WE COME HERE TO BETTER OURSELVES
There is a law of nature which strives and strives for perfection. We have said earlier that the nature of man is bliss, and he wants to return home to bliss. Whatever the physical body feels, the mind feels more intensely. There is no way out for the mind but to follow the law of nature, and man has a choiceless choice. Man is forced, compelled, and coerced by his doings to return to live out those experiences. We come here to learn. We come here to evolve. We come here to better ourselves, and every experience is valid. Even a wrong experience, even a bad experience, in its finality, will bring one to certain realisations. I have done something wrong. That wrongness will produce in me one day the sense of what is right. I can only enjoy the sunshine if I experience rain. So, no experience is to be discarded. Even the experience of the sinner is not to be discarded. We say condemn the sin but not the sinner. The sinner, too, is on an onward march towards perfection to achieve his inherent right to become one with his Maker. So, it is a natural coercion, a natural force within the laws of nature that the person wants to experience so that he can better himself, always, constantly.
THE SIN IS IDENTIFIED ONLY WITH THE BODY AND THE MIND
As we have discussed before, man has three aspects: the body, the mind, and the Spirit. Having the eternal divine value, the Spirit will be untouched by that which we call sin. So, what we have left is the body and the mind, and only the body and the mind would be capable of doing an anti-social deed that could be termed sinful according to the interpretation and morality laid down by creeds.
With our method of meditation, we are going beyond the limitations of body and mind and finding that unstained Spirit within us. By living in the Spirit, we become incapable of sinning. Meditation involves experiencing joy and living a good, Godly life.
The sin is identified only with the body and mind. What could be sinful in one situation or culture might not be immoral in another. For example, monogamy is accepted in our culture, and polygamy would sound sinful to us, but there might be other countries where polygamy is a rule and not called sinful.
These are superficial definitions of sin, but the more authentic meaning of misdeed would be the infringement of what we feel, not think, within ourselves to be correct. When we feel within ourselves that our actions are not accurate, that is sinful.
The quality of sinfulness would be devolutionary and not evolutionary. It would be flowing against the current of nature and not with the current of nature. So, any action that is stagnating or blocks us from flowing with the current of nature can be regarded as sinful. In contrast, an action that is natural and within natural laws and can be substantiated, appreciated, and felt suitable will be evolutionary.
EVERY ACTION WE DO MUST NECESSARILY BE DONE WITH SOME KIND OF THOUGHT
So, the difference between the sinner and sin is nil because when we talk of sinners, we naturally speak of two aspects only: body and mind, and the forever pure Spirit has been excluded. I would say again that the purpose of meditation would be to find that Spirit within us that would regenerate, rejuvenate, repattern, and reorganise our thinking processes because outward action is the grosser interpretation of thought. Thought, too, is action, and every action we take must necessarily be done with some thought. So, action exists in the mind in a subtle form, and when that subtle form is expressed, it assumes a grosser form whereby the good deed or the lousy deed is known.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1976 – 08
