What is Sin? || Acharya Prashant, on Vivekachudamani and Bible (2018)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Nimisha from Mumbai.

00:11She has quoted verse 33.

00:21A teacher is one who is well-versed in the scriptures, pure, unafflicted by desires,

00:32a perfect knower of the supreme, who continuously abides in the supreme, who is as calm as the

00:41fire that has burnt up its fuel, who is a spontaneous ocean of mercy that needs no cause

00:49for its expression, an intimate friend to all good people who surrender to him.

00:58So she is asking what does it mean to be sinless?

01:03In the Bible it is said that man was born from the original sin that stemmed from Adam

01:11and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

01:20The Lord Jesus Christ had all the above-mentioned qualities and died on the cross to redeem

01:27man of sin, yet the world is mired in sin and suffering like never before.

01:34Please help me understand sin and sinlessness in right context.

01:41The original sin is to assume a form.

01:53You have quoted the Bible, thereto the sin was to taste the forbidden fruit and then

02:16as a punishment to be born in the world, as a punishment to be expelled from the holy

02:31garden of bliss and to be born as human beings in the world.

02:42That sin fundamentally, to feel born, to be born, to be someone inside whom the clock

02:59is ticking, birth relates to time, does it not?

03:09And the moment you are born, you say now I am 6 months old, now 6 years old, now 60

03:14years old, the clock starts ticking from when you were born.

03:20That's the original sin.

03:22To not to heed the advice of God, taste the forbidden fruit and set the clock ticking.

03:44The fruit of knowledge is letting knowledge in.

03:54Once you have eaten the apple, the apple has gotten in.

04:01So to taste the fruit of knowledge means to be identified with knowledge.

04:07Now knowledge is in.

04:11Knowledge is not merely something that you hold.

04:15Now knowledge is in.

04:17Knowledge is now a part of your system, your being.

04:23That's sin.

04:24Your being should have been purely the being of God.

04:32But now your being is your personal being.

04:42Now you are not residing as the innocent one.

04:51The stories say that Adam and Eve would wear no clothes.

05:00But once they had tasted the fruit and God came looking for them, they hid behind a few

05:07shrubs because now they were ashamed of themselves.

05:17Now they are no more innocent.

05:20Now they are ashamed.

05:21Now they know that to not to be wearing clothes is a matter of shame.

05:37Worldly knowledge has been taken in.

05:43God never taught them that nakedness is a matter of shame.

05:54But now they have knowledge from elsewhere.

06:00The apple represents the tempting world.

06:07The apple.

06:08You feel like eating it.

06:11Just as you look at the world and feel like eating it.

06:15World, nice apple.

06:19So many have fallen to the temptations of apple, haven't they?

06:27Once you have fallen to the apple, you are a sinner.

06:33Now you know a lot and now you know that which did not need to be known.

06:43Now you are knowledgeable, but most of your knowledge is just a burden.

06:52And it's not a problem that you have knowledge.

06:55The problem is that you consider yourself as the knowledgeable one.

07:04To depart from God and be born in the world of knowledge.

07:12Now your being is not just God.

07:15Now your being comprises of stuff taken in from the world.

07:23You have lost innocence.

07:26What then is innocence?

07:29To be purely innocent of this and that.

07:35This and that exists but cannot get in.

07:42That's the statement of the innocent mind.

07:46This and that exists but it cannot get in.

07:54Its existence is undeniable.

07:59Remember that the tempting fruit existed in God's garden itself.

08:05So its existence cannot be denied.

08:09The world definitely exists.

08:12The existence of this and that is not a problem.

08:14The problem is when this and that overrides the instructions given by God.

08:22When this and that starts getting the same place, the same respect, the same treatment

08:31as God's being or the being gifted by God.

08:37That is sin.

08:47To corrupt your identity.

08:53And that is why being born has been variously called as the fundamental sin.

09:00Now you are no more God.

09:04No parents ever celebrated the birth of God.

09:10Nobody ever says this is God.

09:14You are called my son or my daughter.

09:22Your identity is spoiled the moment you are born.

09:28The born one cannot have an innocent identity.

09:33This is sin.

09:36Departure from the truth.

09:39Departure from God.

09:41If the word God is too heavy for you, just understand it in basic terms.

09:50To be born means to be called the limited and to take oneself as the limited one.

09:57And you very well know that no limitation pleases you.

10:01That is sin.

10:04To be irrevocably tied to a body, at least irrevocable till the point of physical death.

10:13To be irrevocably tied to a physical body that is really incapable of giving you fulfillment

10:21is sin.

10:24Getting this?

10:29You have mentioned Christ.

10:35Because he does not value limitations, therefore he calls himself the son of God.

10:43And because he does not value limitations, therefore he is prepared to give up the limited

10:49body so that limitations of others can be removed.

10:58Limitation.

11:01This body is anyway limited.

11:06Who can attach too much value to it?

11:08That's what Christ says.

11:11So if this limited body is done away with in the service of the unlimited, it's a good

11:23deal.

11:24I take the deal.

11:27I lose my body, others lose their limitations.

11:33I sacrifice my body.

11:36And looking at this sacrifice, if others can sacrifice their limitations, then I would

11:42joyfully sacrifice this body.

11:47Because what I am sacrificing is little.

11:51And what they are getting is immense.

11:55So it's a good deal.

11:56I take the deal.

12:01You get what the sin is, to be bodied is sin.

12:09And you also get the meaning of the sacrifice of many of the prophets and saints and teachers.

12:26Their entire aim is to rid people of their self-imposed limitations.

12:36After all, it was a decision to taste the fruit.

12:41The limitations are self-imposed.

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