SLOKA OF THE DAY:

Bhagavad Gita As It Is -
Chapter 17 Text 19
mudha-grahenatmano yat
pidaya kriyate tapah
parasyotsadanartham va
tat tamasam udahrtam

mudha--foolish; grahena--with endeavor; atmanah--of one's own self; yat--which; pidaya--by torture; kriyate--is performed; tapah--penance; parasya--to others; utsadana-artham--for the sake of causing annihilation; va--or; tat--that; tamasam--in the mode of darkness; udahrtam--is said to be.

TRANSLATION

Penance performed out of foolishness, with self-torture or to destroy or injure others, is said to be in the mode of ignorance.

JOURNAL:

In the early days of Catholicism these kinds of torturous penances were reported a lot. The idea was that our sins were so bad that, the closer the penitent got to the torture that Christ went through, the more his sins would be forgiven, hence the better his chances of getting to heaven were. Thank God that is not how the Church thinks any more.

In Krishna Consciousness the idea is to turn from the four major sins (meat eating, gambling, illicit sex, and intoxication) and practice the faith under a bonified spiritual master. In this way our karma will be erased and, as long as we do not turn back to our old ways, we will gain the heavenly planets.