Animal Sacrifice

ANIMAL SACRIFICE
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this page are purely by the author. Quite a few strong claims have been made in it. The claims made are based purely on the author’s conviction and may not stand the strict evaluation of logic.)
Before I write about the 'tradition' of animal sacrifices in Hindu communities, let me restate one of the most interesting stories I had ever read about 'tradition'.
At some place there was one guru (teacher) who had a cat as pet in his Ashram(abode). When the guru sat down to worship each evening, the ashram cat would get in the way and distract the worshipers. So he ordered that the cat be tied during evening worship.
After the guru died the cat continued to be tied during evening worship. And when the cat expired, another cat was brought to the ashram so that it could be duly tied during evening worship.
Centuries later learned treatises were written by the guru's scholarly disciples on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat while worship is performed. (from Soul Food, Kornfield and Feldman, p. 226)
The absence of understanding the underlying reason before following any tradition could make the tradition suicidal for the society. There have been numerous occasions when something said in certain perspective has lost the perspective and only the 'catchy' part of the saying remains as a legend. And this makes the problem tougher. One of the most abused sloka(couplet)'s in 'Smd. Bhagwat Geeta' is (ch2.47) :
Karmnyevadhikaraste ma phalesu kadachana
Ma karmaphalahetrubuh ma te sangosatvakarmani
Literature: 'Your right is to work only; but never to the fruits thereof. May you not be motivated by the fruits of actions; nor let your attachment to be towards inaction.'
In many many occasions only the first part is quoted, abusing the couplet itself. Just quoting the couplet in the absence of the rest could itself be confusing. But quoting just a part of the quote is actually harmful. The second part of the couplet, 'May the non-reward not let you towards inaction', is the most important part of the couplet and is often omitted. It is very important to understand that any teaching has to be taken along with the epilogue and prologue.
Man is a gifted and refined animal. Hence and Nevertheless he has in himself many beastly qualities. Only after he has given up all these deplorable qualities can he attain/understand the creator and his creation. Let us see some of these qualities. : desire, pride, anger, greed, himsa(lit. atrocity), hypocrisy, intolerance, sorrow, happiness, attachment, fear, expectation, etc etc.
Desire: It is said in Smriti that an unrealized person on his death bed is similar to a miser! He has not realized and believes that some of the materialistic things are his own and feels helpless on his inability to take them along. He, like the miser, has not understood that whatever he thinks 'his own' is maya (illusory). The desire to possess anything, is too strong to act as an obstacle to realize that whatever we want to possess is actually an illusion.
Pride: The pride comes in mind chiefly due to the 'aham bhava'. (aham:lit. I, bhava:lit. feel). The idea that something one HAS and someone else does not have is the cause of pride. If one understands whatever he/she thinks to be 'his/her' is illusion then he can find that there is no reason one be proud of. This detaching from one's own possession is something one has to practice hard to get.
Anger: This uncontrolled emotion is has been the cause of most of human created disasters. It is said that if someone has this then you need not try hard to defeat that person. He will do it for you! One gets angry when he/she thinks that 'his'/'her' ideas were not followed. One must realize that he has the right to work not to expect. There is a nice quote : Expectation reduces joy and surprises enhance joy. Give it a moment and see if you agree with it or not.
Greed: One clings to the material things thinking that they are his ultimate possession and keeps accumulating them. Like the infinite faces of God, there are infinite ways in which the materialistic things appear. To realize what you can have forever, is the realization one needs to get and then rest all follow like the air gushes inside a box that has only vacuum. The important thing is to create the vacuum. Clear off all the materialistic feelings.
Himsa: Realization that the whole creation is by one creator is the requirement to get rid of himsa. One takes shelter of himsa only when he/she considers the other creation to be inferior to himself/herself. And he/she starts considering himself superior. He/she gets a feeling that any superior being can trouble an inferior being. The realization that all the creation is by the creator and hence he is the supreme being and by being troublesome to some weak beings, we essentially agree to be troubled, is the most essential part in become a person devoid of himsa.
