90. Sacrificing Sacrifice


Yajna symbolises sacrifice or selfless actions. In this context, Krishna says, “Some yogis perform sacrifices to gods; others perform sacrifice by offering sacrifice itself in the fire of Brahma (Supreme God)” (4.25).

For someone living without awareness, living is just gathering, preserving and feeling proud of possessions. The next stage of living is sacrificing things, thoughts and feelings. It’s like sacrificing the seeds of ahankaar (I am a doer) into the fire rather than letting them multiply on the fertile soil of the mind. The third stage is transcending even the act of sacrifice, realizing that all is Brahma. It is the sacrifice of ahankaar itself, the subtle sense of “I am the doer” that survives even in sacrifice.

It can be said that the mind-oriented karma yogi keeps looking for action and performing sacrifice is the path for him. The intellect-oriented jnana yogi seeks pure awareness, and he sacrifices the sacrifice itself. While the former is sequential, the latter is an exponential or quantum jump, but rare. However, both paths lead to the same destination of the eternal state.

Krishna explains this reality in the context of senses and says that “Certain devotees offer as oblations in the fire of inner control, their powers of hearing and other senses. Others offer sound and other sense-objects as sacrifice in the fire of senses” (4.26). In essence, these are paths of sacrifice and sacrificing the sacrifice. The following recapitulation of the relationship between sense and sense-objects would help us to understand this verse better.

Krishna says, “Sense organs naturally experience raag (fondness) and dwesh (aversion) for their respective sense-objects; one should be aware of this duality” (3.34). Through specific effort, the karma yogi breaks the bridge between the senses and sense-objects which is the sacrifice mentioned in the first part. The second part is for a jnana yogi who sacrifices the entire process to be just a sakshi through awareness. In both situations, the aim is to transcend the polarities.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

261. Shed the Ahankaar

Image
  K rishna says, “Abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, grieve not” (18.66). While verse 2.14 can be taken as the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna advises us to ignore the transient pleasure-pain polarities which are caused when senses meet sense-objects, the verse 18.66 can be considered as the end of the Gita. Krishna uses the word ‘ dharma’ , and he is certainly not referring to religion, faith, or righteousness, as each of these carries different meanings for different people. Bhagavad Gita is not a book of religion but of natural principles that govern our lives. On the other hand, a lot of clarity comes if we take the paradigm or subjective reality as the meaning of dharma . Paradigm is the combination of our opinions, imaginations and understandings about the things around us or the way things are from our point of view. It is like the partial understanding formed about an elephant by a blind person by touching only ...
Read more

258. Sins and Suffering

Image
  O ne of the common fears of humanity is about committing sins ( paap ). Every culture has evolved around the concept of sin, and the common belief is that all our suffering is due to sins committed in this life or previous ones. Religions thrive on our guilt of committing sins. Even Arjuna’s despondency is because of his belief that he will incur sin by slaying his elders, teachers and relatives. That’s why Krishna elaborates on this issue on various occasions in the Bhagavad Gita. Firstly, Paramatma takes no account of anyone’s virtue or sin. It is the problem of human beings who are deluded as their knowledge is covered by moha (delusion or ignorance) (5.15). Secondly, one hoping for nothing, with a controlled mind and body, doing mere bodily actions, incurs no sin (4.21). Even if we are the most sinful of sinners, we shall safely cross the sea of sin by the raft of wisdom (4.36). The wisdom is realising ‘That’ by which we will see all beings in the self (4.35). Thirdly, for ...
Read more

259. Tapasya with Devotion

Image
  K rishna says, “This (the Gita) is never to be spoken by you to those who are not austere ( a-tapaskaya ) or to those who are not devoted ( a-bhaktaya ). It should also not be spoken to those who are averse to listening and especially not to those who cavil at Me” (18.67). The spiritual journey toward unconditional love and eternal joy is both adventurous and, at times, lonely. In this path we are expected to shed all the beliefs we gathered in our lives. We are also expected to shed the sense of attachment to our physical possessions, feelings and relationships. That’s why very few reach the destination (7.3). Hence, one should pursue it like tapasya with devotion. On the contrary, when it is pursued out of curiosity, it leads to the illusion of knowledge which increases ahankaar . Coming as ‘the existence’, Krishna mentioned about not caviling at Him. It is the path of accepting and embracing all the diverse and seemingly contradictory aspects of existence without any cavil, w...
Read more