Right Sacrifices Lead To Liberation🔗

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ prāṇe 'pānaṁ tathāpare I prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ

There are others who sacrifice the life energy in the form of incoming breath and outgoing breath, thus checking the movement of the incoming and outgoing breaths and controlling the breath.

The Prāṇāyāma, practice of breath control in yoga, is an offering to God.

apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇānprāṇeṣu juhvati I sarve'pyete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ II

There are others who sacrifice through controlled eating and offering the outgoing breath, life energy. All these people know the meaning of sacrifice and are purified of sin or karma.

Spiritual fasting is a sacrifice.

yajñaśiṣṭāmṛtabhujo yānti brahma sanātanam I nāyaṁ loko'styayajñasya kuto'nyaḥ kurusattama

Having tasted the nectar of the results of such sacrifices, they go to the supreme eternal consciousness. This world is not for those who have not sacrificed. How can the other be, Arjuna?

Those who have sacrificed attain supreme eternal consciousness.

evaṁ bahuvidhā yajñā vitatā brahmaṇo mukhe I karmajānviddhi tānsarvānevaṁ jñātvā vimokṣyase

Thus, there are many kinds of sacrifices born of work mentioned in the Vedas. Thus, knowing these, one will be liberated.

There are many forms of sacrifice involving a combination of material, physical, mental and spiritual sacrifices.

The true meaning of sacrifice lies in the spirit with which it is done. When you give away something you cannot afford to give, it is a true enriching sacrifice. When you give away something you can afford to give, then it is not a true enriching sacrifice.

Kṛṣṇa mentions many forms of sacrifice here. He talks of sacrifices of material wealth, yoga and penance—a combination of material, physical, mental and spiritual sacrifices. When a person does these at some cost and pain to himself, they would be genuine sacrifices. Otherwise they would merely be meaningless rituals.

However, even that which is given away by someone who can afford what he is giving, if done with good intentions of enriching, would result in gains to that person.

His very intention to enrich will alter his mindset and liberate him.

When one sacrifices whatever is dear and whatever is difficult to give away, he enters a completely different plane of sacrifice, one that liberates the person.

Such a person enters a plane of true non-attachment, leading to liberation.

Encourage the class to reach an understanding that Sacrifice is a blessing. It leads to immense spiritual expansion within the person making the sacrifice.

• 1. What are the different types of sacrifices?
• 2. What is true sacrifice?
• 3. What is more important: the quantity or value of the sacrifice, or the intention to enrich with which the sacrifice is made? Justify your answer.

PROCEDURE

Observe the following sketch titled "A Mother's Sacrifice".

And discuss your feelings about it. Identify at least one way you feel the artist got the idea of sacrifice right, or one way you feel they got it wrong.

INFERENCE

True Sacrifice is accompanied by the self-less intention to enrich another.

We must never back down when life presents us with our very own opportunity to sacrifice to enrich another.