What is the difference between God and Karma?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Karma is the 'Jada' (lifeless) and the bondage.God is the pure Consciousness and Supreme Self and is free from all bondages.
--------------------------------------
If we are supposed to live a life free from desire, how do we accomplish anything without motivation?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Desire here means greed. We should try to live a life with the basic necessities, without being greedy for worldly pleasures.
--------------------------------------
What is dharma? 'dharayate iti dharma', then, what to do?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Based on the different time periods Dharma was different. In Kritha Yuga, Dhyana was the Dharma. In Tretha Yuga, Yagna was the Dharma. In Dwapara Yuga, Pooja was the Dharma. In Kali Yuga, Nama Kirtan is the Dharma. Catch hold of the Divine Names of the Lord and chant them incessantly. That alone is enough.
--------------------------------------
I am a student. I am losing interest in life and studies. I am not regular in anything I do and I am not able to preserve my energies. How do I make the best use of my youth?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
• First of all, draw an everyday timetable for each routine for yourself and religiously follow the schedule. You are in the prime of your life, and time that is lost never comes back. So, plan your time on a day-to-day basis and spend your time in a fruitful manner. Have goals for yourself. At the end of everyday, ask yourself how well you have stuck to your routines and how far you have progressed towards your goals and justify your activities to your own conscience.
• At the same time, never get discouraged or dejected if you are not able to keep it up some day for some reason. Learn to take failures as learning opportunities.
• Read good books and books describing the lives of saints and sages. Motivate yourself into optimistic thoughts and be cheerful always.
• Before you do any work (however trivial it might be), think constructively the greatness of that work and try to love and enjoy doing it, be it a football match, or a preparation for an exam or a lab experiment for that matter.
• Eat sattvic food, and at the same time, healthy food. Avoid spices.
• Keep away from all possible distractions such as opposite sex, movies, novels which potentially trigger the feelings of lust in your mind.
• Allocate time for prayers in your regular schedule. Chanting the Mahamantra, sincerely pray to God everyday to make you a better person.
--------------------------------------
Daily I do my duties to all at home and try to keep them happy but finally at the end of the day I feel that my desires are not being fulfilled. What should be done?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
You have two options – you can either change your desires, or chant the Mahamantra. I recommend the second option. Chant the Mahamantra vigorously and you will see that your desires will get fulfilled.
--------------------------------------
A person is very honest, sincere, does his duties perfectly, never lies, never cheats others, helps the needy, feed the person who starves for it, never aspires for others money. Should he go to temples and chant Nama when only he will attain God?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
In Srimad Bhagavatam, it has been said that one may practice any path in spirituality or perform any amount of dharma. It does not matter. What really matters is, whether he remembers Lord Narayana at the time of his last breath. That is when he gets the blessings of God. Hence that should be the goal of any Dharma that one practices. 'Janma labhah parah pumsaam anthe narayana smrithi'.
We would remember something at the crucial time of death only if we practice remembering it all our life. That is why the easy dharma of 'Nama Sankirtan' is being advocated.
--------------------------------------
What is the difference between Manas (Mind) and Budhi(Intellect)?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The intellect [ buddhi ] and the mind [ manas ] are not physical organs. The mind ['manas'] is nothing but a collection of thoughts. Thoughts owing to imagination and impressions of observed objects constitute the mind. Emotions like fear, anger, lust, etc. are dimensions of the mind. The intellect ['buddhi'] is that sheath which is responsible for analysis and rational discrimination based on previously known facts.
--------------------------------------
I don't get sound sleep at night. What should I do?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Here are a few practical steps you can follow to get a sound sleep at night:
1. Take a shower before going to bed
2. Listen to soothing, melodious music or some good lectures / discourses.
3. Read good books at bedtime
4. Have your dinner well ahead of your going to bed
5. Don't take any oil-fried diet in your dinner
6. Avoid coffee / tea before going to bed
7. Perform some physical exercises (even if it is jogging on a treadmill) everyday. This will give a sound sleep at night
8. Avoid viewing television channels when lying down on the bed.
9. You can practice some Yoga Asanas that will help you relax your body and give you good sleep.
--------------------------------------
We come from a Madhva family and we have always been considering Raghavendra Swami as our guru. Do we then need to take Diksha from another guru?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
If you possess intense Bhakti, your Guru will come by himself (even if he does not physically exist) to you in your dreams and initiate you in your dreams or in your meditation. Otherwise, you can take initiation from a living Guru from the same lineage.
