What is a sin? Is it something that we do against the accepted norms of the society? Is sin the same as crime? Is it a crime to commit a sin? Or is it a sin to commit a crime?

Before we delve into the answers, I reinforce the fact that each one of us are sinners. Some are ignorant sinners, while some do it all-knowingly and many others who find themselves in an obligation to commit a sin.

Another interesting fact is that, we (at least most of us) believe and accept to be sinners. But we vehemently proclaim to have not committed any crime. So could we conclude that a sin is not the same as a crime? And the measure of this difference is huge. Probably because we don’t get punished for our sins the same way as we get punished for our crimes. A crime is violating rules, while a sin is violating norms. Since, norms are not enforced, sinning is probably taken easy by us.

More often than not, the act of sinning is associated with religion, and with God. Many believe that sinning is an act of treason against the ‘Heavenly King’. However, I’m somebody who thinks that sinning has more to do with one’s conscious than with anything else. If you find yourself lying to yourself, then you have sinned. If you think you must have reacted differently (better) to a situation, you have sinned. The punishments that our sins bring us are sometimes very obvious. When you lie, you get into a tangle of lies and it becomes really hard to escape without saying the truth. And the mental suffering that we go through is the punishment for lying. Some of us believe that committing small acts of sin are OK for the ‘greater good’. But, who measures the size of the sin and how do we define the ‘greater good’?

Coming to the actual point of this post, what is the biggest sin in one’s life? For me, its having someone else do your work for you.
If someone else gets me a glass of water when I could have done it myself, then I have sinned!