Sins could either be burnt down or washed off by resorting to different ways of atonement.

A dip in the holiest confluence is the perfect ablution to wash off one’s sins.

Better still, recitation of the spells and counting of the Lord’s name could give someone freedom from the sufferings from the committed sinful acts. 

For generations, a popular faith has prevailed that a mere sight of the Lord in his seat can free one from all the consequences of grave, heinous actions.

Generations have come and gone, believing in sins and virtues.

The mighty Bhagwat Gita says a lot about “Karma”- “good Karma” and bad Karma”.

The classic Hindi movie, Saheb Biwi Aur Gulam, stands out as a stark reminder of Karmic values. A masterpiece by the great director Guru Dutt, the cult movie has a scene stubbornly etched in my memory.

In a scene, a woman from a wealthy and influential landlord family asks the maid to wash her hands- “Pani daal, aur ek baar dho daal (pour water, and wash my hands once again)”- and the maid is seen pouring water again and again. 

The embedded symbolism in the scene was left to the interpretation of those who watched the movie in brooding silence; certainly, the lady wanted to remove the sludge in her psyche that she broadly categorized as sinister.

Two years ago, in an intense “Vipassana” meditation session, the words of revered Guruji, Anand Bodhee, were mesmerizing. His narratives pictured the life and times of Buddha and two of his ardent followers. 

Buddha was enlightened. Both his disciples practiced hard penance for enlightenment, and after a period, they were enlightened.

On one occasion, one of the enlightened followers was standing at the entry of the monastery, and suddenly, he saw a drunkard approaching him.

To the surprise of the self-realized follower, the drunkard began hurling abuses at him. The Buddhist tried his best to calm him down. 

The man drunk like a skunk was rash in his vituperative deportment, and lo, to everyone’s dismay, he took out a sword and began hacking the follower of Buddha. Within a few minutes, he severed the limbs from the body. 

The spattered blood and chopped parts of the lifeless body moved everyone to tears.

Buddha was awakened from his meditative silence as he ran to the spot and shed tears with his followers.

“Oh, master, how could your best disciple get hacked when you sat just fifteen feet away from him?” the disciples pleaded.

 Buddha cried for some time, and then his words revealed the pearls of truth. 

“My best disciple was destined to die today in this hapless incident. He hacked his parents to death in his previous life.” The words of the avatar sent another shock wave among his followers.

The words of the spiritual master were always pithy. 

The pearls of truth brought out another revelation, giving rare insight.

His followers understood that enlightenment is not freedom from previous actions, good or bad.

The highest understanding is true enlightenment. 

Reverting to our scriptures of Sanatana, the life and times of Vishnu’s favorite devotee, Prahallada, is another instance of divine self-realization.

Hiran Kashyap - the demon father of Prahallada - hated Lord Vishnu, the nurturer of the universe.

His son Prahallada saw the presence of Vishnu in every animate and inanimate object.

Hiran Kashyap pointed to a cement pillar and asked his son, “Is your Vishnu also present here?”

After hearing “yes,” the demon king broke the pillar in a jiffy, but to everyone’s surprise, Vishnu had taken the “Narsimha” avatar. 

The lion-faced God incarnate took the demon in his lap as everyone ran to save his life. 

With his razor-sharp nails, he tore open the intestines of Hiranya Kashyap.

The demon died after torturing his son for years for his unconditional surrender to the Supreme. 

But Lord Vishnu suffered from his actions for a long time.

The force that he applied in lacerating the stomach of the demon only returned as extreme pain in His fingers. The excruciating pain lasted for a long time as His Karmic result.

An incident in my life-story sheds more light on the axiomatic truth of Karmic result.

Down memory lane, I find A.U. Khan, my tenant at our house in Bhubaneswar.

He stayed there for some months, and due to unavoidable reasons, we asked him politely to vacate as we were about to move in.

As he left, we occupied our residence only to find that he had not paid even a month’s electricity bill.

The accumulated amount ran into a few thousand rupees.

I accompanied my father as we reached his new accommodation. As we pressed the calling bell, his wife appeared with a surly face. 

“What electricity bill? There is no pending bill. We have paid them all and cleared everything before vacating your house.”- her imprudence was shocking.

The incident took place in 1997.

In 2020, during my morning walk, I used to watch a woman in the park who resembled A.U. Khan’s wife. 

As I told my wife about her, she made an unexpected move. She befriended Khan’s wife, and gradually both of them discovered each other’s whereabouts. 

When Khan’s spouse knew she had once stayed at our residence as a tenant, she began praising my father.

After a few days, she made the move from her side.

“You know, we did not pay a few thousand rupees as arrears of electricity bill to your father-in-law then and now, we want to pay it.”-My wife was surprised when she heard her request.

She made repeated requests through my wife, but I stuck to a one-off reply- “no”.

I felt surprised that someone could offer to return our money after a lapse of 23 years.

It was baffling.

One day, she pressed her demand as she put her hand in her purse-“I got five thousand rupees. Please take it”.

My reply was still negative. 

The incident aroused my curiosity. I called the corporator of the area where Khan and his wife lived.

The corporator recognized them immediately.

Mr. A.U. Khan had two daughters, and both of them were qualified doctors. 

Khan had spent a whopping amount on their education. His chest swelled with pride when both the daughters joined prestigious private hospitals.

He spent large sums on their marriages and generously gave everything in dowries.

The first daughter was divorced after a year. Her husband married another girl who was his childhood love.

The second daughter came back home without a divorce as she was unable to bear the torture of her in-laws.

She attempted suicide but failed. 

Then fate took a quirky turn as both the daughters stopped going to the hospitals where they served.

Heartbroken, Khan and his wife took several pilgrimages to seek solace from their grief.

“Did you refuse an old man his dues when he came to your home?” a mystic at Hazi Ali in Mumbai asked them.

Both remained groping for a reply.

After days of retrospection, both Khan and his wife stumbled upon the reply. 

It was their denial to my father to pay arrears of electricity bills.

Every action has its opposite and equal reaction.

You reap as you sow.

Karmic science is not a far cry from modern science.