--------------------------------------
My father passed away a few years ago; since then every year I have been doing shradh; How long this should be continued? How far do my offerings benefit my father? I understand he will take rebirth. Will my offerings go waste once he takes birth?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
You are supposed to perform Srardha for your deceased father throughout your lifetime. There are perfect arrangements in the nature for your offerings to reach the ancestors.
If you do the rites and rituals properly, it will help him to a certain extent. A mantra in the Srardha itself says, 'if the dead soul has taken another form, let my offerings be transformed and reach the soul in a form that can be consumed by the form (like grass for the cow or horse-gram for the horse etc.)'
--------------------------------------
A person chants the Lord's Name many times, but not from his heart. Another person utters the Divine Name only a very few times, but with true love and devotion. Who among the two will get God's grace?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Both of them.
-------------------------------
You have said that there will not be a 'Pralaya' after this Kali Yuga. Can you explain it please?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Srimad Bhagavatam talks about four types of pralaya:
1. Nithya Pralaya – The change which happens to all the time, moment by moment.
2. Naimittika Pralaya – 1000 chatur Yugas is a day for Brahma, 1000 chatur yugas (Chatur yuga consists of Kruitha , Treta, Dwapara, Kali yugas) a night for Brahma. During Brahma's night the three Lokas are destroyed and the rest (prakruti, the 5 bhootas, the 5 tanmatras etc.) remain intact. This is naimittika pralaya.
3. Prakruthika pralaya – Brahma has age of 100 years (1 day = 1000 chatur yuga / 1 night = 1000 chatur yuga). After Brahma's 100 years, Praakrutika pralayam happens. Even prakruthi is in layam, totally beholden by the Lord.
4. Aatyaatmika Pralayam – Moksha of a jivan is Aatyathmika pralaya
Currently, it is the second half of Brahma's Life ; 51st year, first day, 28th Chatur yuga (to give a simple illustration – if day starts at 6am, it is about 6:20 am for Brahma in his 51st year, first day!)
The details of this are found in the 4th Chapter of the 12th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.
--------------------------------
Why is the word or the Lord's name "Govinda" used in a pessimistic connotation; when in colloquy, people use the word "Govinda", why do they mean it as something that is not possible, failed etc.? Same is the case with "Namam" which is the talisman applied on the forehead (wearing a “Namam” to someone is interpreted as cheating someone).
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
If someone utters the Name ‘Govinda’, he will never be born again. His cycle of births and deaths come to an end. It is possible that the term has come to be used colloquially for mundane matters of doom or failure too.
Thinking of the term ‘Namam’ being referred to for a person who has been cheated, I sometimes feel that Lord Venkateswara of Tiruppati is the top on the list, as, wearing TirumaN, He grants deliverance to every soul unmindful of the humungous crimes and sins that they have committed! Can anyone else be so gullible as Him?
-------------------------------
Now a days the main power is money. I always try to earn money in an honest way. I do not get time to pray to the Almighty. How can I make myself fit as a devotee of God?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
In the Gita, the Lord says, 'swalpamapi yasya dharmasya thraayate mahato bhayaat', (even if you do a very small Dharma, it will give you great benefit)
The Lord who is all powerful and all knowing becomes bound by his devotee who chants His Names.
The easiest way to make yourself a devotee of the Lord is to chant His Divine Names regularly. There is no money or extra effort needed to go in this spiritual path. Where ever you are, what ever you do, you keep chanting His Names. That is enough.
