CHAPTER IV.
The Five Daily Sacrifices.
have seen that there exists a law of
WE Yajfia, of Sacrifice, and that man's glory-
is to voluntarily work with it. We have
now to see how the Samltana Pharnia trained its
followers to this end.
We may pass over, for the present, the numer-
ous sacrifices of various kinds laid down in the
sacred books, and concern ourselves only with the
"
"Great sacrifices to be offered every day. These
are:
The Sacrifice to Kishi or Vedas.
The Sacrifice to Pevas.
The Sacrifice to Pifciis.
The Sacrifice to Men.
The Sacrifice to Bhutas.
Each of these has an outer form and inner
meaning, and the latter leads the sacrificer on to
the full life of sacrifice. Let us try to understand
both.
The outer sacrifice to the Rishis, or Vedas, is
study and teaching. Every day a man should
*
study some sacred book, and thus gradually acquire
( 96 )
the knowledge without which he cannot rightly
understand himself, his position and his duties.
And he should ever be ready to share this know-
ledge with those more ignorant than himself : hence
Manu, in describing this sacrifice, calls it teaching*.
A boy should daily offer this sacrifice, reading and
carefully thinking over some shlokas from the
Bhdgavad-Gltd, the AnugUd, Hamsa Gitd or
other sacred work. The carefulness and closeness
of the thought is more important than the amount
read. The inner meaning is that all study should
be a sacrifice, learning in order that we may teach.
The outer sacrifice to the l)evas is the Homa,
the recognition of all we owe to the kindly ministry
and protection of this active Intelligences working
in nature, and the repayment of it by giving for
their service a share of our possessions. The inner
meaning is the realisation of our relations with the
super-physical worlds, and of the inter-dependence
of the worlds. We must learn to be in harmony
with nature, in accord with all that lives.
The outer sacrifice to the Tar pan
the Pitris is
or offering of water, to the older generations of our
family, to our ancestors. The inner meaning is the
recognition of the great debt we owe to the past,
*
See Manusmriti, iii 70.
( 97 )
to the generations who occupied the earth before
us, and who toiled and laboured that they might
hand it on, improved, and enriched, to us, their
posterity.
No man is
truly human who not
does
recognise what he owes to the past, his debt to the
ancestors.
The outer sacrifice to Men is hospitality :
every
day a Aryan should feed some one poorer
true
than himself. The inner meaning is the duty of
serving and helping humanity, of feeding the
hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless,
comforting the sad. Those who are rich are the
stewards of the poor.
The outer sacrifice to Bhutas, to creatures, is
the putting of a little food on the ground, before
beginning the meal, for the invisible lower entities
around us, and the placing of the remains of the
meal in a suitable place for vagrant men and
animals. The inner meaning is the duty of caring
for those who are beneath us in the human and in
the lower kingdoms, the recognition of our debt to
them for their services to us, and the practice of
kindness and consideration towards them.
Thus the five great daily sacrifices teach man
around him, with his superiors,
his relations, with all
his equals, and his inferiors. They establish the
( 98 )
harmonious on which the happiness and
relations
prosperity of families and of nations depend. They
turn the wheel of life in accord with the will
of Ishvara, and so help on the evolution of the
worlds. They teach each individual that he is
not an isolated unit, but a part of a great whole, a
cell in a vast body : and that
happiness his
and progress, therefore, can only be secure if
they
subserve the general happiness, and conduce to
the general progress.
"Teaching is the Brahma- sacrifice, Tarpana is
the Pitri-sacrifice, Homa (the offering into the
fire) is the Deva-sacrifice, Bali (food) is the
Bhiita- sacrifice, hospitality to guests the. Manushya-
sacrifice."
t% eprftsr 3^r T% TnfTcfl5 ^HT^P:** lit
"Let a man
ever engage in Veda-study, and in
the rites of the Devas ; engaged in the rites of the
Pevas he supporteth the movable and immovable
kingdoms."
'
*Manusmriti i
iii 70. t lh l, i
80, 81.
( 99 )
Smyrna sfjftwiJ&w ^fW m^TRciT II
*
fa<F5rec5T ^T&Jarfsi *W*4^i h
"The Rishis, the Pitris, the Pevas, theBhiitas,
and guests expect (help) from the householders ;
hence he who knoweth should give unto them.
"Let him worship, according to the rule, the
Rishis with Veda-study, the )evas with Homa, the
Pitris with Shraddha, men with food, and the Bhutas
with Bali."
*
Jhid, iii75.
CHAPTER V.
Worship.
performance of the five daily sacrifices by
THE man as an inter-dependent part of a universe,
does not, however, completely satisfy the
longings of the truly religious man. He longs to
come into conscious relations with the Lord of the
Universe, with Ishvara, with the great Life of
which his own is a part. This need of man finds
its satisfaction in worship. When Vyasa, master
of the final truth of Para-Brahma and ever working
for the good of all
beings, after he had written
even the Mahdbhdratam and the Brahma- sv tr as
for the instruction of men, still found not peace of
mind, Narada counselled him to sing the praise
of Ishvara ; and this he did in the Vishnu-Bhdga-
vata, winning thereby the peace he did not gain
before.*
Worship is the expression of love to the Su-
preme, of reverence towards Him, of aspiration
to reach Him in conscious communion, of longing
to be united with him, to feel the unity of the in-
dividual self with the supreme Self. It may take
- i
*
Viskn*- Bkagavata. I, iv T.
