Hi everyone,
I am Free said:
Thankyou Agnideva. Your posts are very educative and I appreciate your presence in this forum.
I’m glad I could be of help. Thanks for the kind words, I am Free. I appreciate your (and everyone else’s) presence and participation in the forum as well. I think it’s enriching all our minds
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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A man may plot murder in his mind, but may not act on his intentions probably because of cold feet. If he had actually committed murder, I agree and I can see now that it would amount to "sin" and that probably amounts to a greater karmic debt. But is this not irrelevant?
Here’s my view on it (and I hope I am answering Silver’s question also). There’s varying degrees of karma; not every bad thought can be considered bad karma. You may have a passing bad thought; a bad thought that is persistent in your mind; a bad thought that takes over your mind, emotions and clouds your better judgment; a bad thought that gives you the impetus to perform bad actions, and finally a bad thought that results in a bad action. We can probably place several other intermediate steps in this analogy too. The point is that each one is worse than the previous one and leads to greater karmic debt. On the grand scheme of things, what’s most important, I think, is that we doesn’t allow our bad and evil thoughts to take over to mind to the point where our better judgment is clouded because this may result in bad actions. As we all know, actions begin as thoughts, and if we want to control your actions, we have to control our thoughts as well. Besides, smaller karmas may be worked off, but bigger karmic debts are harder to dissipate.
Does the fact that he did not commit the act externally reduce his climb up the spiritual ladder?
Not as much as if he had actually done the external act!
Can we similarly say that the concept of sin is also not of use in spiritual practice. The basic essence of hinduism is to purify your soul so as to become one with God. Am I right?
Yes, in a nutshell. Sin is not a central concept in Hindu belief, but it is also important to know what is bad karma, sin, etc. so we know what to avoid and control.
A person who habitually thinks negative thoughts but never acts on these will he attain moksha?
Probably not in that lifetime, but we can't say for sure. But like everyone else s/he will attain moksha eventually.
Does spiritual practice in hinduism revolve around "avoiding sin"? Does the Hindu then have to dwell on sin? Can he say that "As long as I dont commit sin I'm OK?"
No, no, and no.
Spiritual practice revolves around following dharma. When one follow her/his dharma perfectly, there’s nothing to worry about … not bad karma, not sin.
On another note is there any thought in Hinduism which says a sin is an externally manifested action only?
I generally think of “sin” as action, but I suppose words would also count. Thoughts, I’m not sure … what do you think?
Silverbackman said:
if a hot woman walks by you can look at her but as long as you don't slap her butt or start talking dirty in front of her its alright, right?
Silver, realistically speaking, I would say keep the thoughts to yourself and don’t let them take over your mind and emotions. That’s the best thing to do. We can’t really suppress our thoughts, and suppression of our thoughts is not healthy anyway.
Harishankar said:
A thought goes out of your conscious control if it is intense and strong. As I mentioned before, if you have an obsession, then that controls you: you do not control the thought.
Thoughts which occur on the surface of the mind are seldom very powerful and can be easily controlled. Thoughts which gain a foothold so to speak in your subconcsious mind becomes very powerful in the sense that that thought predominates your whole mentality.
Very nice description! Thanks Harishankar.