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Are punishments postponed or burned for a reformed soul?

[Shri Durgaprasad asked: Paadanamskaaram Swami, You mentioned that even for a reformed soul, the punishments are only postponed (by keeping in cold storage for a very long time) and not cancelled. But, Gita says Jnanagni Sarvakarmaani... meaning the karma file is burnt whole together after reformation through knowledge. Kindly remove my confusion. At Your lotus feet, -Durgaprasad]

Swami replied: When this soul is reformed, the file of deeds and fruits of one type of sins (stealing is one type, killing is another type etc.) goes into cold storage. This file is not burnt because there is a probability of repeating the sins in future in which case the file becomes active once again. If the soul is permanently reformed, the file is permanently kept in the cold storage and such a situation is almost equal to the burning of the file. The Gita mentions burning in the view that the reformed soul will not repeat the sin once again in future. Burning means the gross file going into subtle state and the subtle file can become gross file at any time whenever God wishes. We also see that in the final dissolution, the creation is totally destroyed. Scripture says that 12 suns rise to burn this entire world. But, here, burning means the entire world going into subtle state from gross state. You should not take burning in the literal sense, but you should take this in the implied sense (Lakshanaa).

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