What does it mean to be free from sin?

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna question what does it mean to be free from sin answer there are various levels of freedom from sin at a gross level there are certain activities which are very harmful for our own spiritual nature for our relationship with others and for our relationship with other living beings and others nature at large so avoiding such activities is becoming free from sin at one level so these activities are mutating intoxication gambling prostitution illicit sex so when we avoid these activities we are becoming free from sin at one level but at a higher level the way to become free from sin is to become connected with God when we become connected with God then that itself enables us to experience higher happiness through devotion God is the source of all happiness when we connect with him we experience higher happiness and ultimately we do sinful activities because they promise pleasure they promise pleasure and when we want to become free from that temptation the way is not to deprive ourselves of all pleasure but to replace sinful pleasures with pure pleasures so that requires persistent practice the Bhagavad Gita describes that in 18.37 to 39 it analyzes different kinds of pleasures and it describes that sinful pleasures are often like nectar in the beginning but poison in the end so we need intelligence to know that although this seems pleasurable it may be just an initial fragment of pleasure but after that there will be a long train of misery so I will avoid this and more importantly it describes that pure pleasures are like poison in the beginning but nectar in the end so what we do is use our intelligence again to understand that even if this doesn’t seem pleasurable even if becoming devoted to God acting virtuously in devotion to God doesn’t seem pleasurable if I just keep doing it then by that I will go through the layer of poison and after going through the layer of poison I will come to the layer of nectar once I come to the layer of nectar there is constant relation so purifying ourselves by devoting ourselves to God so the best way to devote ourselves to God is by chanting his holy names studying scriptures we call this ABCD association of devotees B is studying scriptures like Bhagavad Gita C is chanting the holy names and D is worshiping the duty of Krishna by all these we connect with Krishna and once we connect with experience higher happiness and once we experience higher happiness then we start acting out of selfless love out of love for Krishna and love for other living beings in relationship with Krishna we see all living beings and all of nature as connected with Krishna then naturally we want to act in service of Krishna for the pleasure of Krishna in service of all living beings and that mood of devotional service automatically drives out all urges for selfish pleasure so the best way to become free from sinful pleasure is by purifying our hearts and devoting ourselves to Krishna and infusing our life’s work with a mood of devotional service thank you great