-----------------------------------
Bhagavan Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and many revered Mahans and Acharyas are all worshiped and celebrated with great fervor by our very own families, yet, when one of their own kith and kin is thinking a tiny bit more about the ultimate purpose of life, the elders feel that we have gone astray. How then to go about maintaining a good relationship with the family when they have deemed us 'brainwashed'?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The world always likes to go by majority. If something is practiced by a majority of the masses, then that becomes the standard, and anything different from that practice is looked down upon as weird. This is true with quest for God and spirituality too.
------------------------------------
Can I get a better path (rich) in life strictly following dharma? I don't want to work in a company; I want to own a company.
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The reward for following Dharma strictly is that you will attain clarity of mind and thought and inner excellence. This inner excellence will favour your ambitions and aspirations.
---------------------------------
It is said that the husband-wife relationship continues for 7 births. Is it true even in the case of parents-children?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
It is only a legend.
-------------------------------
When God assumed His Krishna Avatar and ended His divine pastime on earth, did He leave a human and material body like common people, or did He disappear by His Yoga Maya? I read sometime that His mortal remains were miraculously transported into Jagannath archa murti?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Lord Krishna lived for 125 years. Throughout His lifetime, He performed innumerable lilas. When it was time for Sri Krishna to give up His mortal coil and when all the gods and sages curiously awaited His final divine lila, the Lord disappeared into Srimad Bhagavatam.
Srimad Bhagavatam is verily Sri Krishna.
---------------------------------
The essence of the Vedas is given in the Gita and the Ramayan. Moreover they are easier to follow than the Vedas. If someone follows these texts, then why bother about the Vedas? Is it not creating more confusion than we already have?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
It is not just the meaning of the verses in the Vedas that are significant. The sound of the Vedic chants is very significant. The vibrations caused by the Vedic chants are very powerful. That is the reason why the Vedas can’t be forsaken.
----------------------------------
What is Maya / illusion?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Maya is nothing but the inability to understand if everything is predetermined or if there is free will.
-----------------------------------
Though I believe, Nama Sankirtan is one of the ways to travel smooth in the divine path, I am unable to practice the same. Is there any other easy way to practice?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
If you are not able to perform Nama Sankirtan, at least listen to Nama Sankirtan. Hear the Nama regularly or go and sit in a place where Nama is being chanted. That will also give you spiritual advancement.
---------------------------------
Saraswati is manifest in every human in a given way to varying degrees in a certain field of endeavour.
People in India typically respect Musicians or Dancers of repute with a lot of respect and prostration (shastaang namaskaar), etc. Why do they not give equal respect to Saraswati manifested as an Engineer or Scientist or Farmer for instance? Why single out Saraswati and respect only to the former?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Fine arts like music and dance do not come by dint of learning or skill alone. One needs divine grace to perform fine arts. As the manifestation of divinity is more in the case of fine art performers, they are honored and respected.
The very fact that humans enjoy fine arts and that they entertain the audience makes them respectable!
------------------------------
Why is it that we are advised not to cut nails or hair on auspicious days?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The Shastras believe that there is enormous 'prana shakti' (life force) in the nails and hair. Hence we are advised not to cut them during auspicious days.
-------------------------------
Great Saints and Mahans say that once we dip in the Ganges, all the sins done in our numerous births will be destroyed. So many people have taken a dip with good faith, including me. When all the sins are destroyed, there should not be any suffering.Am I right?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Sins can be classified into three – ones that we did in our previous births (Janmas), those that we do in this birth and those that we are going to do in future.
The moment you took this birth, the sins of your previous birth start yielding fruit and there is no escape from them. Hence you have no go but to experience its effects. However, by taking a dip in the Ganges, the sins of your current birth are wiped off.
It is for you to abstain from sinning in future, to avoid future sufferings.
---------------------------------
Do we have the choice to control a desire? I mean, is it destiny (prarabhdha) that controls a desire or is it a personal choice?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Swami Vivekananda says, 'If you are because of what you did in the past, then your future is what you are now!' So, yes, desires can be controlled.
