Does charity wipe out sins?

[Shri Anil asked: The Quran says that charity can wipe out sins, as per the following verses: “Charity extinguishes sin as water extinguishes fire. Allāh will expiate your sins by virtue of your charity. Fear Allāh wherever you are, and follow up a bad deed with a good deed, it will wipe it out.” Swami, as per Your preaching, no good deed can cancel a bad deed and only the realization of the sin, repentance and its non-repetition can cancel the sin. How can these two views be reconciled?]

Swami replied: The charity mentioned in the Quran is to be understood to be practical devotion, which is the offering of the fruit of one’s work. It is the most important ultimate step in the spiritual effort. Who will do such practical charity? The person who does not have any selfishness alone, can do practical charity. Every sin is based on selfishness. When a person does not repeat the sin, it means that his selfishness has vanished. Only then can he do practical charity. My concept is the pre-requisite for this concept. The absence of selfishness is proved by the non-repetition of the sin and the absence of selfishness alone leads to practical charity. A sinner can never do practical charity. Both these concepts are complementary to each other and not contradictory. Both the non-repetition of the sin and practical charity are the simultaneous divine fruits of the disappearance of selfishness.

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| Shri Datta Swami | Does charity wipe out sins?

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