Three Kinds of Sins Explained
Prahlada is telling his father Hiranyakashipu:
न मन्त्रादिकस्तात न च नैसर्गिको मम
प्रभाव एव सामान्यो यस्य यस्याच्युतो हृदि
Hiranyakashipu is asking Prahlada — who or what influenced him?
Prahlada says — it is not mantra japa that influenced me. This is not even natural or inborn in me. It is an influence that is common to all devotees of Achyuta.
अन्येषं यो न पापानि चिन्तयत्यात्मनो यथा
तस्य पापागमस्तात हेत्वभावान्न न विद्यते
This is another speciality of the devotees of Sri Hari. Does anyone want to hurt himself or herself? For the Vaishnavaite, the whole world is himself. He wouldn’t hurt or harm anyone because hurting or harming anyone or anything is like hurting or harming himself. And since he doesn’t commit such sins, nothing bad also comes to him — because bad experiences are results of your own bad deeds.
कर्मणा मनसा वाचा परपीडां करोति यः
तद्बीजं जन्म फलति प्रभूतं तस्य चाशुभम्
When you commit a sin either by thought, words or deed, then you are sowing seeds for another rebirth to suffer its consequences.
There are three kinds of sins – manasam, vachikam, and kayikam.
Even thinking about a sin is a sin. You may not actually do it. You have an eye on the neighbour’s property. Why not harass them and force them to leave so that you can acquire it? Or something really bad happens to that family so that they are forced to sell it in distress to you. Even thinking so is a sin. You may not have the courage to harass him and will never ever do it. But still, it is a sin — sin performed with the mind — manasa papam.
Sin with words — threatening somebody, if you don’t do it, I am going to break your legs. Gossiping, bad-mouthing, telling lies, talking the unreal, praising qualities that don’t even exist — these are all sins performed with words — vachikam papam.
Then the actual physical sin — hurting somebody physically, stealing, illicit affairs, intruding into another person’s freedom — kayikam papam.
All of them are sins. Even thinking about doing something bad or harmful is a sin. Even talking about it is a sin.
The intensity of their output or result varies.
People ask — if there is something in your horoscope, is it not certain to happen?
Not necessarily, because there is a quantity involved. Astrology classifies the result of your past deeds into dridham, adridham, and dridha-dridham — into three groups.
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Dridham means certain
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Adridham means uncertain
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Dridha-dridham means somewhere in between — may happen, may not happen — more certain than adridham, but less certain than dridham.
Sin performed with the mind will give result that is adridha — uncertain.
Sin actually performed physically will definitely yield result — dridha.
Sin performed with words gives results that are dridha-dridha — may happen, may not happen.
There are well-established methods to know from a horoscope whether a result is dridha, adridha, or dridha-dridha. Only an expert would know this.
This is why you see so many of those predictions not fructifying — because those indications are either adridha or dridha-dridha. If an indication is either adridha or dridha-dridha, then the prediction should also be only an indication. It may happen, it may not happen. It doesn’t reflect on the ability of the astrologer. That is how it is.
But people like to hear things for certain. They don’t like uncertainty, even in predictions. That is not how it works.
If your karma is intense — good or bad — the result is also certain. Otherwise, it is not.
If you take a vow that you will not eat before everyone around is fed, there is not a hungry person around you, and observe it — then you will never be without food in the next birth or births, as long as your punya is not exhausted.
You can imagine — let me have enough money, I will build an orphanage and take care of fifty children. Noble thought. But only in the mind. You will be rewarded even for that — but not very sure.
These rewards could also happen in three planes — mental, verbal, or physical.
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A hope, an expectation that something good is going to happen to me — I am going to get that promotion — a good dream — all mental rewards.
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Someone praises you, appreciates you, calls you an expert — you are happy — verbal rewards.
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Then the actual physical reward — winning a lottery, good health, averting an accident.
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Vishnu Sahasranama
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