making of the universe: the law of sacrifice

2/20/28

“The study of the Law of Sacrifice follows naturally on the study of the Law of Karma, and the understanding of the former, it was once remarked by a Master, is as necessary for the world as the understanding of the latter.

By an act of Self-sacrifice the LOGOS became manifest for the emanation of the universe, by sacrifice the universe is maintained, and by sacrifice man reaches perfection.

(The Hindu will remember the opening words of the Brihadaranyakopanishad, that the dawn is in sacrifice; the Zoroastrian will recall how Ahura-Mazdao came forth from an act of sacrifice; the Christian will think of the Lamb – the symbol of the LOGOS – slain from the foundation of the world.)

Hence, every religion that springs from the Ancient Wisdom has sacrifice as a central teaching, and some of the profoundest truths of occultism are rooted in the law of sacrifice.

As an attempt to grasp, however feebly, the nature of the sacrifice of the LOGOS may prevent us from falling into the very general mistake that sacrifice is an essentially painful thing;

whereas the very essence of sacrifice is a voluntary and glad pouring forth of life that others may share in it;

and pain only arises when there is discord in the nature of the sacrificer, between the higher whose joy is in giving and the lower whose satisfaction lies in grasping and in holding.

It is that discord alone that introduces the element of pain, and in the supreme Perfection, in the LOGOS, no discord could arise;

the One is the perfect chord of Being, of infinite melodious concords, all tuned to a single note, in which Life and Wisdom and Bliss are blended into one keynote of Existence.”

 

Annie Besant