Can one who has sinned be a saint? (part 2)

One might ask, “But if someone is corrupted by such bad behavior, how can he be a sadhu?”

This is answered: “He should be considered as such and thought of as a sadhu.” “He should be considered” is an injunctive statement. If this injunction is disobeyed, there will be unfavorable consequences. In other words, “The evidence for the truth of this is that it is simply My command.”

“Well,” someone might say, “one may be considered a sadhu partially, to the extent that he is worshiping You, but to the extent that he is usurping other men’s wives and property, he is not to be considered a sadhu.“

This is answered by the word eva, only: “He should only be considered a sadhu, in all ways, completely.”

We should never view him as not a sadhu. His determination is completely fixed: “I may go to hell or obtain an animal birth because of my unavoidable sinful reactions, but I will never give up my exclusive worship of Sri Krsna.” Such determination is praiseworthy.

“But,” one might ask, “why do You accept the worship of such an irreligious person? Why do You consume the food and drink offered by one whose heart is contaminated by lust, anger, and other faults?”

In response the Lord says, “He quickly becomes religious.” This is not expressed as “He is going to quickly become” or “He will soon achieve peace.” Rather, the present tense is used: “he becomes” and “he attains.”

The Lord continues, “This means that immediately after he commits impiety, he remembers Me and feels remorse. He thus quickly becomes religious. He thinks, ‘Alas! Alas! There is no person more fallen than me. I defile the reputation of the community of devotees. Damn me!’ Again and again feeling remorse like this, he achieves complete peace and detachment.”

“Well,” one may say, “if he actually becomes religious, there can be no argument about such a person. But what about a devotee whose behavior is wicked and who fails to give up his bad behavior throughout his whole life? What can be said about him?”

Always affectionate to His devotees, the Lord responds to this doubt with complete confidence and with some anger, in the words beginning kaunteya: “My devotee never perishes. Even when he dies, he never falls down.”

To encourage Arjuna, who is disturbed with sorrow and apprehension over the thought that hard-hearted quibblers who indulge in false logic will not accept this, the Lord says, “O Kaunteya, go to the assembly of these disputants and, making a loud sound with drums and cymbals, raise your arms fearlessly and declare My promise: ‘I, Krsna, am the Supreme Lord, and even if My devotee is wicked in his behavior, he will never perish. On the contrary, such a devotee is sure to become successful.’ Their bad logic will be shattered by this confident declaration. They will certainly take shelter of you as their guru.” Such is the interpretation given by Sridhara Swami in his commentary.

Someone may ask, “But why doesn’t the Personality of Godhead Himself make this promise? Why does He instead deputize Arjuna to promise? In the same way as the Lord will later say, ‘Without a doubt you will come to Me. I promise you this because you are very dear to Me,’ why doesn’t He now say, ‘Kaunteya, I promise that My devotee will never perish’?”

Here is the answer. At that moment the Lord was thinking, “I am very affectionate to My devotees and cannot tolerate their being discredited at all. I will often break even My own promise and let Myself be discredited to protect My devotee’s promise. For example, I will soon fight with Bhisma and discard My own promise in order to protect Bhisma’s promise. Thus atheistic, logical quibblers will only laugh if I now offer My own promise, but they will have to acknowledge Arjuna’s promise as if it were written in stone. Therefore I will have Arjuna make this promise.”