CHAPTER V.
Sacrifice.
THE idea of "offering sacrifices" is very familiar in India, but a student needs to understand the principle which underlies all sacrifices, so that he may realise that every one should sacrifice himself to the good of others, and that all sacrifice of other things are meant, to teach a man how he ought, at last, to sacrifice himself.
The first thing to grasp is that creation is sacrifice. Ishvara confines Himself, limits Himself, in matter in order that a universe may be made manifest. Shruti and Smriti alike proclaim this truth, as in the Purusha Sukta of the Rigveda or as in the allusion by Shri Krishna to the formal sacrifice that causes the birth of beings.
[*अक्षरं ब्रह्म परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते।
भूतभावोद्भवकरो विसर्गः कर्मसंज्ञितः।।8.3।।
श्रीभगवान् बोले --परम अक्षर (अविनाशी) तत्त्व ब्रह्म है;'स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते'--स्वभाव (अपना स्वरूप) अध्यात्म कहा जाता है; --'स्वो भावः स्वभावः'। स्थावरजङ्गम जितने भी प्राणी देखनेमें आते हैं उनका जो स्वभाव अर्थात् होनापन है उस होनेपन को प्रकट करने के लिये जो विसर्ग अर्थात् (यज्ञ, त्याग , प्रेरक बल) है , उसको कर्म कहते हैं। The Blessed Lord said, " Brahman is the Imperishable, the Supreme; Its essential nature is called Self-knowledge; the offering (to the gods) which causes existence and manifestation of beings and which also sustains them is called action.]
Immersion in matter is, in spiritual language, called "death" {आध्यतमिक भाषा में स्थावर -जंगम प्राणि के जड़ शरीर या अन्नमयकोष में विसर्जन (विसर्ग) को मृत्यु कहते हैं ! उस होनेपन को प्रकट करने के लिये जो विसर्ग अर्थात् त्याग है उसको कर्म कहते हैं।?????*} and Ishvara thus sacrificed Himself in order that He might bring into separate being portions of Himself, the Jivas who might develop all His powers in matter in an infinite variety of forms. This is the primary sacrifice, and on this is based the Law. This also gives us the meaning of sacrifice : it is the pouring out of life for the benefit of others.*
The Law of Sacrifice is the Law of Life for all Jivas. In the earlier stages of their growth they are forcibly sacrificed, and so progress involuntarily, without their own consent or even knowledge, their forms being violently wrenched away from them, and they propelled into new ones, a little more developed.
Thus the Jivas of the mineral kingdom are prepared to pass on into the vegetable, by the breaking up of their mineral bodies for the support of plants. The Jivas of the vegetable kingdom are prepared to pass on into the animals, by the breaking up of their vegetable bodies for the support of animal life. The Jivas of the animal kingdom are prepared to pass on into the human, by the breaking up of their bodies for the support of other animals, of savages, and of certain types of men. And even the Jivas of the human kingdom are prepared to rise into higher races by breaking up of their human bodies for the support of other human lives in cannibalism, war, etc.
In all these cases the bodies are sacrificed for the benefit of others, without the assent of the embodied consciousness. Only after untold ages does the Jiva recognise, in the body, the universality of the law, and begin to sacrifice his own upadhis deliberately, for the good of those around him. This is called self- sacrifice, and is the showing forth of the divinity of the Jiva, the proof that he is of the nature of Ishvara.
A wonderful story of uttermost self-sacrifice is told in the Mahabhartam . Indra, the King of the Devas, was sore beset by the Asura Vrittra, born of the wrath of a Rishi, whom Indra had offended by an unrighteous act. Vrittra heading the Daityas, defeated Indra and his armies in battle, drove him away from his capital, Amaravati and took away his sovereignty.
Long the Devas wandered with their King in exile, and repeatedly they made endeavour to regain their capital, but were vanquished again and again. Finally they learnt that the righteous wrath of a Rishi could not be allayed, except by the voluntary self-sacrifice and pity of another Rishi ; and that Vrittra could be slain by no other weapon than the thunderbolt made with the self-given bones of a holy one. And they went eagerly to the Rishi Dadhichi and told their woeful tale to him. And he was filled with a geat pity and said , " I give to you my body willingly to make what use of it you like."
