What is our greatest sin?

While sin is bad and we will suffer for our sins, have we stopped to ponder on what our biggest sin is? Our biggest sin is ignorance . Because we are ignorant of the facts, we sin. If we look at all our sins, what is the root cause of our sins? It is ignorance. Because we are unaware of the truth, we continue to sin.

If we analyze the Deadly Sins that we commit, lust, greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony and sloth, we commit these sins because we have not realized the truth. What is the truth?

The truth is that we come with nothing and we go with nothing. Nothing belongs to us in reality. Then, why are we greedy? It is because we do not realize the simple truth that we suffer because of our sin of greed. Because we want more, we commit wrong deeds. The source of our actions seems to be greed. But the source of greed is ignorance. So it is with anger. Anger is not the real source of us acting harshly. Our acts of cruelty and being inhumane only seem to be caused by anger. But anger is caused because of ignorance — we are ignorant about the truth that we are all Divine Souls. We are a part of one Supreme Immortal Power, SIP. We don’t realize this truth and therefore, 'I' become angry at 'you'. Have we stopped to question why the right leg never kicks the left leg? Why is the left eye not envious of the right eye? It is because we realize that both legs are mine. Both my eyes belong to me. Unfortunately, because our mind envelops us in the darkness of ignorance, we are unable to realize the

truth. We live and die in ignorance and though the truth stares us in our face, we are unable to see it because we are caught in a maze. The maze of thoughts confuses us and we are unable to use our intellect, the tool of discrimination to differentiate the myth from the truth.

Unfortunately, because we do not use our power of discrimination, we are caught in thought. We continue to be slaves of the mind because the mind knows that if we realize the truth and we overcome our ignorance, then the mind will cease to exist. It is only in the darkness of ignorance that the mind survives. Along with the ego, it becomes the Mind and Ego , ME, and makes us suffer, not just the 7 Deadly Sins but several other sins that create trauma in this drama called life.

Therefore, our biggest sin is ignorance. As long as we remain ignorant, we will continue to suffer as we continue to sin. First, we will suffer on earth, the triple suffering — the pain of the body, the misery of the mind and the agony of the ego. That is not the end. If we do not realize the truth, our ignorance will make us suffer another birth on earth. The body will return to dust but return we must because of unsettled Karma. The Karma is caused because of ignorance that I am this body, mind and ego. Ignorance causes all the sins. If we overcome ignorance and realize the truth, we will be free from all sin.

Authored by: AiR- Atman in Ravi