How can sin attach to you without committing sin? — the episode of Karna and the mantra for gau-gras

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The question

Can sin attach to you even without committing sin?

Dr. Gyanendra Sharma says — yes, and there is no doubt about it.

Someone kills cows or Brahmins, is engaged day and night in alcohol and meat. If you side with him out of affection, greed, fear or ignorance, show him favour, support him — then his sin becomes connected to you. A share of the fruit he will receive begins to come to you too.

संसर्गजा दोषगुणा भवन्ति ।

Meaning — virtues and faults come from company.

Karna’s question

In the Mahabharata, at the very end, Karna asked Shri Krishna —

"O Madhusudana, you yourself say there is no giver like me, no archer like me, that I am a disciple of Parashurama. Then when the time came for me to win, the wheel of my chariot sank into the earth. I have committed no sin in my life — then why is my death in such a plight?"

Shri Krishna said — "It is true that there was no great giver like you in the world. The difference is only this: you sided with those who were sinners and wrongdoers. Their sins kept attaching to you."

Arjuna sided with dharma, Karna with adharma. However virtuous someone may be, if he sides with adharma, he too will receive the fruit of the wrongdoer’s sin. The examples of Bhishma and Drona also show this.

What to do in today’s times

Today, in the office, in business, everywhere, one meets all kinds of people. A connection forms even without wanting it. So how to escape this fault?

Dr. Sharma gives the example of electricity — cut the wire in the middle, and the current goes no further. In the same way touching the cow is the cut in the middle. When the cow comes in between, the sinner’s sin returns to the sinner alone and does not come to you.

Service of the cow and of the Brahmin never goes fruitless. It may take time, but the fruit does come.

Offering food with a mantra

There is fruit even in putting down fodder in the ordinary way. But food offered with a mantra gives far more — just as there is a difference between ordinary puja and puja with mantras.

When offering food to the cow, hold this feeling —

गावो मे मातरः सर्वाः पितरश्चैव गोवृषाः ।
ग्रासमुष्टिर्मया दत्ता प्रतिगृह्णन्तु मातरः ॥

Meaning — all cows are my mothers and the bull (Nandishwar) my father. I have given this handful of food — O mother, please accept it.

Those whose yajnopavit was done on time may also offer the food after consecrating it with the Gayatri mantra.

The shastra says that by this method faults committed knowingly and unknowingly are destroyed, and bad dreams too are calmed. Dr. Sharma says — you only have to change the way, and you should know the mantra.

*Source — this article is based on a video discussion by Dr. Gyanendra Sharma (video link above, in Hindi). The text of the mantra is taken from the speech in the video — please check the pronunciation with your guru or family purohit.*

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