And when their artificer Vishvakarma shrank from laying a rude and painful hand upon that shining body of purity and tapas, Dadhichi smiled and said, "Cover this body up with salt; bring here a herd of cows; they shall lick off the salt and flesh together; and ye shall take the bones which only ye require; and so naught of this body shall be wasted." And this was done and Vrittra fell before the might born of that wondrous sacrifice.* {* Mahabharatam -Van Parva }
The Jiva is led up to this point by the teachings of the Rishis, who bid him make sacrifices of his possessions for a good that he does not receive immediately: they show him that when a man sacrifices to others, his gifts return to him increased in the future. A man is to sacrifice some of his goods, which may be looked on as outlying pieces of himself, and he is promised that this act of self-denial shall bring him increased possessions.
Next he was taught to make similar sacrifices and to deny himself present enjoyments, in order that he might lay up for himself increased happiness on the other side of death in Svarga. Thus the practice of sacrificing was made habitual, and man, by sacrificing his possessions in the hope of reward, prepared to learn that it was his duty to sacrifice himself in the service of others, and to find in the joy of that service his reward. *{* Mahabharatam -Van Parva }
Another lesson taught in these sacrifices was the relation man bears to all the beings round him; that he is not a solitary, isolated life, but that all lives are inter-dependent, and can only prosper permanently as they recognise this inter-dependence. The Rishis taught him to sacrifice daily to the Devas, to Rishis, to ancestors, to men and animals, and showed him that as all these made sacrifices to enrich his life, he had incurred to them a debt, a duty, which he must pay by sacrifice. As he fives on others, he must, in common honesty, live for others. Sacrifice is right, a thing that ought to be done, that is owed.
The Rishis taught him to sacrifice daily to the Devas, to Rishis, to ancestors, to men and animals, and showed him that as all these made sacrifices to enrich his life, he had incurred to them a debt, a duty, which he must pay by sacrifice. As he lives on others, he must, in common honesty, live for others. Sacrifice is right, a thing that ought to be done, that is owed.
Finally, as the Jiva recognises his parentage, his identity in nature with Ishvara, sacrifice becomes happiness, a delight, and the pouring out of life for others is felt as a joyous exercise of innate divine powers. Instead of seeing how much he can take and how little he can give, he tries to see how little he can take and how much he can give. He begins to look very carefully into what he takes for the support of his own upadhis, and seeks to reduce to the lowest point the suffering inflicted by the breaking up of lower forms for his support. He abandons the foods and the amusements which inflict pain on sentient beings and tries to become "the friend of all creatures.' He realises that while the preying of animals on animals, of men on men, and the slaughter of animals by men for food or sport, are necessary at certain stages of evolution for the development of needed faculties and powers, men should gradually evolve from these, and cultivate the faculties of gentleness, sympathy and tenderness, regarding the weaker as younger Selves to be helped, instead of as victims to be immolated.
As a man lives in such thoughts of his nonseparateness from younger Selves, he begins to feel more really his non-separateness from elder Selves and from the Universal Parent, Ishvara. Slowly he realises that his true function is to live for others, as Ishvara lives for all, and that his true happiness lies in becoming a channel in which the life of ishvara is flowing, a willing instrument to do the will of Ishvara. Then every action becomes a sacrifice to Ishvara, and actions no longer bind him. Thus the law of sacrifice becomes also the law of liberation.
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सहयज्ञाः प्रजाः सृष्ट्वा पुरोवाच प्रजापतिः।
अनेन प्रसविष्यध्वमेष वोऽस्त्विष्टकामधुक्।।3.10।।
देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वः।
परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ।।3.11।।
इष्टान्भोगान्हि वो देवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञभाविताः।
तैर्दत्तानप्रदायैभ्यो यो भुङ्क्ते स्तेन एव सः।।3.12।।
यज्ञशिष्टाशिनः सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषैः।
भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात्।।3.13।।
अन्नाद्भवन्ति भूतानि पर्जन्यादन्नसम्भवः।
यज्ञाद्भवति पर्जन्यो यज्ञः कर्मसमुद्भवः।।3.14।।
कर्म ब्रह्मोद्भवं विद्धि ब्रह्माक्षरसमुद्भवम्।
तस्मात्सर्वगतं ब्रह्म नित्यं यज्ञे प्रतिष्ठितम्।।3.15।।
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