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my assumption:

a person wants to become a Nihang and has sukha coz that is the maryada. If in his heart he feels that sukha is wrong (the drink, not the person lol) surely that is a sin?

(It would not be a sin for the Nihang sitting next to him who understands and accepts the maryada implicitly though.)

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this won't focus mainly on the word sin, but it touches it in various ways. i will find more stuff on it later.

For a sadhu any action based on the desire for physical pleasure is an unworthy immature activity. For a devoted sadhu then it is not even a temptation, but at first on the path for some there may exist conflict.

Sadhus are lucky because they have their energy focused on one result only. They are blessed with grace. Other people chase their tails constantly and call that happiness. :biglaugh Thus us mortals have to chose carefully.

Personally i don't know anything in yoga that addresses "wrongful acts" -- Patanjali doesn't use the words bad, sin, or wrong, because there are no morals in yoga. Ahimsa is based on a universal cosmic principle that one may call love (although it can not be defined). Either we understand and experience it or not. Authentic yogic practices leads us to integrating this love in all our relations.

Similarly asteya (non-stealing) also can mean honesty (and is closely related to satya (residing in truth). Brahmacharya simply means walking with God or accepting creation as one's teacher. These are all activities/practices that a yogi does for their welfare which is defined transpersonally and non-dually for their own well being as well as others. They are practices -- and as you should know all practices are optional in yoga. No one is going to beat you up or punish you if you chose not to practice. Either you practice or not. But karma says that we reap the rewards/benefits of our wise actions/practice, suffer the consequences od ignorant actions (dukha), and also suffer from inaction. Yes, in yoga karma is created via action, speech, and/or thought and such can effect others.

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Yes sin is a "bad" word in yoga. Doesn't translate. Also "wrongful acts" doesn't translate either. yama and niyama are simply optional (neither right nor wrong) practices which lead one to union. Affairs also are not mentioned, but yes harm (himsa) is definitely well discussed.

The general idea is that ahimsa is the intent of not harming, removing violence, removing harm, not creating harm, healing injury, non-injuriousness, and the like. That is the direction where we are headed, that is to commune with less abuse and harm in our life. That means for ourselves and in the transpersonal sense (the bigger picture) for all beings. As we practice we see more clearly this connection between love and ahimsa. Of course wee start to naturally want to bring more love and healing into our lives and so this becomes a good habit. We remove or eradicate harm/injury spontaneously in all our relations eventually. At first we are happy just to reduce it. All that is changing our karmic stream -- the direction of our karmic winds heading toward loving kindness for self and others -- for the true Self which knows no bounds -- for LOVE.

So the idea here is that we can change our own circumstances and conditions -- the constellations (so to speak which make up our past habitual patterns and circumstances) by ceasing to plant negative karmic seeds (such as by not acting upon the kleshas (confusion, anger, hatred, fear, greed, arrogance, pride, etc) because it is the kleshas which create negative karma, just as the yams/niyams are the antidotes for the kleshas (and hence the karma).

So how does this come up in everyday life. OK, I catch myself wanting to go out to buy a new scarf. I mean I already have five scarves. I really don't need a sixth scarf, but what is driving me to do it, consciousness asks? The answer may be that it is the klesha of greed, envy, vanity, insecurity or any such stupid sensibility. I recognize it as the klesha that it is and do not invest time/energy into it deciding instead oh maybe I will sit in meditation or play with some breathing exercises instead. Maybe I will read a good book or help my elderly neighbor next door or etc. This is one example how we can change our karma by not acting upon the kleshas or by the same token applying the yam/niyams like in this case aparigraha (simplifying our life, non-greed, non-attachment).

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Amrik, what can take you away from something that is everywhere? you can't escape Waheguru...

the reason i ask what sin is (or if it even exists) is because it seems to me that karma doesn't seem to need a definition of good or bad. it's objective. there's no real judgement. what you do, whether you think it's "good" or "bad" is merely going to come back to you.

but the concept of sin as i see it is loaded with connotations of "good" and "bad".

so i'm going to rephrase my question:

what is sin? does the concept of sin have any place in sikhi?

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my assumption:

a person wants to become a Nihang and has sukha coz that is the maryada. If in his heart he feels that sukha is wrong (the drink, not the person lol) surely that is a sin?

(It would not be a sin for the Nihang sitting next to him who understands and accepts the maryada implicitly though.)

So a sin depends on how u feel about it??There are ppl out there who murder others and dont feel a thin'...does that mean that its not a sin??

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What if....umm what if you gave money to a begger and he bought poison with that money and commited suicide? what if you helped someone who was drowning and he went on to kill someone? the intention may have been good but the result was bad..but then..how can u really tell what someone's intention is?

Paap...hmm...

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So a sin depends on how u feel about it??There are ppl out there who murder others and dont feel a thin'...does that mean that its not a sin??

a murder is an action u inflict onto someone. If you drink sukha then how is that harming another person's dharam?

Your interpretation was NOT what I implied.

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