THE REALITY OF SACRIFICE

THE REALITY OF SACRIFICE SACRIFICE is about giving up all that you have, and, in return, receiving that which you do not have. Sacrifi ce teaches us that if we want to acquire something, we fi rst need to have the courage to give up what we have. If we want to truly live, we should fi rst be ready to face death. Sacrifi ce is not a soulless ritual. Rather, it is a living reality that is intertwined with life in the same way as the laws of Nature are inextricably linked with the entire cosmos. Sacrifi ce is not the end, but, rather, the beginning of true action. Sometimes, a seemingly small thing turns into something of great signifi cance. What may appear small may actually symbolize something of enormous importance. So is it with sacrifi ce on the day of Eid ul-Azha. On the face of it, the sacrifi ce involves off ering an ordinary animal in the name of God. But it actually is a symbol of something really big, rather than an occasional, spiritless and meaningless custom. By sacrifi cing an animal on this day, we symbolize our determination to sacrifi ce everything, including even our lives, for a higher purpose. Sacrifice teaches us that if we want to acquire something, we first need to have the courage to give up what we have. Here is an example of how an apparently small act can indicate something very big. This is about an incident that happened in November 1962, when the aggression of a neighbouring country had caused grave danger to India. The whole country was stunned. At this time, about 25,000 young men in Ahmedabad got together, determined to do something to protect the country, even if they had to sacrifi ce their lives. After deciding this, each of them contributed one paisa. In this way, they collected a sum of 25,000 paisas, and presented this money to the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. While giving this money, they said that they were actually giving themselves to him. On the face of it, each of these youths gave just a single paisa to the Prime Minister, a sum which ordinarily didn’t have much value. But their single paisa was actually of enormous value because it symbolized a human being who was off ering himself. Thus, the 25,000 paisas that