Talk:Reducing Bad Karm and Adding Good Karm:Lessening Evil Karm:Confession

By Vishal Agarwal

A lack of remorse and repeating one’s mistakes is worsened when the offender hides them. Conversely, confessing one’s faults to noble and pious people is somewhat redeeming because it indicates that the doer is remorseful and that he will not repeat them. Furthermore, the person hearing the confession could offer advice and help the doer become a better person.

Confession of an evil act in front of Agni and the brāhmaṇas lessens it because the confessed pāpa takes on the nature of truth and divine forgiveness is received. Yajurveda, Mādhyaṁdina Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 11.5.2.20

Do not hide a pāpa after committing it, because hiding one’s pāpas merely increases it. Śaṅkha Smṛti 17.62a

Bhīṣma said – Therefore, do not conceal your evil acts, because evil grows in magnitude when it is concealed. Instead, if you have done something wrong, confess it to saintly persons and they will pacify its harmful results. Mahābhārata 13.162.58

Yudhiṣṭhira said to Arjuna – A pāpa committed is lessened by confession, through giving charity or by practicing austerities. Mahābhārata 12.7.35b–36a

Confessing one’s pāpas to others, repenting, undergoing penances, studying the Vedas, and if incapable of all these, then by giving charity – by these means a person is freed of his pāpas. Manusmṛti 11.227

As a person confesses his degrading pāpas to others, he gets purified of the taints of his pāpas just like a snake extricates itself from its slough. Manusmṛti 11.228