-------------------------------
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Karma is the 'Jada' (lifeless) and the bondage.God is the pure Consciousness and Supreme Self and is free from all bondages.
--------------------------------------
If we are supposed to live a life free from desire, how do we accomplish anything without motivation?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Desire here means greed. We should try to live a life with the basic necessities, without being greedy for worldly pleasures.
--------------------------------------
What is dharma? 'dharayate iti dharma', then, what to do?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Based on the different time periods Dharma was different. In Kritha Yuga, Dhyana was the Dharma. In Tretha Yuga, Yagna was the Dharma. In Dwapara Yuga, Pooja was the Dharma. In Kali Yuga, Nama Kirtan is the Dharma. Catch hold of the Divine Names of the Lord and chant them incessantly. That alone is enough.
--------------------------------------
I am a student. I am losing interest in life and studies. I am not regular in anything I do and I am not able to preserve my energies. How do I make the best use of my youth?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
• First of all, draw an everyday timetable for each routine for yourself and religiously follow the schedule. You are in the prime of your life, and time that is lost never comes back. So, plan your time on a day-to-day basis and spend your time in a fruitful manner. Have goals for yourself. At the end of everyday, ask yourself how well you have stuck to your routines and how far you have progressed towards your goals and justify your activities to your own conscience.
• At the same time, never get discouraged or dejected if you are not able to keep it up some day for some reason. Learn to take failures as learning opportunities.
• Read good books and books describing the lives of saints and sages. Motivate yourself into optimistic thoughts and be cheerful always.
• Before you do any work (however trivial it might be), think constructively the greatness of that work and try to love and enjoy doing it, be it a football match, or a preparation for an exam or a lab experiment for that matter.
• Eat sattvic food, and at the same time, healthy food. Avoid spices.
• Keep away from all possible distractions such as opposite sex, movies, novels which potentially trigger the feelings of lust in your mind.
• Allocate time for prayers in your regular schedule. Chanting the Mahamantra, sincerely pray to God everyday to make you a better person.
--------------------------------------
Daily I do my duties to all at home and try to keep them happy but finally at the end of the day I feel that my desires are not being fulfilled. What should be done?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
You have two options – you can either change your desires, or chant the Mahamantra. I recommend the second option. Chant the Mahamantra vigorously and you will see that your desires will get fulfilled.
--------------------------------------
A person is very honest, sincere, does his duties perfectly, never lies, never cheats others, helps the needy, feed the person who starves for it, never aspires for others money. Should he go to temples and chant Nama when only he will attain God?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
In Srimad Bhagavatam, it has been said that one may practice any path in spirituality or perform any amount of dharma. It does not matter. What really matters is, whether he remembers Lord Narayana at the time of his last breath. That is when he gets the blessings of God. Hence that should be the goal of any Dharma that one practices. 'Janma labhah parah pumsaam anthe narayana smrithi'.
We would remember something at the crucial time of death only if we practice remembering it all our life. That is why the easy dharma of 'Nama Sankirtan' is being advocated.
--------------------------------------
What is the difference between Manas (Mind) and Budhi(Intellect)?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The intellect [ buddhi ] and the mind [ manas ] are not physical organs. The mind ['manas'] is nothing but a collection of thoughts. Thoughts owing to imagination and impressions of observed objects constitute the mind. Emotions like fear, anger, lust, etc. are dimensions of the mind. The intellect ['buddhi'] is that sheath which is responsible for analysis and rational discrimination based on previously known facts.
--------------------------------------
I don't get sound sleep at night. What should I do?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Here are a few practical steps you can follow to get a sound sleep at night:
1. Take a shower before going to bed
2. Listen to soothing, melodious music or some good lectures / discourses.
3. Read good books at bedtime
4. Have your dinner well ahead of your going to bed
5. Don't take any oil-fried diet in your dinner
6. Avoid coffee / tea before going to bed
7. Perform some physical exercises (even if it is jogging on a treadmill) everyday. This will give a sound sleep at night
8. Avoid viewing television channels when lying down on the bed.
9. You can practice some Yoga Asanas that will help you relax your body and give you good sleep.
--------------------------------------
We come from a Madhva family and we have always been considering Raghavendra Swami as our guru. Do we then need to take Diksha from another guru?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
If you possess intense Bhakti, your Guru will come by himself (even if he does not physically exist) to you in your dreams and initiate you in your dreams or in your meditation. Otherwise, you can take initiation from a living Guru from the same lineage.
