Yesterday I mentioned that people seem to bribe God for the fulfillment of their wishes. This is however not the only reason why they donate to temples and other religious institutions. Another reason for many people to give money to such a place is that they feel guilty and want to be forgiven for something they did. If they do this, it seems as if they want to pay God to forgive them.
In this case, too, they give only a few coins for smaller misdeeds but open their purse widely and pull out big notes if they have committed a bigger crime or sin. It is only logical thinking: you have to show bigger remorse for bigger sins, so give some more money.
Again there is the question: do you really think God values you according to how much money you give him? No, God does not take money. The money that you donate actually benefits the place that you went to and the people who established it and work there. It can be also a guru or a master whom you donated to. And in this way, with donations, gurus, religious leaders, temples, churches and other institutions make millions and billions. They get richer and richer because people believe they can pay God.
Don’t forget that God has other values than money. He can see in your heart and reads your wishes as well as your regret for what you did. He knows exactly who you are, with every bit of your heart, every feeling and every emotion. And if you don’t regret, not any money in the world can make God think you do.
I anyway don’t think that God judges and sorts people into good people and bad people. God loves us as we are and is not angry about our mistakes. If we regret one of our actions, He knows it before we even do. It is simply our own feelings of guilt that make us want to donate. You have to forgive yourself first. Doing something good, helping someone and loving someone can help you lessening this feeling of guilt but in the end, you have to forgive yourself.
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As you are saying, the intention of paying God for forgiveness shows the presumption of God’s judgment which, I am sure, is wrong. In basic it is this belief that has to change however a feeling of guilt always searches for someone who can forgive. If you cannot confide in anyone else, you turn to God to forgive you. Having done that, the feeling of guilt is removed.This again is merely an illusion. How would you know whether God forgives you or not, no matter how big a donation you make?
Isn’t it funny that in earlier times especially criminals, who would be those with most sins and should be those with most regret, went to church regularly and also went to confess their sins to the priests? The priests however are not allowed to tell anybody so they had to listen to all this, tell the biggest mafia boss to repent and not do it again and let him go. Nowadays young criminals in the west have lost even the slightest feeling of belief, religion or fear of God’s punishment. In a way I think it would be good if they were at least a little bit afraid of God, it might keep them from bigger mistakes that ruin their lives.
This is spiritual abuse! All you have to do is reach out!
But Robert, you are saying yourself that it didn’t help at all for all those criminals in earlier times. They just kept on stealing and even murdering.Fear of God does not help, it just makes people feel more guilty inside and hide more to the outside.
Swami ji is right to say that you need to forgive yourself. In the end, God is inside you and you cannot be afraid of yourself.
This is a little sad that people pay for their forgiveness. God doesn’t want money! He would only want for you to forgive yourself and learn from your mistakes. In the end, God knows we are fulfilling our purposes here in life. We are our biggest enemies when it comes to judgement… the hardest task can just be forgiving ourselves.