.16)



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