Hypocrisy: Hypocrisy is the the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness. One turns to hypocrisy when he thinks that others will only know about the outward action. But one must realize that there is exists an accountant from who nothing can be hidden.
Intolerance: One becomes intolerant when he/she realizes that his views are not adhered to/endorsed by the other party. Many a times these views are not even expressed beforehand, and sometimes they are expressed. The person who is getting irritated must pose himself the following question: How many times am I adhering to principles laid down by the creator? When I myself am seeking pardon for all the intolerable things I am
doing, what right do I have to loose my calm? The only way I have is to keep trying to make others aware of my feelings/views.
Sorrow/Happiness: One feels sad or happy, when he/she thinks that something has happened as compared to something else that is better or worse. In Bhagwat Geeta Sri Krishna says : What are you mourning for? What ever you had got, I gave it. Whatever you lost, I took it. What was yours, that you have lost? When one understands the deep meaning underlying these statements, he will be in a blissful state. Happiness and sorrow are like local minima and local maxima. Once you have reached that point, you will go towards the opposite direction. Try reaching a state when your state is given by the function f(t)=c, where t is the time and c is a constant.
Attachment: Attachment towards anything is the cause of desire to possess that. Every creation has got a definite meaning from the creator and a purpose. Being attached to that, not only creates trouble for ones own self, but also works (many cases) as a hindrance for the other. Realizing the supreme goal of creation is the way to rise above attachment.
Fear: When anyone is afraid of anything, the question I always asked is 'Why are you afraid?'. 'I do not see any reason to be afraid because on him we have faith, who SHALL not let his followers down'. I have capitalized the word 'SHALL'. Let us try to understand it very clearly that the only reason of fear is not having faith in the creator. There is a beautiful quote by J P Vaswani : Faith is not 'God might'; faith is 'God WILL'. Sometimes I think, if one does not have faith on his creator, on whom can he have faith.
Expectation: The word expectation itself derives its meaning from not having 100% faith. What does one get by expecting some result? The only thing if at all he gets in abundance is the feeling of being let down if the expected result does not result. Sri Krishna says very clearly, do your work, do not expect the result. Only because you do not have any expectation, let it not pull you towards inaction. 'karma' (work) is the duty of every individual, understand your due 'karma' and keep doing it.
There might be many more of these 'doshas' that are best parted with. But more I think on them, I come to the conclusion that all of these are connected strongly. Rather all are just different faces of the same evil. I can very easily find that if one completely parts with any of these then he/she gets rid of all others too. One might find one of these 'doshas' more clearly than others. But on thinking a bit more, it is very easy to find that all of these inter-related and parting with any one of them completely is enough to get rid of others.
The ancient sages had known about these qualities very well. And they always preached that one should clean himself of doshas. To this effect they had proposed the animal sacrifices.
Keeping first story I had cited in this article in mind, let us try to understand the basic meaning of the sacrifice and their reasons. When they had said animal sacrifice, they never meant/asked killing of living animals. But it only means killing of the
animal/beastly qualities that are within us. Each of these qualities are predominant in different animals. And for each such 'dosha' a different animal (sometimes same animal for more than one 'dosha') is attached. And when it is said to sacrifice the animal in front of god, it only means, parting with these 'doshas' in front of god, or in other words, you are making the creator your witness and then parting with the 'dosha'. Please understand that it is a pledge in front of god; a pledge to part away from 'doshas'. All these texts had as one of their chief aims the better understanding of creator and creation and hence the talk about getting rid of the beastly qualities.
It is never required to practice violence in the name of any religion. If it is, then I consider that either the religion is farce or the interpretation of the text is incorrect.
The idea is always to understand the essence of any theory as a whole. Using just mutilated parts could not only be bad but also dangerous, not only to others, but also to ourselves. It is rightly said 'Alpa Vidya Bhayankari'. (Lit: Little knowledge could be dangerous).
Let us try to see some of the qualities we had talked about and the animals attached there to.
