Sacrifice

Wisdom Teachings
Essences of the Teachings

The path of discipleship is also known astrologically as the fixed cross. Here, the soul has found a fixed path on which to walk in creation. It is a self-attachment through our own will to lead us to self-transformation.

At the beginning of the spiritual path, on the mutable cross, our will wavers. We have not yet been able to make a clear decision in favour of the path we will. Sometimes we have discipline, sometimes we are undisciplined. We have not yet sacrificed our right to be undisciplined. But the day will come when we say to ourselves with strength: “Enough is enough, I want to start again.”

Until we make this decision, there is freedom. We sacrifice this freedom through our own decision. We choose our path and willingly subject ourselves to a discipline. Nobody imposes this discipline. It is our inner will that chooses the discipline and no longer allows us to go in all possible directions. Through this inner will, a continuity of discipline and sacrifice begins in our lives. Sacrifice means not living for ourselves, but for the benefit of others.

It starts with perhaps giving some money to a good cause. Or we engage in acts of goodwill by doing something for the well-being of our fellow beings. This includes not only people, but also animals, plants and minerals. When we try to fulfil needs and improve the living conditions in our environment, joy grows in our hearts. When we live not for ourselves but for the well-being of our fellow human beings, we acquire skills and virtues, and nature also takes care of us. We enter the path of service and sacrifice.

We should not make sacrifices if it is painful. A Master of Wisdom said: “Do not give when you feel that you are giving. Do not serve when you feel that you are serving. Do not sacrifice when you feel that you are sacrificing.” When we start to give and feel pain or resistance, we experience these because we are attached. If something inside complains while we are giving, we should stop for the moment. We should not push ourselves too hard. No one in creation is asking us to give or sacrifice anything. When feelings are connected to our actions, something like smoke forms. This means that we have to wait. There is an action without this smoky part that brings us light. If we share with others and it brings us joy, then we can continue to share. We should not lose the joy.

Slowly we will learn to give more. Nature teaches us to share through spouses, children, relatives, friends or life situations. How much does a mother share with her children and a wife with her husband, and how much does a husband share with his wife and children! What makes them share? It is the attitude of love and a sense of belonging: 'They are my people, I have a responsibility towards them'. We sacrifice a lot for those we love, and we stop sacrificing as soon as our love stops. In love, we put aside our own desires in favour of the desire of another. Sharing is not difficult. Sacrifice happens without a sense of sacrifice, indeed love is sacrifice. As long as we have a loving attitude towards the person we are sharing with, sharing and sacrifice remains a natural act. A Master of Wisdom said: “Check in your being whether you have enough love when you give.”

We are only truly adults when we can take others into consideration. When we can see other people's points of view and work with them in harmony, we develop friendliness. True friendliness enables us to accept the views of others, even if we are affected by them. With greater maturity, we can even accept disruption and injustice. Initiates have accepted injustice without questioning.

Normally, we all have our individuality. Today, however, people are becoming more and more individualised and there is also more and more pride in being individualistic. Remaining in an individualistic state for longer is not a good symptom of the evolution of the soul. People also often live alone, without a connection to a group. People with too strong a personality cannot integrate into a group. They want to be perceived separately. They keep themselves away from a group or want to dominate a group. Personality is a problem when integrating into a group or connecting with the environment.

It is important that we connect with a group so that we learn to build relationships with other people and not remain individualistic. This is not an enforced conformity as in totalitarian systems and groups that use coercion, but a free step on the path of discipleship. When we form groups, we gradually lose our individuality in the group, but we retain our personality. We do not have to sacrifice our personality, but rather it should become a well useful instrument. Over time, we learn to do work beyond personality. We overcome clinging to personality traits through work and we withdraw our personal views. An adolescent wants to distinguish himself along with the work. A mature person brings more of their work than their personality to the table.

It is a great challenge to sacrifice our personal views in order to integrate ourselves into a group. We learn to accept what life offers us and to work together voluntarily and with joy. Through group work, we develop impersonality at work. Impersonality means that we are flexible in our personality and that our own ideas do not impose conditions and limitations on service. In this way we expand our understanding and take a step towards group consciousness and group initiation. Our consciousness slowly merges into what we call 'soul consciousness'. Service and sacrifice have become normal and natural for us. For other people, we seem to make sacrifices, but not for ourselves.

People who simply work to do what needs to be done without expectation of reward or payment, or who use all their resources and abilities for the benefit of the surrounding life, work according to the main principle on which the entire universe is built and by which it operates: One works for another, one offers something to many. This is the key to creation. The tree does not eat its own fruit; the cow does not drink its own milk. We pick the flowers and fruits of the plants as if they were our property. They accept this because they are in a state of sacrifice. The minerals, plants and animals all exist for others, not for themselves, as do the planetary, solar and cosmic devas. They all sacrifice. Beings deserve to be in creation if they live for others.

Sacrifice is a fundamental aspect of creation. The Plan for the corresponding action is present in nature. This Plan is nothing other than always thinking of the good of others. We need to tune into the Plan so that all our actions are in line with the work of creation.

In the Eastern scriptures, the word ‘sacrifice’ is used in a still higher sense. This aspect requires a certain amount of experience so that we can understand it in the right sense: God has sacrificed Himself in the form of omnipresence, and the result is that we exist. The total existence of God is therefore a sacrifice for the birth of individual existence.

In the Vedas we find this depicted in the symbolic man sacrifice. It is said that Purusha (the Cosmic Man) has sacrificed himself in the creation of the entire universe. He is sacrificed as a sacrificial animal in the ritual performed by the pre-cosmic devas. As a result, Purusha (the soul/unit of consciousness) is born. This is the ritual of the descent of creation (involution process), whereby the One (the Cosmic Man as a unit of consciousness) voluntarily descends into the many units. The individual souls are none other than the Absolute Lord who sacrifices himself in this process. This is known as “the ritual of man sacrifice”.

Also in the process of our spiritual ascension (evolution), the individual soul or lower self, sacrifices itself into the universal soul or higher self and becomes one with the One Existence. Initiates are prepared to sacrifice themselves with everything they are. This man sacrifice leads to total God-consciousness. In this way, the transformation takes place resulting in Permeating Consciousness. Through this self-sacrifice, the initiates attain mastery. This is called the all-embracing, all-burning sacrifice.

Self-immolation is not self-sacrifice, it is fanatic, ignorant and suicide. Terrorists and extremely emotional people are willing to destroy their lives and blow-up other people with them. It is an act of evil. Self-sacrifice has a completely different basis. It is an act of supreme goodwill, pure love and pure knowledge, a becoming one with the Universal Being. Master CVV, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa are recent examples of self-sacrifice, while Jesus, Buddha and Socrates are earlier examples. It is a model that we can follow.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Shambala; div. seminar notes. Dhanishta Publications / E. Krishnamacharya: Overseas Messages 1. Kulapathi Book Trust, Visakhapatnam, India. (www.aquariusbookhouse.com).