Acharya Prashant explains that before one can atone, it is necessary to know what the mistake is. If one is not clearly aware of the mistake and the entire process of how it occurred from beginning to end, only then can it be corrected. Otherwise, if one does not know where they went wrong, what they call atonement will not correct the mistake but will become another mistake in itself. When we are hurt or when the outcome of our actions is not as we expected, we are in a great hurry to change something. This is because we have been hurt, we have faced defeat or failure, and the experience of what is happening is not pleasant. So, we want to change it quickly. In this haste to change, we often resort to the most superficial changes without going deep. We are more concerned with the injury than with the mistake itself. The one who made the mistake is the same one who is now trying to atone or change. That person has not changed. He made a mistake, and because of that mistake, he got hurt. In reality, he is not as concerned with the mistake as he is with the hurt. He would commit the same mistake if it didn't result in a bad outcome or pain. The fundamental mistake is not understanding the mistake itself. This is the only mistake. Therefore, atonement is also about understanding this. The one who has understood the mistake correctly and deeply has atoned, because now he is no longer the same person who made the mistake. The next action he takes will be as a completely different person. This is what is called atonement. The doer is flawed, so how can the action be right? If a tree is weak from its roots, can any of its leaves be healthy? We focus all our attention on the leaves, on some specific actions. We want those actions to be great. But if the doer is flawed, all actions will be flawed. The real atonement is to no longer remain the person who was making the mistakes. The fundamental mistake is that we do not understand our own minds. We do not know that what we are doing is not being done by us, but by the winds of our conditioning. We are slaves to our physical and social tendencies, and this is the fundamental mistake. The one who has understood this has atoned.
