Miscellaneous - Religion   

Service and sacrifice religion

CHENNAI: Action is a basic function of all created beings for the Lord created them with an inbuilt condition towards action. The physical body is similar to a vehicle and needs to be maintained to ensure smooth running. Maintenance of the body is possible only with action. Failure to keep the body fit leads to an unhealthy state. The Upanishads invoke God’s blessings for strong limbs to remain healthy and physically fit. Being indifferent to one’s health indicates a lazy (Tamasic) tendency. When explaining in detail the discipline of action to Arjuna, Lord Krishna stresses on the spirit with which one has to act during one’s lifetime. All ordained duties have to be performed with sincerity and commitment and without any desire for the result. Such an attitude to action gradually leads to self realisation.

In this context the Lord speaks of Yagna or sacrifice (Vedic ritual) and of the imperative need to perform them to keep the wheel of creation moving, and this is symbolic of “group effort” that is the core cause of success in any undertaking, pointed out Srimati Sunanda in a lecture.

The Yagna is to be interpreted as the ability to sacrifice the lower mind for the higher. Even the religious duty towards the Vedic Gods is to be seen as the service of creation in the name of the Supreme.

A noble culture is engendered when participants of different calibres contribute their mite in the most genuine way and unselfishly give their very best for the venture to become successful. The benefits are distributed to all and this gesture spreads the feeling of humility when all accept God’s role and remain grateful to Him for all the benefits conferred to sustain life on earth.

A human being is gifted with the capacity to share and this noble quality is fostered in the performance of sacrifice. There is joy and contentment in sharing, while selfishness is the cause of baseness and gives rise to fear and failure.

To serve and sacrifice is what is needed. With service and sacrifice one can slowly eliminate the Vasanas (tendencies) and realise one’s essential divine nature. By this alone can one Only then can one hope to get out of the cycle of Samsara.

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