We were all born so beautiful and will continue to be like that, if only we maintain that loving kindness and divinity that God breathed into us, says OSWALD PEREIRA
Many orthodox Christians believe that we men, women and even children are sinners. Common Christian prayers such as Our Father, Hail Mary and The Apostle’s Creed, which are said by devout Christians, have references to humans as sinners ― ‘forgive us our sins’ (Our Father), ‘pray for us sinners’ (Hail Mary), ‘the forgiveness of sins’ (The Apostle’s Creed).
As a Christian lad, I was very scared of my sins, and would often feel guilty of the real and imaginary sins that I had committed. We had the venial sins or lesser sins like lying, which didn’t punish you with Hell for eternity. But it was the mortal sins, the more serious ones which sent you straight to Hell that frightened me no end.
Apart from murder, which as children we could never really imagine, a mortal sin included even self-gratification, such as when a teenager learns to fantasise and discovers the innocent pleasure of self-indulgence.
Luckily, there was the weekly confession to the priest on Saturday. The ‘Father’ sitting in the confessional box, would forgive all my sins so generously and willingly, after I said my act of contrition ― ‘My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.’ Despite the Father’s kindness in forgiving me on behalf of God and a gentle reminder about ‘Hell,’ I would repeat my sins and come back to him the next week.
When I grew up and grew out of the habit of confession, and I entered the real big world of adult life, for quite some time I missed the Saturday confession and even felt guilty that I was committing sins and not confessing them and asking God for forgiveness.
Over time I have realised that confessing my sins when I was a boy had its benefits ― it taught me the value of being good and virtues like humility. But I also began to believe that to stretch the concept of sin too far, may attract more negativity than is good for one’s spiritual growth and self-esteem. As humans, we all have our good and bad deeds to account for. It is important to balance our life in such a manner that we are more good and less bad.
However, our faults and failings as humans do not qualify us for the tag of sinners. Even if some judgmental people do, we should in no case call ourselves sinners. I believe the more we do, the more we are likely to fall into that classification.
The fault lines will show whenever we deviate from God’s creativity. That calls for a course correction, though definitely not the beating of our breast to proclaim ourselves as sinners.
While in the US, Paramhansa Yogananda once attended a revivalist meeting by the famous evangelist, Aimee Semple McPherson, attended by thousands of people. The evangelist shouted, “You are all sinners! Get down on your knees.” Yogananda was the only one who remained standing, because he wouldn’t accept that he is a sinner.
The great yogi used to tell his disciples, “The worst sin is to call yourself a sinner.” His advice was to say: “Naughty or good, I am a child of God.” Yogananda was often quoted as saying, “A saint is a sinner who never gave up.”
I believe if we focus on the goodness within, we are more likely to develop that very quality in us, which would soon overshadow those little faults and follies that keep creeping into our psyche. Don’t ignore those pests or brush them under the carpet. Treat them to the beauty of your being and they will leave you alone.
Talking of beauty, aren’t we all beautiful people? We are intrinsically good and beautiful people, for that is how the Creator conceived us as humans.
We were all born so beautiful and will continue to be like that, if only we maintain that loving kindness and divinity that God breathed into us.
Oswald Pereira, a senior journalist, has also written eight books, including The Newsroom Mafia, Chaddi Buddies, The Krishna-Christ Connexion, How to Create Miracles in Our Daily Life and Crime Patrol: The Most Thrilling Stories. Oswald is a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, and practises Kriya Yoga.
Dear Oswald, thanks for making me laugh with your wit and good humour! And for reminding me of Yogananda’s poignant refusal to accept that He is a sinner. I appreciate your down to earth sharing of spiritual truths, illustrating them with examples from the inspiring lives of saints. Their example and your irreverent, lovely writing remind me we are all beautiful. All the flowers in the garden are not the same colour yet all contribute to the total beauty of the Garden of Life. Wonderful read!
Dear Chana,
Love what you have said, “All the flowers in the garden are not the same colour yet all contribute to the total beauty of the Garden of Life.”
Thank God, you found wit and humour in this article and not blasphemy. I am sure God, too, has a sense of humour and would take my irreverence sportingly.
Beautiful Blog. You are right that confessing the sin makes us aware of our mistake but immediately forgiven make us careless of not repeating it in future. Like taking a dip in Ganga cannot absolve us of our mistakes.
I would say, we all make mistakes in life and we can correct them by being aware of them. Calling ourselves sinners goes against the law of attraction. We must believe in goodness within to be able to exhibit it in the external world. We must presume all are good till repeated incidents tell us otherwise. Then also for own sake to be aware n careful.
It’s true, Nitaji, that we all make mistakes in life and we can correct them by being aware of them.
Awareness is the key to moving on and discovering our true beautiful self.
