Pujit Aggarwal Redivivus - Sinfulness
All animals are creatures of desire; appetites would be more appropriate. They crave food when hungry, water when thirsty, safety when exposed to danger or harm. They become touch-friendly and cuddlesome when cultivated with love and care. Dogs, cats, and some birds are amenable to domesticity.
Human beings are different because they have appetites and cravings which exceed physiological needs and involve body, mind, spirit and above all emotions that mutate into ambition, aspiration, obsession, even mania. Ideology, faith, manifesto, doctrines, even dogma, are ostensibly stable but volatile forms of dormant desire. Given a slight spark of provocation, they flare up into a bonfire of aggression or defence to overcome the threat. Paradoxically, this brand of consumption is equally self-consuming.
On the whole, sins are impulses or acts of negativity and evil which every religion, morality, and culture deprecates with varying degrees of emphasis because they are harmful both to the sinner and the person affected or damaged by it. Primitive societies have time-tested, traditional mechanisms whereby the sinner is summarily identified and meted out appropriate punishment as a deterrent for those who may be susceptible to temptations. There are examples in living memory of a princess executed in public because she had committed adultery, or a thief losing his hands at the stroke of a machete because he was charged with theft.
Enlightened societies do not resort to kangaroo courts and summary trials to dispense quick justice. Their judicial system is regulated by norms and values enshrined in the primers of jurisprudence which ensure and enjoin the proper conduct and responsibility on the judge, jury, and the lawyers involved. Even the nomenclature employed is thoroughly fine- tuned and vetted by forensic experts to eliminate any ambiguity or bivalent shades of meaning. figure of speech
Sin as a word does not abound in the habitat of judicature, unless it is used as a figure of speech. It belongs to the domain of morality and religion. The discourse of the courtroom echoes with terms like assault and battery, tort, fraud, crime, homicide, deceit, misdemeanour, murder, felony, adultery, violation and violence etc. 'Mens rea' would be the overarching tinge determining the corrupt or pardonanable of each aberration or crime. Pardonable
One of the most reprehensible sins that is found missing from the list of prohibition, but ratified by nearly all major religions, is the ubiquitous sin of belittling or debunking other religions. Swami Vivekananda was one of the earliest philosophers to introduce the essence of Hinduism and Indian culture to the multidenominational population of America. He began and concluded every discourse with an exhortation: never demean other religions. Practice your religion with zest but never cast aspersions on other religions. The erudite Swami expounded his religion with ardour without compromising the diversity of faith down the ages.
I heard one of the most eloquent sermons on the seven deadly sins in a cathedral in the course of a walking tour across the Lake District nearly a quarter of a century ago. A hippy dippy friend of mine had taken me there for moral reinforcement.
I was swept off my feet by the style and diction of the guest speaker. The acoustics of the cathedral matched his voice and tone so well that the entire congregation was mesmerised by the discourse. This man could have sold perverse promiscuity to a nunnery of vestal virgins.
Variations of these sins are common to all major religions. They are strictly disapproved and the adherents are instructed to shun them with utmost effort.
Sloth seems to be the most harmless of these sins. It is impossible to be creative or procreative without a certain degree of idleness in the personal space. Had Genghis Khan, Ashoka the Emperor, or Hitler been reasonably lazy, there would not have been any massacre of countless innocent people.
Greed, gluttony and lust, are intrinsically so alike and interchangeable it is virtually impossible to tell one from the other. You crave more power, possessions, and wealth because you are aware of the unrealized potential. Your ceaseless endeavour to optimise resources, benefits the society of which you are a productive member.
Covetousness, within ethical limits, becomes a fuel to stoke up the furnace of progress. Yes, you crave what belongs to others. A tall, sexy woman taking a walk in the park attracts your attention. Your eyes momentarily lock on to her curvaceous body and its syncopation in motion,Scriptures recognise it as sin. But you are not going to grab her by force and ravish her. Your continual ogling becomes an innocuous, chemical-free aphrodisiac to light up your desolate bedroom-a gratuitous, nontoxic aid to erotics. Glory be to God for the cold fire that neither singes nor burns.
We must perforce conclude that there is no success without a modicum of sin. Sinfulness is the seedbed of civilization and pursuit of happiness. In the beginning was the desire. The Lord proclaimed: Let there be light! And there was light.
