08 Sep 2023
[Ms. Purnima asked: If we do sins and worship God, becoming a devotee, do these sins and their punishments get cancelled, does it become justified?]
Swami replied:– In the Gita, God Krishna says that even a sinner can escape the punishments through devotion of God (Api cet sa durācāro…). God also said in the Gita that for the sake of God you can even leave justice and in such a case, the devotee will be protected by God. The essence is that God has more value than justice itself. The maximum value of God is +100, the maximum value of justice is +99 and the maximum value of sin is –99. Suppose a sinner has done all sins and his value is –99. If he becomes God’s devotee with true devotion, his values of +100 and –99, together will result in +1 and he is not a sinner. If this climax sinner having –99 does maximum meritorious deeds, the sinner will result in +99 and –99, which results in zero. +1 is better than zero. Hence, a sinner becoming God’s devotee is ending in +1, becoming only a person with some merit. Such a sinner with –99 value without devotion can never become a meritorious person and at the best, he can become a sinless person due to zero value. Therefore, devotion can make the sinner meritorious, but the meritorious deeds cannot make the sinner meritorious. Therefore, what Krishna said is that, even if you sacrifice justice for the sake of God, you are protected because God is more powerful than justice since God protects even justice also. Hence, devotion to God is the best and the next best is only doing meritorious deeds whereas doing only sins without meritorious deeds or devotion is the worst case.
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