[Advaita-l] Is there a difference between papa and dushkarma

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Mar 9, 2023 at 10:54 PM sammit khandeparker via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Please do give a citation of the same. I will be greatly obliged. Now lets
> do  a thought experiment. Suppose  a man by mistake commits brahma-hatya.
> He repents performs prayschit and is forgiven by lord. But, government will
> not forgive him. His guilt will be proven in court and he will be sent to
> jail. So even if he is forgiven by God for sin. He will still have to
> suffer for his paap. How is this possible then?Is this because paap is
> different from bad karma?
>

This hypothetical case can be seen this way:  The shaastra based
prayaschitta is with regard to the karma performed now and the fruit that
could occur in some other janma. It does not ward off the effect of that
karma in this birth itself. The punishment a person gets from the
authorities falls in the latter category.  This will have to be undergone.
There is another scenario where the criminal is not either identified or
not caught throughout his lifetime. In this case the punishment from
authorities does not occur at all. The adrishTa is taken care of through
prayashcitta if it is correctly done and if sufficient.

regards
subbu



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