The question of atonement (world we live in series)

Atonement is an age old quest of aspiring spiritualists in every culture and tradition. As people embrace a lifestyle of spiritual awareness or purification, one may start to realise the heinous nature of sense gratificatory activities one has indulged in and the guilt could be a heavy thing to carry. For the believers of Karma the realisation of the Karmic imbalance created can be scary sometime and a sense of urgency to get rid of the bad karma. So it’s but natural to try and look for means to clean the karmic slate and one such technique is shown in the gruesome images above.

So what method does a Bhakti yogi use to get over the bad karma? How do we atone? Indeed it is very noble of these monks to realise the power of bad karma and wanting to rid themselves of it, but what’s the merit in this process.

This same question of atonement was asked by Maharaj Pariksit to Sukadeva Goswami in the sixth canto of Bhagvatam.
Maharaja Pariksit said: One may know that sinful activity is injurious for him because he actually sees that a criminal is punished by the government and rebuked by people in general and because he hears from scriptures and learned scholars that one is thrown into hellish conditions in the next life for committing sinful acts. Nevertheless, in spite of such knowledge, one is forced to commit sins again and again, even after performing acts of atonement. Therefore, what is the value of such atonement? (SB 6.1.10)
Sometimes one who is very alert so as not to commit sinful acts is victimized by sinful life again. I therefore consider this process of repeated sinning and atoning to be useless. It is like the bathing of an elephant, for an elephant cleanses itself by taking a full bath, but then throws dust over its head and body as soon as it returns to the land. SB 6.1.11

In the purport Srila Prbahupada explains: In some religious sects a sinful man goes to a priest to confess his sinful acts and pay a fine, but then he again commits the same sins and returns to confess them again. This is the practice of a professional sinner…Regardless of how many times he is punished; one who is attached to sense enjoyment will commit sinful acts again and again until he is trained to refrain from enjoying his senses.

Sukadeva Goswami the son of Vedavyäsa, answered: My dear King, since acts meant to neutralize impious actions are also fruitive, they will not release one from the tendency to act fruitively. Persons who subject themselves to the rules and regulations of atonement are not at all intelligent. Indeed, they are in the mode of darkness. Unless one is freed from the mode of ignorance, trying to counteract one action through another is useless because this will not uproot one's desires. Thus even though one may superficially seem pious, he will undoubtedly be prone to act impiously. Therefore real atonement is enlightenment in perfect knowledge, Vedänta, by which one understands the Supreme Absolute Truth. SB 6.1.12

In the purport, Prabhupada sums it up by saying "Real atonement is full knowledge." And as we learn from the Bhagavad gita real knowledge is knowledge of self, Krishna and the relation between the two. Without which all attempts are just incomplete and further implicating.

Akarma means without reaction to work. The impersonalist ceases fruitive activities out of fear, so that the resultant action may not be a stumbling block on the path of self-realization, but the personalist knows rightly his position as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore he engages himself in the activities of Krishna consciousness. BG4.18