--------------------------------------
My father passed away a few years ago; since then every year I have been doing shradh; How long this should be continued? How far do my offerings benefit my father? I understand he will take rebirth. Will my offerings go waste once he takes birth?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
You are supposed to perform Srardha for your deceased father throughout your lifetime. There are perfect arrangements in the nature for your offerings to reach the ancestors.
If you do the rites and rituals properly, it will help him to a certain extent. A mantra in the Srardha itself says, 'if the dead soul has taken another form, let my offerings be transformed and reach the soul in a form that can be consumed by the form (like grass for the cow or horse-gram for the horse etc.)'
--------------------------------------
A person chants the Lord's Name many times, but not from his heart. Another person utters the Divine Name only a very few times, but with true love and devotion. Who among the two will get God's grace?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Both of them.
-------------------------------
You have said that there will not be a 'Pralaya' after this Kali Yuga. Can you explain it please?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Srimad Bhagavatam talks about four types of pralaya:
1. Nithya Pralaya – The change which happens to all the time, moment by moment.
2. Naimittika Pralaya – 1000 chatur Yugas is a day for Brahma, 1000 chatur yugas (Chatur yuga consists of Kruitha , Treta, Dwapara, Kali yugas) a night for Brahma. During Brahma's night the three Lokas are destroyed and the rest (prakruti, the 5 bhootas, the 5 tanmatras etc.) remain intact. This is naimittika pralaya.
3. Prakruthika pralaya – Brahma has age of 100 years (1 day = 1000 chatur yuga / 1 night = 1000 chatur yuga). After Brahma's 100 years, Praakrutika pralayam happens. Even prakruthi is in layam, totally beholden by the Lord.
4. Aatyaatmika Pralayam – Moksha of a jivan is Aatyathmika pralaya
Currently, it is the second half of Brahma's Life ; 51st year, first day, 28th Chatur yuga (to give a simple illustration – if day starts at 6am, it is about 6:20 am for Brahma in his 51st year, first day!)
The details of this are found in the 4th Chapter of the 12th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.
--------------------------------
Why is the word or the Lord's name "Govinda" used in a pessimistic connotation; when in colloquy, people use the word "Govinda", why do they mean it as something that is not possible, failed etc.? Same is the case with "Namam" which is the talisman applied on the forehead (wearing a “Namam” to someone is interpreted as cheating someone).
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
If someone utters the Name ‘Govinda’, he will never be born again. His cycle of births and deaths come to an end. It is possible that the term has come to be used colloquially for mundane matters of doom or failure too.
Thinking of the term ‘Namam’ being referred to for a person who has been cheated, I sometimes feel that Lord Venkateswara of Tiruppati is the top on the list, as, wearing TirumaN, He grants deliverance to every soul unmindful of the humungous crimes and sins that they have committed! Can anyone else be so gullible as Him?
-------------------------------
Now a days the main power is money. I always try to earn money in an honest way. I do not get time to pray to the Almighty. How can I make myself fit as a devotee of God?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
In the Gita, the Lord says, 'swalpamapi yasya dharmasya thraayate mahato bhayaat', (even if you do a very small Dharma, it will give you great benefit)
The Lord who is all powerful and all knowing becomes bound by his devotee who chants His Names.
The easiest way to make yourself a devotee of the Lord is to chant His Divine Names regularly. There is no money or extra effort needed to go in this spiritual path. Where ever you are, what ever you do, you keep chanting His Names. That is enough.
