Thoughts on Sacrifice and Surrender
I remember a lesson that one of my teachers at Infosys once taught me, “Before you desire, you must deserve.” I realise that he was probably echoing what the veda already contains, albeit in a slightly different form. While instructing us in the preparation of our bodily and mental conditions to accept and realise the Truth, a subtle message runs through its course, “the greater surrender confers on us the greater right.”
In a spiritual sense, every oblation or offering (havya) signifies an intertwined and underlying sacrifice or action – either physical or mental. Every such action in turn contemplates the giving of some part of ourselves into the cosmic being. The effectiveness of the offering, the “right”-ness of the sacrifice, is determined by the high priest of the sacrifice, agni. Again, this effectiveness is in direct correlation to the degree of our surrender. Our ego is taught and therefore learns to subjugate itself in every act to the Absolute, to the Gods, to the Truth, to the One, whatever name we may choose to ascribe to that Divinity.
It is only when we perform even the simplest of acts with this understanding and acceptance and attitude of surrender that the Divinity takes form in us i.e. becomes conscient and enlightens us with right knowledge. The vedic sanskrit word for this is ā kṛṇudhvam, the “ā” signifying a drawing upon an external agency or force and having internalized it, shaping it within our [currently narrow] streams of consciousness.
We are organised units of existence reflecting the constitution of the universe, containing in ourselves subjectively all the worlds in which we are objectively contained. The imagery of the vedic sacrifice becomes easy to understand once we possess this key. The Gods are not mere personifications of abstract ideas or of physical or psychological functions of nature. They are living powers – the vicissitude of the human soul represents a cosmic struggle not merely of principles of tendencies but of the cosmic powers that support and embody them. These are the Gods and the Demons. On the world stage and in our individual soul, the same real drama with the same personages is enacted.
The sacrifice itself takes the form of a journey – for it is our ascension towards a goal. And it is no peaceful travel, involving as it does the discovery and travel on the arduous yet fulfilling road of the Truth. The vedic tapestry is grand and describes, symbolically as it does, the āryan man’s [our] labour and battles, our constant uphill war against the enemies that seek to bind us in ignorance, the several censurers, confiners, covetors, dividers, dualists, hurters, miser-traffickers, plunderers, stealers and tearers among others – vṛtra, śuśna, namuci, vala and other pani by whatever name ascribed – the impious host within us, that we must constantly seek to fight and overcome.
At one instance, ṛṣi madhuccandaḥ vaiśvāmitraḥ says:
यत्सानोः सानुमारुहद् भुर्यस्पष्ट कर्त्वम्
तदिन्द्रो अर्थं चेतति यूथेन वृष्णिरेजति
yatsānoḥ sānumāruhad bhuryaspaṣṭa kartvam
tadindro arthaṁ cetati yūthena vṛṣṇirejati
translating as “when the worshipper [devotee] climbs from peak to peak, he realises the progress that is yet to be achieved; then indra awakens in him the purpose of the journey and comes to aid [the devotee in his journey]”
In another instance, rātahavya ātreyaḥ invokes the twin solar powers – mitra and varuna – to lead us in our journey to the vastness of our true existence.
ता वामियानोऽवसे पूर्वा उप ब्रुवे सचा
स्वश्वासः चेतुना वाजाँ अभि प्र दावने
tā vāmiyāno’vase pūrvā upa bruve sacā
svaśvāsaḥ cetunā vājāḥ abhi pra dāvane
meaning, “travelling on the path, I call to them, the two together, the ancient and first, as we travel with perfect steeds, we call to them, the perfect in knowledge, for the giving of the plenitudes”.
The seers recognized that man is not aware of the entire journey and possesses the limited knowledge to progress in a measured manner. At the appropriate instance, the divine powers manifest themselves and guide us in our journey. It is with such vivid and physical images that the vedic poets sing to us of our own spiritual ascension and the assistance that the gods deliver to us at each step.
Peace
S