The sins.
In the Bhagavad-Gita 16.21 Sri Krishna says: “There are 3 gates leading to naraka (hell):
Kama - lust (carnal desire or sex).
Krodha – anger.
Lobha – greed (desire for over-accumulating dead matter).
Men overcome by these 3 enemies commit crimes in 9 different degrees:
1st or highest degree:
Killing a brahmana, woman, embryo, cow or dependent friend.
2nd or High degree:
crime: Killing a ksatriya or vaisya.
3rd degree: Killing a sudra.
4th degree: Killing birds, aquatics, amphibious animals, worms and insects.
5th degree: Sexual connection with one’s mother, daughter or daughter in law or little girl. Rape.
6th degree: Sexual connection with a virgin.
7th degree: Sexual connection with one’s own sex or with cattle.
8th degree: Abandoning one’s wife/ husband and sexual connection with another’s wife/ husband. Taking intoxicants– eg drink wine/liquor, gambling.
9th degree: all the rest such as lying in court, stealing from a brahmana, to cause bodily pain to a brahmana, smell liquor, dishonest dealing, lying, criticizing guru unjustly, reviling the Veda, forgetting the Veda, abandoning parents, eating forbidden food, stealing, live by another’s varna or caste or not do one’s varna’s duties, to bribe and be bribed. Teach or be taught the Veda for payment. To receive presents, interest etc. from despicable persons. To subsist by money-lending, lying, serving a demon etc. etc.
There is another list of nine.
– Atipātaka - Having sex with one's mother, having sex with one's daughter, and having sex with the wife of one's son—these three sins are called atipātaka.
– Mahāpātaka - Killing a brāhmaṇa, drinking wine, stealing a brāhmaṇa's gold, and having sex with the wife of one's guru—to commit these four sins or to intimately associate with such sinners is called mahāpātaka.
– Anupātaka - There are thirty-five forms of anupātaka: (1) for a low caste person to identify himself as belonging to a high caste; (2) to falsely accuse someone of committing an offense, for which the punishment is death; (3) to spread false accusations against respectable persons—these three are equal to the killing of a brāhmaṇa. (1) To either reject the Vedas or forget the Vedas after reading them; (2) to blaspheme the Vedas; (3) to give false testimony by speaking deceptive words (this is of two kinds—to hide something that one knows about and to hide the truth by speaking lies); (4) to spoil the life of a friend; (5) to eat food that grows in stool or filthy places; (6) to eat uneatable foods-- these six anupātakas are equal to drinking wine. (1) To take another's accumulated wealth through cheating; (2) to kidnap someone; (3) to steal a horse; (4) to steal silver; (5) to steal land; (6) to steal diamonds; (7) to steal jewels—these seven forms of anupātaka are equal to stealing gold. (1) Having sex with a sister born from the same mother; (2) having sex with an unmarried girl; (3) having sex with a low-caste woman; (4) having sex with the wife of one's friend; (5) having sex with the wife of a stepson; (6) having sex with one's son's wife who belongs to a different caste than the son; (7) having sex with one's maternal aunt; (8) having sex with one's paternal aunt; (9) having sex with one's mother-in-law; (10) having sex with the wife of one's maternal uncle; (11) having sex with the wife of a priest; (12) having sex with one's sister; (13) having sex with the ācārya's wife; (14) having sex with a woman who is under one's shelter; (15) having sex with the queen; (16) having sex with a woman who has given up household life; (17) having sex with the wife of a learned brāhmaṇa; (18) having sex with a chaste woman; and (19) having sex with a woman of a higher caste—these nineteen forms of anupātaka are equal to having sex with the wife of the spiritual master.
