Wednesday, January 30, 2013
"Sin"
Last week a couple of people commented on the meaning of yoga in The Bhagavad Gita versus how we use the term in America. This is just one of the many words from the book that the meaning differs in the book from how we use them. While reading the text I find myself questioning the meaning of words that I use daily. The word that confuses me the most, however, is sin. Krishna says that even the most sinful of sinners can still attain spiritual wisdom and achieve Moksha. From the perspective of someone who is most familiar with Christianity, this seemed all wrong. Christianity classifies all people as sinners from birth, but from what I've read so far, Hinduism doesn't seem to do that. So what could the English term "sin" mean in terms of Hinduism?
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I have been confused by this as well. I think that "sin," in the context of Hindu philosophy, refers to any action that sends a person in a direction away from achieving moksha. So it may not necessarily be wrong, but rather just a very inefficient way of breaking the reincarnation cycle.
ReplyDeleteI agree with JonDavid. Any sinful action, in Hindu context, could refer to an action with "ripples," that lead one away or distances one's soul from breaking the cycle.
ReplyDeleteSuch a translation is unfortunate, since it carries so much cultural baggage in our own tradition. I think Dominick is close with the idea that an action is morally/spiritually bad when it makes things worse for yourself or others. One way, and perhaps ultimately the most important way you can make things worse is by making the search for wisdom and ultimate dissolution of the ego harder rather than easier.
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