Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)

X74 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SACRIFICE symbolism in which the Soma-wine was the physical symbol of the amrita, the immortalising delight of the divine ecstasy won by the sacrifice, offered to the gods and drunk" by men. The differing itself is whatever working of his energy, physical or psycho- logical, is consecrated by him in action of body or action oflnind to the gods or Goi to the Self or to the universal powers, to one’s own higher Self or to the Self in mankind and in all existences.

This elaborate explanation of the Yajna sets out with a vast and comprehensive definition in which it is declared that the^ot^and energy, and materials, qf _the sacrifice, the ^ giver and receiver of the sacrifice, the goal a nd obj ec t of the sacrifice . are- all the one Brahnian. “Brahman is the giving. Brahman is the food offering, by Brahman it is offered into the Brahman-fire, Brahman is that which is to be attained by samadhi in Brahman- action.” This then is the knowledge in which the liberated man has to do works of sacrifice. It is the knowledge declared of old in the great Vedantic utterances, “I am He,” “All this verily is the Brahman, BraRmaiTrs^this Self.” It is the know- ledge of the entire unity; it is the One manifest as the doer^nd the.jdeed and the object_of„wQd^, khower and knowledge and the object of knowle^e. The universal energy into which the action is poured is the Divine ; the consecrated energy of the giving is the Divine ; whatever is offered is only some form of the Divine ; the giver of the offering is the Divine himself in man ; the action, the work.

the sacrifice is itself the Divine in movement, in activity ; the goal to be reached by sacrifice is the Divine. For the man who has this knowl edge and lives an d acts in it. jth ere ran be no bindi ng works^ ho personal andTegoistically appropriated action ; tl^ere is o nly t he^ivine Pu rus ha ac ting by the divine Prak riti m His own beii^, offering e very- tMng intn the ~fire~~br H Ts self-consci ous cosm ic ener^, whi_le_ the knowledge and~tEe possession of His diving existence and consciousness by t he _soul unified with Him is the goal of all this God-directed movement and activity. To know that and t o liv e and act in this unifying consciousness is to be free.