The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s3.78

v2.c39.s3.78

It is not only, however, by the sacrifice proper that the sacrificer attains the gods : the consecration is a process by which he is given new birth, and becomes an embryo, his actions and his clothing being based on the comparison of him with such an embryo. His ordinary body, on the other hand, as we have seen, becomes an offering to the gods or by the gods. He himself is now in a state of extraordinary power, being filled with the sacrifice: if men eat his food, they take a third of any evil in him, those who speak ill of him a third, and the ants who bite him a third.¹