Generally, in Krishna consciousness, we do our best to find the similarities between our philosophy and other philosophies and religions. I think this is a really important thing. It’s good to find common ground with whomever you’re speaking with.

But, I feel, there comes a time when you really do have to sort out what you believe and what you simply do not believe.

For me, when I started reading about Krishna consciousness, I was a practicing Baptist. I was a born again Christian. So naturally, I tried to link the two. In some ways, they link up. They’re both monotheistic, both about loving God. But there were so many questions I had with my faith that simply couldn’t be answered by evangelical Christianity.

Specifically, “original sin” and God punishing Himself via Jesus Christ for all of humanity’s sins.

The more I got involved in Krishna consciousness, the less attached to Christianity I was. The writings of Srila Prabhupada certainly helped with this. One book in particular was The Science of Self Realization. Especially the chapter entitled Understanding Krishna and Christ.

In it, Srila Prabhupada has a conversation with a Benedictine Monk and a Catholic cardinal. Also included is an essay about Jesus (Jesus Christ was a Guru). These helped quite a lot, but didn’t tackle original sin.

I put it all to the back of my mind, focusing on chanting and the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. I came to realize that I simply didn’t believe in original sin anymore than I believed that Christ was the only way to heaven.

It was in New Vrndavana where I found a book by Bhaktivinoda Thakura entitled Tattva-viveka (not Bhakti-tattva-viveka). In it he gives his opinions on many different theologies. In one verse and purport, he tackles original sin and the savior philosophy. Here is what is said:

Some philosophers say that because of the first living entity’s sin all the other entities are imprisoned in the material world. Later, punishing Himself for their sins, God delivers the living entities.

Thinking about the virtues and faults of this world, some moralist monotheists concluded that this material world is not a place of alloyed pleasures. They decided that the material world is a prison to punish the living entities. If there is punishment, then there must be a crime. If there were no crime, then why would there be any punishment? What crime did the living entities commit? Unable to properly answer this question, some men of small intelligence gave birth to a very wild idea. God created the first man and placed him in a pleasant garden with his wife. Then God forbade the man to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Following the evil counsel of a wicked being, the first man and woman tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge, thus disobeying God’s command. In this way they fell from that garden into the material world filled with sufferings. Because of their offense, all other living entities are offenders from the moment of their birth. Not seeing any other way to remove the offense, God Himself took birth in a humanlike form, took on His own shoulders the sins of His followers, and then died. All who Him easily attain liberation, and all who do not follow Him fall into an eternal hell. In this way God assumes a humanlike form, punishes Himself, and thus liberates the living entities. And intelligent person cannot make sense of any of this.

This never sat well with me. Why would God create such a system? It seems pointless, circular and clunky. And, for some reason, God has a son and punishes His son (who is 100% God – so, God punishes Himself), not for our sins, necessarily, but for the sins of Adam and Eve, which we’ve inherited (original sin).

Instead of just brushing it under the rug, ignoring it, I accidentally found Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s critique of it. I thought that I just couldn’t get it. It didn’t make sense. And, as it turns out, it doesn’t really make sense. Yet, this is what I based my entire Christ-based faith and philosophy upon.

If original sin doesn’t really exist, there’s a chance to be sinless. And if someone is sinless, then the Bible verse “…all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” is simply mistaken. So they invented original sin to deal with that. I don’t actually believe that “original sin” is in the bible. It seems to come from Saint Augustine of Hippo. However, most Christians seem to accept it as truth.

I couldn’t, and so rejected it.

We are being punished by a so-called “just God” for what Adam did, not for what we are doing. It’s not our crime, but his. Yet, we still must suffer in hell forever because of it? That does not seem just. It is unjust and silly and I was tickled to see that Bhaktivinoda Thakura found it in much the same light.

But what does Krishna consciousness actually say about this?

We have a bit of a different take on it. You can’t say that we don’t believe in original sin, because we do believe that there is an original sin. The original sin is that instead of serving God, we want to become God. Instead of being the servant, we want to be the controller.

This is very similar to Adam and Eve’s fall down. They didn’t want to follow the teachings of God, they wanted to eat that fruit from the tree of knowledge.

The difference is that, in Krishna conscious philosophy, we ourselves are Adam and Eve. Everyday we want to be the controllers. For example, we set up our schedules just so and when something happens that’s not according to our plans, we freak out. Or we get attached to our position in society or at our job, etc. We don’t like to be subordinate.

We believe that this material world was created just for that.

In an old Back to Godhead article, Ravindra Svarupa prabhu writes,

You see, as the offspring of God, made in His image, we inherit the qualities of God – like Him, we are eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. But we possess those divine qualities in minute quantity. For we are not God. God is great and One without a second. We, His creatures, are tiy and many without number. The creator is independent, and we are dependent. The dependent many are by constitution eternal servants of the independent One, and as long as we act as servants, we remain in the Kingdome of God and enjoy full divine life with Him.

But some among the innumerable, dependent souls don’t like that subordination. We thought – and still think – it is better to be God. We rebellious souls are sent into the material world, a place created just for us to play out our fantasies. We cannot be God – the post is filled – but here we can forget Him and work on our own little God projects.

That’s why this world is so crazy and hellish. It’s chock-full of people trying to make it as God.

That’s basically our take on it. There’s, of course, more to it. This naturally leads into conversations about karma, reincarnation, the soul’s constitutional position and so on. Those are for another day. For now, we can conclude with the idea that there is an original sin, but it’s not Adam’s desire to eat a fruit, but our own desire to be God.

As was said above, we view this world as a place to play out these fantasies, this original sin. We see the material world as punishment for forgetting our rightful place as servants of God. But there isn’t just punishment here. Here, in our human bodies with human brains and intellect, we can start to comprehend our mistakes. We can, in fact, because fully aware of them, fully realizing our true nature.

On one hand, the material world is a place of punishment, but in this same material world lies the means to escape this punishment. That escape is by reconnecting to the Supreme Whole, God, Krishna.

The simplest way to do this is also the most effective. To connect to God, we should chant His names. There is so much philosophy to study and so many things to learn, but the culmination of all that knowledge is chanting.

The chant that we practice is: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. It is our cry for help, saying “Oh Lord, please engage me in Your service!” We are begging to remember that we are servants of God. This is very effective. Every time we chant, we break down more and more of that barrier we’ve placed between our selves and God. The more we chant, the clearer it becomes.