( ioi )
the form of praise of His Perfection, of prayer rooted
in a sense of imperfection, of appeal to His Love,
of recognition of His Power, of meditation on His
Nature, of intense longing for His Unveiling and
many another, according to the temperament and
the stage of evolution of the worshipper. But
whether the peasant or in the philosopher, it is
in
the expression of the longing after Brahman ; the
expression differs with the emotional and intellec-
tual evolution, but the root-longing is the same.
The All, the Unconditioned, is never an Object
of worship. Attributes are needed for worship, on
which the mind can be fixed, by which the. emo-
tions can be stirred. The Saguna Brahman, Ish-
vara, is the Object of worship, whom all
prayers
and praises reach, to whom all
contemplation is
directed. He may be adored as Shiva or Vishnu,
as Mahadeva or Narayana, as )urga or Lakshmi,
as Ganesha, Indra, Agni, Sarasvatf or as an Ava-
,
tara Kama, or Krishna, or Buddha ; but under
whatever name and form, it is Ishvara who is
worshipped.
This explains a matter that often puzzles boys,
why sometimes Shiva, sometimes Vishnu, is spoken
of as the Supreme Being, why one Purana exalts
One and another exalts Another. All these are
8
( 102 )
Forms ;
and Ishvara is One. The worshipper is
worshipping ishvara, and is thinking of tshvara,
under the Form which he loves best. He is not
worshipping the Form, but the Lord in the Form
as a wife her husband, not the clothes he
loves
wears, though even those may be dear for the sake
of the wearer. The worshipper worships the Love
the Beauty, the Power of Ishvara, as revealed in
some one of His Divine Forms. We can only
grasp a little, being small, but we grasp in our
worship parts of the one Lord.
This the quarrels of different religions,
is
why
and of different sects in the same religion, are so
foolishand so ignorant. All are worshipping the
same tshvara, and the differences are only differen-
ces of names, due to differences in the
worshippers,
not in the Object of worship.
Piija is the general simple form of worship.
A picture or image is used, mantras are recited,
flowers are offered, water is .
poured out, and in
these outer forms the inner love finds expression,
and then rises beyond the forms to the Object thus
served. The Form selected as representing the
Object sometimes the family
is )eva or )evi, and
sometimes is the lshtadeva, the Form chosen by the
worshipper himself, or by his Guru for him.
( 103 )
Upasand term that includes many forms
is a
of worship, including meditation, and the daily
Sandhya, which should be performed by all
followers of the Sanatana Dharma. There are two
forms of SandhyS, the Vaidika and the Tantrika,
and a boy should perform the Sandhya according
to his caste and family customs. He learns it from
a properly qualified instructor, and should then
practise it
daily. Meditation, in its definite stages,
belongs to manhood rather than to boyhood.
"Even the highest and most stainless know-
ledge, even perfect unselfishness
in actions, shine
not if uninspired by devotion to the Imperishable.
How then shall acts (bring peace) which (aim at
fruitand) are not pure, or even those that are per-
formed without desire, if they are not offered up to
fshvara ?"
... *
*
'
*Vishnn-Bhdgacata, I, V 13.
( 104 )
t f\ <v
"They who worship the Indestructible, the In-
effable, the Unmanifested ever working for the
welfare of all creatures, these all come to me.
" The
difficulty of those whose minds are set on
the Unmanifested is greater; for the path of the
Unmanifested is hard for the embodied to reach,
" Those
verily who, renouncing all actions in
Me and intent on Me, worship, meditating on Me
with whole-hearted Yoga,
"
Those I lift
speedily up from the ocean of
death and existence, Partha, their minds being
fixed on me."
***?:: ^reajJJTRf f &-** !
RT5F% I
<m^ *RH!j *R5 *A*n^w *rccT i
cTcTOr^rcw 5jrf% ssirif srr=^^r% srrwrcrai t II
" The Lord dwelleth in the hearts of all
beings r
Arjuna, causing all beings to revolve by His
illusive power, as though mounted on a wheel.
"
Flee unto Him for shelter with all thy being,
Bharata; by His grace thou shalt obtain
* 3-7 CI 62.
Bhagarad-Gita, xii, f Ibid, xviii,
( 105 )
"
susuprem peace and the everlasting dwelling place.
" However men approach Me, even so do I
welcome them, for the path men take from
every side is mine, Partha."
?fr ^r m *n ar^ *rar: sr^rcifcsrft^Rr I
"Any devotee who seeketh to worship with faith
any such aspect, I verily bestow the unswerving
faith of that man."
*
Bhdgarad-6fitd, iv.'..ll. t Ibid, vii 21