The Power of Sacrifice
Question: Swami, we visit temples religiously. We go on pilgrimages occasionally. We continue to do our rituals and religious acts. But there is no cognizable change in our life‑pattern. Why is this so, Swami?
Bhagavan: Worship, penance, meditation, bhajan [singing devotional songs], etc., are sacred activities that make your life meaningful, purposeful, and useful. But you can’t brand them as spiritual. All these are good actions that help you to spend time in a sacred way. Anything that you do with your mind (ego, `I‑ ness’) can’t be spiritual. The true spiritual path is atma-vichara, [self-inquiry].
The seeker should know that he is not the deha [body], the manas [mind], or the buddhi [intellect], and that his atma [true self] is beyond time and space. The self is not a name or a form with which it is identified in this transient world. Atma is eternal, pure, and non-dual. True spirituality is the awareness of atma. This is Brahman, the divinity which is spread all over in all creatures, according to the scripture which says eko vasi sarvabhutantaratma. True spirituality alone can make you experience this awareness. But you find many forms of religious practice in the name of spirituality. The prasadam [food that is blessed] although offered to God is actually eaten by the devotees. They just show it to a picture or an image of God, and then consume it themselves. If God really starts taking things offered to Him, I am sure no one would offer Him anything.
Always remember that tyaga [sacrifice] is the highest and best form of sadhana [spiritual practice]. You have to sacrifice your time, money, resources, and energy. You should at least offer a tulsi [venerated plant worshipped by the Hindus] leaf to God in worship. Sacrifice helps you to attain immortality. Tyaga is yoga [spiritual exercise].
Love expresses itself as sacrifice. Love without sacrifice is meaningless and totally selfish. You have to sacrifice the body feeling or attachment to the body. You have to sacrifice your wicked thoughts and bad feelings. Sacrifice is your true nature. Sacrifice is a divine quality gifted to man. In fact, you are not doing anything great and special by sacrifice. You are doing it for your own self.
A yogi noticed a cow struggling for its life in a river. He rushed to rescue it. When asked, “Why did you save the cow?” the yogi replied, “I saved the cow for my own happiness. It was hard for me to see the cow struggling and suffering.” Anyone who may have passed by and noticing the cow in distress did nothing to help, lost the opportunity to perform an act of kindness and sacrifice.
Here is another small story. A householder wanted to serve food to a brahmin [person who officiates at religious rites] as part of a ritual he was performing. He could only find one poor, old brahmin who agreed to dine at his house. The brahmin came and hurriedly started eating the food placed before him. The householder felt slighted. He thought, “What kind of a brahmin is this? He didn’t even bathe nor perform any puja [worship, prayer] before eating. It is not punya [meritorious] to feed such a man.” He became so angry with the old brahmin that he beat him with a stick and holding him by the neck, drove him out.
That night when the householder slept, he had a dream in which God appeared to him and said, “Why did you invite the old brahmin for a meal and then beat him? Why did you wring his neck and humiliate him? You were unable to feed him even for a day while I have been giving him food all these eighty years! What a shame!”
Tyaga is above any restriction or stipulation. A mother is ready to sacrifice her life for her child. Why? It is only love that makes her sacrifice. Trees sacrifice fruits so that you may eat them. No tree eats its own fruits. Rivers flow, and sacrifice water to quench your thirst. The cow yields milk, and sacrifices it for all of you to drink and nurture your body. Your body too is intended for sacrifice.
Worship, bhajan, and other such external activities are less important than seva [selfless service] and sacrifice. The hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray. Love of God is devotion, which has to be expressed as sacrifice. Love is sacrifice. Sacrifice is prema yoga [the path of love to God]. With sacrifice, devotion, and steadfastness will get strengthened and deep rooted. Through the path of jnana, which is self‑inquiry, proceed to atma-vichara, and, follow and experience God. It is said, jnanadeva to kaivalyam, the practical wisdom obtained from tyaga is the only way to kaivalyam [liberation]. This is a process beyond the mind and the activity performed by the body. Then only will you achieve the expected results and attain ananda [bliss].
