All religions and moral codes in the world talk of sins and warn man to avoid and desist from committing them. But what exactly constitutes a sin? The motive, the deeper intentions in us make an act a sin or a merit. When the intention is noble, the act is noble, whatever be the act. But having done an act, when it returns to the bosom in memory to make us regret our action, such self-insulting acts of compromise with our knowledge are called sins.
What prompts us to compromise with what we know to be ideal, the virtuous, and the perfect way of life? Every one of us at one time or another must have felt the strong urge to compromise with what we know to be right. In spite of this, often we are driven to acts which we know are insulting to our knowledge and social status. What is this terrible ‘negative’ force – the devil in the man that impels him to compromise with his wisdom to commit sins?
Before the incident we know what is right and what is wrong. After the incident we regret the compromise we made during the incident. What is that at the actual moment of committing the wrong act we have apparently no compunction, no hesitancy? In spite of us we are guilty of regrettable acts of violence, of indecency, of immorality, of corruption, of falsehood. Why? What is the dark power that is compelling us to do, even if we do not want to do it, as though driven by a force? This is an universal question. In many religions of the world, for the easy grasp of the average man, this evil power in our bosom is objectified and indicated by different names: the Hindus call it Rakshasic force; the Christians call it Satan, the Muslims call it Shaitan, and the Buddhists call it Mara.
Desire for the possession of anything, when it grows out of proportion, becomes lust to enjoy the object. When this lust is obstructed, the desire passions putrefy to become anger. And true enough, our ideals are defeated, and we callously compromise them when anger distorts our vision of life. Justice, honesty, truthfulness, uprightness and such other noble traits cannot express themselves when the heart is stormed by lust in us, and we become ready to compromise and even justify our default with a hundred hollow arguments.
So long as his restlessness disturbs a man, he will be running passionately to acquire and to enjoy, and try to discover a sense of fulfillment in life. But these desires are by their very nature insatiable – the more we satisfy them, the more they multiply. It is this desire-lust that prompts individuals, communities, nay even nations, to commit crimes against each other. It has made history a meaningless and shameful bloody story of destruction of man organised by man.
Every man of cultured living strives for a life wherein his anxiety is to live what he has understood as noble and great. But once he allows his bosom to be conquered by the baser desire-lusts, his life soon becomes a compromise – a caricature of what he knows and believes. The Satan in us is not some terrible, inexplicable force, with horns and tails, but our own animal urges, expressing as the lust-anger in our hearts.
