If you have some severe type of disease, you have to pay the doctor's bill, also severe. That you cannot avoid. So why not for sinful activities? And what is disease? Disease, infection, means that is also violating the laws of nature. That is disease. Just I gave you the example: a little scratching of nail again means three, four days so much suffering. So you cannot violate. That is, that is breaking the laws of nature, breaking the laws of God. That is sinful. Either you take it as disease or sinful activities or whatever you call. This is . . . so you have to atone.
So Parīkṣit Mahārāja is answering—he's very intelligent—dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyaṁ yat pāpam.
(aside) You sit down properly if you are feeling sleepy.
- dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyaṁ yat pāpaṁ
- jānann apy ātmano 'hitaṁ
- karoti bhūyo vivaśaḥ
- prāyaścittam atho katham
- (SB 6.1.9)
So Parīkṣit Mahārāja says that, "I accept that unless one atones, then he'll be punished, but what is the value of this atonement?" Just like a man falls diseased. He's habituated to some certain habits, and he falls diseased on account of that. He knows that, "I committed this mistake in respect of my healthy condition, so I'm now punished by this disease." He knows, and he has suffered, but why he commits again? This is the question. Why he commits again?
So Parīkṣit Mahārāja says that dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyaṁ yat pāpaṁ jānann apy ātmano 'hitaṁ (SB 6.1.9). A person knows that this is not good for him. For example, a thief. A thief knows that stealing is not good. It is against law, and against our revealed scriptures also. No religious book or scriptures will say that, "You go on stealing." No. Neither the state laws also allow stealing. A man knows.
And suppose he's stolen in the past, and he was punished, or he sees that one who has stolen property, he is arrested by the police and he's being taken into the custody. He has seen it, he has heard it. We experience. We gather our knowledge by seeing and by hearing. So both things he has done, but still he is stealing. Why? This is the question.