Rituals – In Gita Verse 4.25 Some yogīs perfectly worship the demigods by offering different sacrifices to them, and some offer sacrifices in the fire of the Supreme Brahman.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 3.15, I wrote regarding sacrifice. Krishna tells Arjuna there is only one Sacrifice needed is self-unconsciousness, your ego. All the other sacrifices are nothing but form your desire to achieve something from the worldly material. It’s business with God. Through your unconscious act you only can desire to achieve something but never realize your purpose of this life is to grow in self-consciousness.
Universe has given you birth as a human being to grow in consciousness, otherwise animal life would have been enough. But the universe is very creative. It wants to give everyone something different so everyone can be unique. Everyone can live without comparison.
One who understands this and then his action will be for delivering something and not to achieve anything. It will be full of joy and participation with the universe, through his action. There will be innocence in it. It will have the fragrance of love, compassion in it.
When people are doing any rituals for any achievements they are following the words, but not their own conscience.
It doesn’t mean not to do any rituals, but where your focus is that makes a difference. All the rituals have their own significance, but if it has been done from gratitude towards the universe, to offering our ego and aligning our will with universal will then it is Supreme Brahman.
Before doing any rituals work on your own desire, your ego, burn it, so your rituals will help you to align your will with supreme will and in that way you can become the vehicle of the universe to deliver his act and for you, you will grow in consciousness. You will melt in yourself. You will become Godliness. This is the reward the universe wants you to give. But we are not available for it. We are busy in getting something which is our own goal which does not align with the universe.
Take the example of Arjuna. When he says he is not willing to fight the war, what he is saying is that according to him and his knowledge what he is doing is sin. He is not aligned with the universe at that moment. Universe has given him the hint in various ways that not only Pandava but citizens of hastinapur have also suffered in the dictatorship of Duryodhana. Which I have already written in my Bhagavad Gita Verse 2.31 blog. Universe wants Arjuna to fight but Fight Without Enmity; now when Arjuna denies to fight what he is conveying is only one thing that I am superior to Universe, let universe follow me. This is how knowledgeable people think and act. The person of knowing will surrender himself to the present moment and move towards his own subjectivity to take action from his knowing. Knowing simply means that what is ordered from the supreme is there and I will use my body accordingly to act. In total acceptance of the objective world I will sacrifice my ego to act from my subjectivity. This is according to Krishna is to offer sacrifices in the fire of the Supreme Brahman, where you burn your ego to act accordingly to the universe.
Again I repeat rituals required for sacrificing our ego and not for our desires to achieve anything from the objective world. Rama also did rituals before fighting the war, that ritual was done by Ravana. Even though Ravana was his enemy still after the rituals he bowed down to him to take his blessing. Rama bowed down to Ravana to take his blessing so that he could surrender his ego. Because he bowed down Ravana blessed him with his victory. Rama didn’t ask for it; he bowed down in his gratitude towards the universe. For him Ravana in that moment was not an enemy but a person who is higher than him, who did rituals for him. So he bowed down.
Think how many times, forget about bowing down but in gratitude towards our enemy. If you can be grateful towards your enemy then your ego will be immediately sacrificed. Means we can librarate from our ego.
Now take Rama’s case and Arjuna’s case. Both of them were supposed to fight the war. Rama took it as universal will, aligned with it his own will and prepared himself to fight the war with available resources, which were monkeys and few other animals. He was calm. While Arjuna could not accept it as universal will and not able to align his will with the universe so he is miserable with all the resources and charioteer like Krishna.
Misery only shows that you are not aligned with universal will and not ready to sacrifice your ego to Supreme Brahman.
Krishna tells Arjuna to sacrifice his ego and act according to universal will.
Tags: Rituals
