“Unlike many faiths, Hinduism admits of no mortal sin, no eternal hell, no satan, no intrinsic evil.”

— https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3217

I’ve been thinking of a conversation I had with someone about a year ago. During the conversation the topic of religion came up and they tried arguing the similarities between the idea of sin in Abrahamic faiths and making bad karma in Hinduism. So I figured a year later I’d write a blog post about it.

In Hinduism, the idea that you are born a sinner or are born from sin are nonexistant. Our scriptures say that each soul is divine so if the body is just a shell for the soul how can someone be born from sin? How can something with a divine origin sin?

Well the answer is it doesn’t. Hinduism teaches that one only does wrong because they are ignorant of the truth, ignorant of what is the right thing to do. For example, a child might hit their parents when they want something, not because they want to hurt them but because they don’t know any better.

The Lord neither creates a person’s urge for action nor his actions nor even the result of these actions. All this is done through a person’s conditioned nature. Chapter 5:14

The all-knowing God is not responsible for anyone’s good or bad actions. Human beings are deluded because their knowledge is covered by ignorance.  Chapter 5:15

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that God is the creator of the system of karma but is not responsible for an individual’s karma, man is still the creator of his destiny. The results of ones actions (good or bad) are earned, they are not rewards or punishments. For example, if slacks off at their job all day, it isn’t God punishing them when their boss eventually reprimands or fires them, they earned that result of their actions. And vice versa, someone who goes above and beyond at work aren’t being rewarded by god when they get a promotion or raise or bonus, they also earned the results of their actions.
*Note I am not getting into the topic of karma yoga and “breaking out” of the system of karma in this post*

So in essence, the idea of sin from an Abrahamic point of view doesn’t exist in Hinduism. We aren’t born from sin, all of creation has a divine root and it is only our ignorance that prevents us from seeing it. We don’t do wrongs because we are evil and need to be saved, we only do wrong because don’t know better. And we aren’t punished or rewarded by God for our actions, we ourselves earn the fruits of our actions.