Friday, July 21, 2006
GITA 108 DAYS - DAY 27
27. Enjoy life through sacrifices
We should live happily by working in the world by sharing and with an attitude of sacrifice. When we try to keep anything for ourselves selfishly, there will be conflicts. Delight is in giving – look at the nature, she has created us in the spirit of cooperative sacrifice (yagya). Yagya is the cow that will provide us generously with what we need in life. It is with this yagya attitude that we prosper. Yagya is a cooperative endeavor undertaken by people having a common goal.
In order to keep ‘me’ as ‘me’, a large number of components in nature work incessantly in unison. So our activities also must be conducive to enriching our surroundings. Gita says that if we make the gods happy through sacrifices, they will also make us happy. This doesn’t mean spending huge amounts of money in temple rituals and oblations. Making some one happy means that we don’t disturb the person and allow him to remain as himself. Who are gods? They are the water of the rivers, the air we breathe and the land we stand on, etc.. If we don’t pollute our rivers with poison, they will make us happy. With this cooperative approach we can attain the ultimate in prosperity. Those who enjoy the fruits of nature without returning anything are indeed thieves. That’s why people of old generations planted trees without fail. Philosophically this can also be interpreted that it is our duty to gift our senses (that provide us with the experience of the world) the experience of the ultimate divinity (Brahman).
Noble people, who enjoy the fruits of cooperative sacrifices by serving the nature without wishing for the results will definitely be liberated from all sins. But cooking food for one’s own consumption and enjoying it alone is indeed sinful.
We should live happily by working in the world by sharing and with an attitude of sacrifice. When we try to keep anything for ourselves selfishly, there will be conflicts. Delight is in giving – look at the nature, she has created us in the spirit of cooperative sacrifice (yagya). Yagya is the cow that will provide us generously with what we need in life. It is with this yagya attitude that we prosper. Yagya is a cooperative endeavor undertaken by people having a common goal.
In order to keep ‘me’ as ‘me’, a large number of components in nature work incessantly in unison. So our activities also must be conducive to enriching our surroundings. Gita says that if we make the gods happy through sacrifices, they will also make us happy. This doesn’t mean spending huge amounts of money in temple rituals and oblations. Making some one happy means that we don’t disturb the person and allow him to remain as himself. Who are gods? They are the water of the rivers, the air we breathe and the land we stand on, etc.. If we don’t pollute our rivers with poison, they will make us happy. With this cooperative approach we can attain the ultimate in prosperity. Those who enjoy the fruits of nature without returning anything are indeed thieves. That’s why people of old generations planted trees without fail. Philosophically this can also be interpreted that it is our duty to gift our senses (that provide us with the experience of the world) the experience of the ultimate divinity (Brahman).
Noble people, who enjoy the fruits of cooperative sacrifices by serving the nature without wishing for the results will definitely be liberated from all sins. But cooking food for one’s own consumption and enjoying it alone is indeed sinful.
# posted by Sukumar Canada @ 4:21 PM 