There is a beautiful verse in Swetaswatara Upanishad which declares: वयम् अमृतस्य पुत्राः,
“We are the children of the eternal.” In our essence we are nectarine, being the children of God, we carry the character of immortality in us.
The introductory sentence itself is the self validating truth if we can not merely ruminate over it but in letter & spirit live by that:
“We are all born so beautiful and will continue to be like that if only we maintain that loving kindness and the Divinity that God breathed into us.”
God breath we are indeed & once we become God hand in action, ah! Nothing like that!
Thank you, Baturam Ji for your comment and sharing your inputs on the topic. Truly, we are the children of God and carry the character of immortality in us. God breath is a wonderful term.
The Vedanta terminology has a word called atmasakshatkar ..to understand what is that atma which is our true self..and the first step towards this process is understanding our own self and the reasons for our actions , our desires and the weakness which make us fall prey to our actions
(sins?)as you have described in the article – the sins which we repeatedly commit and at the end decide that we need not be guilty but still be aware that our actions were not ideal or as accepted .
A spiritual being crtically acclaim his/ her actions regularly.It is not easy to confess to our actions which we knowingly did in spite of knowing consequences.. A friend of mine regularly calls me to confess to all her actions. I think she does it because I do give my opinion but that does not change my behaviour towards her as a friend. I understand her and tell her to refrain from certain things and that is what she wants me to do. The sins we commited as adolescents or adults and confessed to priest or Gods would sometime make me wonder why we are not instantly punished . I remember a reference from Ramdas from his book ‘Be Here now’ that he too wondered that Baba Neem Karori who had access to his most inner most thoughts chose not to disclose them or make him feel guilty .
I think we are left to deal with them on our own. Our natural true self is pure bliss unmindful of our desires and urges . The intellect misleads us and mind creates an illusion. Basically we are all beautiful creatures after all . May be we should try to understand our selves better in a better prospectives as to what we are and why do we do certain things out of compulsion..how can we liberate ourselves from a vicious cycle to transcend to a higher level of understanding which doesn’t judge and witnesses and lays bare our inner feelings to help us deal with them . They are not hidden somewhere in the subconscious and playing a havoc ..the mind game is over and the upper consciousness hastaken hold ?
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Seema.
Agree with you. “Our natural true self is pure bliss unmindful of our desires and urges . The intellect misleads us and mind creates an illusion.”
As you have rightly said only we can liberate ourselves and reach a higher level.
Love all your writings, after all human beings r bound to err, it’s human nature
Thank you, Anuja. True all human beings are bound to err.
Appropriate.Being guilty of sin is a big knot in the mind.
If anything wrong has been committed,make a firm resolve not to do it again.Dont carry the pain of action.
Be aware of your thoughts and actions.Chances of doing wrong will go down.(Lord Krishna and Lord Buddha).
‘Be childlike to enter the kingdom of God'(Lord Jesus).Lord Jesus also talk of Recollected ness,i.e now.
So be childlike and enjoy.We r all beautiful.
Well said, Aman Bajaj. You have summed it up so well. You have the writer in you with well-formed thoughts flowing through your writing.
Please do consider writing for us.
Nice independent reflective post.
Your thoughts contrary to the provisions of Christian religioun. While begging apology for sins committed is an accepted practice in christianity, in Shiv Manasa Puja Mantra, a five verse mantra, composed by Jagatguru Sankaracharya, also contains a verse, seeking apology….
In the last verse Jagadguru writes:
Karacaranakrtam vak kayajam karmajama va
manasam vaparadham
Vihitam Vihitam va
sarvametat ksamasva
Jaya jaya karunabdhe
Shri Mahadeva Sambho….
Which can be explained:
“Whatever sins I have committed with my hands, feet, voice, body, actions, ears eyes or mind, whether prohibited by the scriptures or not please forgive them all.
Hail! Hail! O ocean of compassion! O Great God! O benevolent Lord!.”
Though hindu religion does not provide any advisory, but many including me chant this verse before leaving home for work.
So my limited submission is this apologizing for sins is a prayer for refinement.
Nice post OswLd ji!
Agree with you, Manas Das Jee, apologising for sins is a prayer for refinement; this teaches one lessons in goodness and humility, too, as I have stated in my article. But having accepted our folly in sinning, we must learn a lesson and move on to rediscover the beauty that is within us, is my humble submission.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
Oh yes Oswald ji!
No doubt in that…
How it csn be called a life if one fails to discover joy in it….
You have rightly said all the beauties are within us… and that beauty intrrmittently reveals itself… one who remains positively engaged with life, recognises that revelation and experiences that amazing joy….
Spiritually they spilling joy is termed as..
ANANDA….
Happy times Oswald ji!
Within a decade how beautifully you transformed whole aura…. i am amazed and sa reply happy…
Thank you, Manas Das Jee. You are very kind and generous in your support. It encourages one to go on.