The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s3.52

v2.c39.s3.52

In its aspect towards men the sacrifice is identical with the sacrificer, and it is identical also with the gods and with Prajāpati. The sacrifice is essentially commensurate with men, and the conclusion is not doubtfully drawn that the sacrifice should be the sacrifice of man himself:⁸ he owes debts, to the Fathers to produce a son, to the seers to recite the sacred texts, to men in the shape of hospitality, and to the gods he owes himself, just as Prajāpati offered up himself. The conclusion would, therefore, appear to be that the perfect form of sacrifice should be suicide, but such an idea is not mentioned in the text of the Brāhmaṇas, whether or not it existed then,⁹ as it in a sense certainly did in the Buddhist and Jain period. The idea, however, in its less developed form is expressed in various ways: the sap which is the essence of sacrifice is first in man, then it passes on to the other victims, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and even into the rice, which is thus not in itself worthy of sacrifice, but is still full of the sap of sacrifice.¹⁰ Again the consecration gives man a new and divine life, but it also means the handing over of his old body to the gods as an offering: this offering is not, however, performed: it is redeemed by the offering to the victim to Agni and Soma, which follows, and of that victim one view is that the man should not eat, since it is a redemption of his own body.¹ The human sacrifice is also permitted, not as suicide, but as a substitute for oneself, but this is a doctrine which has no direct support in the Brāhmaṇas, and may be a very late conception. The offering of man in the rite of the piling of the fire altar is recorded, but the sense of the redemption of the self is not there pressed, though it receives a classical form in the legend of Çunaḥçepa, who is to serve as a substitute for the offering of the king's son. Here, however, the motive of sacrifice is an ordinary case of the vow of some precious object to a god.