Only loving and devoted service to God can put an end to suffering and karma, purify the embodied being, and allow him to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Lord Krishna says to this effect: Only through devotional service, and only thus, can one know Me as I am. And the being who, through such devotion, becomes fully aware of Me, can then enter My absolute kingdom.

Is it through the suffering we feel and endure that we erase the sinful acts committed in our past lives?

Suffering is useful and necessary.

God said: Whether you wash yourself with nitro or use a lot of potash, your iniquity will remain marked before Me.

Truly, our thoughts, words, and deeds produce effects that cause consequences, good or bad, according to the nature of our mind and heart.

Truly, our thoughts, words, and deeds produce effects that cause consequences, good or bad, according to the nature of our mind and heart. It is the acts committed in the past, or even in a person's previous life, that determine the conditions of their next birth or reincarnation.

The suffering associated with sinful acts has a dual origin: the acts themselves, but also those committed in previous lives.

The origin of sinful acts is most often ignorance. But ignoring the fact that an act is sinful does not prevent one from committing it, its undesirable consequences, which give rise to other sinful acts.

Furthermore, there are two kinds of sins: those that have, so to speak, “reached maturity,” and those that have not yet. By “reached maturity,” we mean those whose consequences we are currently suffering. The others are those, many of which are accumulated within us and have not yet produced their fruits of suffering.

A person who commits a crime may not be immediately caught and condemned, but sooner or later he will be. Similarly, for some of our sins, we will have to suffer in the future, just as for others, “reached maturity,” we suffer today.

So sins and sufferings follow one another, plunging the conditioned soul into pain life after life. In her present life she suffers the consequences of the actions committed in her previous life, and prepares for herself, through her present actions, new suffering in the future.

“Mature” or “complete” sins can result in chronic illness, trouble with the law, low birth, inadequate education, or poor physical appearance.