-----------------------------------
Bhagavan Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and many revered Mahans and Acharyas are all worshiped and celebrated with great fervor by our very own families, yet, when one of their own kith and kin is thinking a tiny bit more about the ultimate purpose of life, the elders feel that we have gone astray. How then to go about maintaining a good relationship with the family when they have deemed us 'brainwashed'?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The world always likes to go by majority. If something is practiced by a majority of the masses, then that becomes the standard, and anything different from that practice is looked down upon as weird. This is true with quest for God and spirituality too.
------------------------------------
Can I get a better path (rich) in life strictly following dharma? I don't want to work in a company; I want to own a company.
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The reward for following Dharma strictly is that you will attain clarity of mind and thought and inner excellence. This inner excellence will favour your ambitions and aspirations.
---------------------------------
It is said that the husband-wife relationship continues for 7 births. Is it true even in the case of parents-children?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
It is only a legend.
-------------------------------
When God assumed His Krishna Avatar and ended His divine pastime on earth, did He leave a human and material body like common people, or did He disappear by His Yoga Maya? I read sometime that His mortal remains were miraculously transported into Jagannath archa murti?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Lord Krishna lived for 125 years. Throughout His lifetime, He performed innumerable lilas. When it was time for Sri Krishna to give up His mortal coil and when all the gods and sages curiously awaited His final divine lila, the Lord disappeared into Srimad Bhagavatam.
Srimad Bhagavatam is verily Sri Krishna.
---------------------------------
The essence of the Vedas is given in the Gita and the Ramayan. Moreover they are easier to follow than the Vedas. If someone follows these texts, then why bother about the Vedas? Is it not creating more confusion than we already have?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
It is not just the meaning of the verses in the Vedas that are significant. The sound of the Vedic chants is very significant. The vibrations caused by the Vedic chants are very powerful. That is the reason why the Vedas can’t be forsaken.
----------------------------------
What is Maya / illusion?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Maya is nothing but the inability to understand if everything is predetermined or if there is free will.
-----------------------------------
Though I believe, Nama Sankirtan is one of the ways to travel smooth in the divine path, I am unable to practice the same. Is there any other easy way to practice?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
If you are not able to perform Nama Sankirtan, at least listen to Nama Sankirtan. Hear the Nama regularly or go and sit in a place where Nama is being chanted. That will also give you spiritual advancement.
---------------------------------
Saraswati is manifest in every human in a given way to varying degrees in a certain field of endeavour.
People in India typically respect Musicians or Dancers of repute with a lot of respect and prostration (shastaang namaskaar), etc. Why do they not give equal respect to Saraswati manifested as an Engineer or Scientist or Farmer for instance? Why single out Saraswati and respect only to the former?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Fine arts like music and dance do not come by dint of learning or skill alone. One needs divine grace to perform fine arts. As the manifestation of divinity is more in the case of fine art performers, they are honored and respected.
The very fact that humans enjoy fine arts and that they entertain the audience makes them respectable!
------------------------------
Why is it that we are advised not to cut nails or hair on auspicious days?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
The Shastras believe that there is enormous 'prana shakti' (life force) in the nails and hair. Hence we are advised not to cut them during auspicious days.
-------------------------------
Great Saints and Mahans say that once we dip in the Ganges, all the sins done in our numerous births will be destroyed. So many people have taken a dip with good faith, including me. When all the sins are destroyed, there should not be any suffering.Am I right?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Sins can be classified into three – ones that we did in our previous births (Janmas), those that we do in this birth and those that we are going to do in future.
The moment you took this birth, the sins of your previous birth start yielding fruit and there is no escape from them. Hence you have no go but to experience its effects. However, by taking a dip in the Ganges, the sins of your current birth are wiped off.
It is for you to abstain from sinning in future, to avoid future sufferings.
---------------------------------
Do we have the choice to control a desire? I mean, is it destiny (prarabhdha) that controls a desire or is it a personal choice?
Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji:
Swami Vivekananda says, 'If you are because of what you did in the past, then your future is what you are now!' So, yes, desires can be controlled.
-------------------------------
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