The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s4.4

v2.c40.s4.4

The Brāhmaṇas had recognized, beside study of the Veda, the duty of sacrifice, and the importance of asceticism, and on both these points the thinkers of the Upaniṣads were bound to take a clear stand. The sacrifice is least reputed in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad² where, with a certain insolence, the worship of anything except the self is derided, and the relation of the ordinary worshipper to his gods is compared with that of housedogs. Again Yama is said to have his abode in the sacrifice, and the sacrifice in the fees. The Chāndogya³ also seems in part to recognize the demerits of the sacrifice. But it would be an error to think that the general depreciation of the sacrifice is characteristic of the Brahmans; it is clear that a few enlightened minds had a poor opinion of the whole apparatus, but the normal view of the Upaniṣads is quite removed from that of opposition to sacrifice, which is often believed to mark them out. The sacrifice, however, is expressly relegated to an inferior place: the faithful performance of offerings takes a man but to the world of the Fathers, whence he will return to earth again in due course,⁴ and not thus can final liberation be won. On the other hand the actual performance of the sacrifice is rendered needless by the substitute for the ritual acts of allegorical acts: the three periods of life supersede the three Soma offerings,⁵ inhalation and speech the Agnihotra,⁶ the organs of the self the four priests, and so on. The tendency, however, to restore the sacrifice to honour steadily grows: the Kaṭha⁷ recognizes it as of value, the Çvetāçvatara⁸ recommends recourse to it, the Maitrāyaṇīya⁹ asserts that without the study of the Veda, the observance of caste duties, and the following of the orders of life, through the stage of student householder, forest hermit, and wandering ascetic, the reunion of the individual and the personal self is impossible. Doubtless in this we can recognize the growing aversion of the Brahmans to the Buddhist and the Jain tenets.