Question: What are kama, krodha, lobha, madha? What should one, who is too kami (lustful), do to get rid of all those sins? How can one be purified after all the sins accrued by just living in this world and family life? In Bhagavad-Gita Krishna says “come to Me and I will release you from all sins.” How do we do this? By chanting or is there some other way?
Answer by Romapada Swami: There are six bad qualities that are considered to be the enemies of a living entity, of which you have mentioned four (lust, anger, greed, madness respectively), the other two being illusion and jealousy. All of these arise primarily from misuse of free will, ie. turning our attention away from attending to Krishna’s happiness; this results in abhinivesa, or our pervasive penchant to enjoy material sense objects. The process of purification is exactly as you have quoted – surrendering to Krishna and rendering pure devotional service. (Please refer to the above answer.)
Even while living in this material world, while engaged in one’s respective occupational and social duties, “becoming released from our sins” can be accomplished by dedicating all of our activities and duties in service to Krishna and in a spirit of detachment from the results. As we have discussed before, Arjuna was also a king with “worldly” responsibilities. Like Arjuna, the primary focus, while going through our duties in the material world, should however be the cultivation of a service mood towards Krishna and His devotees, nourished by our daily direct devotional activities. There are nine forms of devotional service that we have discussed previously. Chanting is most certainly very essential and most effective in this age. Another very important item is to hear and discuss topics related to Krishna in the association of devotees. Ref. BG 18.66