One of the well known sacrifices is that of horse : 'Aswa Medha Yagna'. Here the king(A) who is the 'karta' of the Yagna wants to become a 'Samrat' (Supreme ruler) from 'Raja'(King). He asks few of his men to take a grandly decorated horse to all the kingdoms he wants to rule. Whichever king(B) does not allow the horse passage through his land is daring the king A to take on him in the battle field. If king A wins the battle then the horse continues its journey. If the king B is allowing the passage of the horse, it means he has agreed to be a subordinate to king A. Once the horse is back from it's journey, the king performs a grand 'Yagna'(prayer) and traditionally this horse is sacrificed! This thought tormented me for quite sometime, until I understood what lays underneath. The horse that is taken around is an actual horse, but what it symbolizes is king's pride. Whoever challenges this horse is challenging king's pride. And at the time of 'Yagna', what is sacrificed is the king's pride. Not the animal horse, but the beastly quality of pride that king has. This is a way of pledging by the king that even though he has won all the kingdoms, he is humble. Horse symbolizes pride. And by saying the horse is to be sacrificed, it is meant to sacrifice your internal pride. The horse was representing his 'desire' and 'greed' to win throughout it's journey. So when it is said that one has to sacrifice that horse, what it actually means is to get rid of your desire and greed.
Let us look at some more:
Bull: Typically attached to bull is anger. Sacrificing anger is most important for any progress. So starts the sacrifice of bull (in your mind).
Chicken: Attached to chicken is fear. That's why you see so many chickens being slain in front of Goddesses temples. Goddesses are symbolic to bravery. So you sacrifice the chicken (fear in your mind).
Pigeon: Attached to pigeon is hypocrisy. When you are asked to sacrifice pigeon in front of God, you are asked not to be a hypocrite. Open your eyes and understand the creation and the creator and have full confidence in him. Let us remember the quote by Vaswani : Faith is 'God will.'.
Cow: Attached to cow is expectation, fear and greed. It is one of the animals that has lot of expectation from others and has lot of fear. See the way it eats, you can understands why it is full of greed. There are many tribes that believed in cow sacrifice. And all they were required was to rise above expectation, greed and fear.
Goat - Same as cow.
There are many other animals which are known to be sacrificed. Please understand the meaning behind the ritual of sacrificing. And follow what does it mean, when some scripture/ritual asks for an animal sacrifice. Please understand how important it is, to sacrifice the inner animal instincts and sacrifice it, but not a living animal!
Some of you will find that there are many animals sacrificed without any requirement from the scriptures. Well this is something each human should be proud of! Yes, we are so good at working out the theories to our ease that sometimes we even surprise ourselves! Say the scripture talks about some animal sacrifice and we decide that we will actually kill that poor animal. And now we find that it is very difficult to obtain that, then we use some other innocent creature! I have heard the following proverb used at it's worse to support our claims "Something is better than nothing!". Sometimes I wonder at the sheer power of our brains!!
Let us take the same platform for one more issue in Hindu religion. I have a feeling there are similar activities in other religions too, but not 100% sure. People goto temples etc and then donate money or other materialistic things. Some people get themselves tonsured. How many of us have actually thought, why are these required? These activities have deep and profound meanings; and if followed without understanding the basics underneath them, then there is no difference between you and an atheist.
Typically people do these things because, they had promised God that they will do 'this', if their wishes are fulfilled. They keep their promises and carry out the outward actions. But what they miss is the most important part of it : The underneath theory.
Let us looks at the ritual of getting tonsured. The idea of getting tonsured is that, one is shedding away all his attachments, getting rid of pride that he might derive from his looks and going to God with a promise to part with 'aham'. But what we see now a days, is that this tonsuring business has only helped the prospering the business of hat sellers.
One more ritual that is typical in Hindus is getting tonsured when one's father expires. Please think why does one do that? It is only to tell that I am so grieved that I do not care about what my looks are. I have lost my most prized possessions. What can be more
shameful than finding the same son, putting on a fancy hat immediately the next day. If one does not have any mourning, please, please do not shave off your head.
Let me stop with a repeated request to spend a bit of time to think on the donations to temples. What does it mean to donate some materialistic things to him, who has provided everything?

-By Krishna