– Upapātaka - Killing cows; becoming the priest of unqualified people; having sex with another's wife; selling oneself; giving up one's father, mother, or guru; giving up the study of scriptures; giving up cooking due to laziness; giving up one's son, or to neglect the performance of the son's purificatory rites; arranging the marriage of a younger son before that of the elder; arranging the marriage of a younger daughter before that of the elder; acting as the priest in such a marriage; spoiling a girl who has not reached puberty; earning one's livelihood by loaning money on interest; falling from the vow of brahmacarya by engaging in illicit activities such as having sex with a woman; selling one's pond, garden, wife, or children; neglecting to undergo the sacred thread ceremony even up to the age of sixteen; rejecting relatives such as one's uncle; teaching the Vedas on payment; learning the Vedas from a professional teacher; selling objects that are not meant to be sold; working in a gold mine or another kind of mine on the order of the king; working on a bridge or other huge enterprise; destroying medicine; earning one's livelihood by engaging one's wife in prostitution; harming an innocent person through mantra or the employment of creatures such as eagles; cutting green trees for fuel; cooking or performing sacrifice for oneself rather than the Lord or one's father; eating prohibited foods like garlic; neglecting to preserve a perpetual sacred fire; stealing valuables other than gold; neglecting the repayment of debts to the demigods, sages, and forefathers; discussing unauthorized scriptures; becoming attached to songs and music; stealing paddy, metals like copper and iron, or animals; having sex with a drunk woman; killing a woman, kṣatriya, vaiśya, or śūdra; and becoming an atheist—these are all known as upapatakas.
– Jāti-bhramśa-kara - pollution or falling off from caste.
– Sankari-karana (killing animals),
– ‘Malāvaha’ is the name given to some minor sins like killing insects, stealing fruits and flowers, eating things which might have come into contact with liquors and so on.
– Pātri-karana, am, n. acting unbecomingly, doing degrading offices (as for a Brahman to receive wealth improperly acquired, to trade, to serve a śudra, and to utter an untruth). (end 2nd list of 9)
If one, though competent to prevent, does not prevent someone sinning, he incurs the latter’s sin.
One who counts the sins of others, imitates them as a joke and intimates them to others, shares the sins and effects equally with the sinner. If the accusation of a sin is false, they incur double that sin.
Some of the other sins:
- Not honor elders, preceptors.
- being a professional physician who charges excessive money.
- Keeping cats, birds, cocks, dogs bound up all the time.
- Be unclean.
- Brahmana who paints mundane acts.
- Reviler (spreading negative information about).
- Habitually furious.
- No public charity (miser).
- Being atheist, irritated, proud egotist, ungrateful, swaggerer, cheating in business.
- Astrology only for material gains, maker of arrows which will be used for material purposes, art (artists, dramatists) that expresses only material things.
- Forsake a devoted follower, do yajna– fire sacrifices to do harm.
- Predict the movements of stars and planets only for material purposes.
- Offer the teacher a seat lower than their own.
- Wear too little clothing; even arms, legs should be covered.
- Who die by fasting (die of their will).
- Ksatriya’s who don't fight by the rules.
- Tell lies or listen to the lies uttered by others or talk irrelevantly.
- Giving up vows.
- Eat together from the same plate.
- Not show pity for the helpless, poor, young, old and afflicted.
- Steal other’s possession even of the measure of a mustard seed.
- To indicate other’s faults.
- Not meditate upon Krishna, the first Supreme Being and the Ruler, the Great Lord of all the worlds.
- Struck by a desire for sensual enjoyment.
- Have no trust in any beings.
- Borrow and not give back.
Inauspicious deaths or accidental deaths are due to sinful activities, and indicate that one will go to hell, such as:
Killed by fanged animals; dead by strangulation; killed by wolves, die of arson, die of imprecations (curse) of brahmana, die of cholera etc, committing suicide, fall from a peak and die, drown in a tank, river or ocean, killed by a mleccha or other infidels (atheists), die right after being defiled by dogs, jackals etc, if your body is not cremated, die full of germs, die right after being in contact with a foul woman, die by being struck by lightning, die by falling from a tree. Etc.
