The Law of Sacrifice
Sacrifice, Law of.- It is such a universal law in the realm of the Spirit, as is the karmic law in the realm of Matter.
The Spirit is developed through this law of Sacrifice, just as the body evolves thanks to the law of action and
reaction called Karma. The spirit lives and triumphs for sacrifice, as the body thrives and evolves thanks to an activity
wisely directed. Hence the following statements whose meaning is completely spiritual: “Whoever loves his life will lose it;
and whoever despises his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life ” (John, XII, 25), and this one:“ More blessed thing is
give that to receive. " (Acts, XX, 35). - The sacrifice consists of lavishing one's life for the benefit of others.
This law, which produces the development of the Spirit, is also that by which the worlds are created and sustained.
All religions, under diverse symbols, place sacrifice at the beginning of the divine manifestation.
By an act of spontaneous sacrifice, the Logos imposes a limit on its infinite life and becomes manifest for the emanation of the Universe.
By sacrifice this Universe is maintained, and finally, by sacrifice man reaches perfection.
This effusion of the divine Spirit that gives birth to a universe, makes sacrifice the law of Life, and makes us understand that,
for the Logos, the sacrifice is not something essentially painful, but a spontaneous and joyful outpouring of life so that others
Participate in it. For the man, the sacrifice does not represent any pain, unless there is disagreement between
the superior nature, whose joy consists in giving, and the inferior, whose satisfaction is receiving and keeping. In the man
truly spiritual, perfect, there is no such disagreement, and therefore, there is no painful sacrifice for him for arduous
and hard as it is. "To be a bearer of the light of the Logos, a messenger of his compassion, a worker of his kingdom: here is what
that seems to be the only life worth living. Accelerate human evolution, serve the good Law, lighten a part
of the heavy burden of the world: this is what seems to be the joy of the Lord himself ”. (Ancient Wisdom, 378). Being
the Spirit, the direct emanation of the divine Life, is a source fed by an inexhaustible spring; the more spilled to the outside, the more it receives.
In the material worlds, everything is bound by the endless chain of cause and of the effect, the effect becoming a new cause, and so on to the infinite;
“The world is bound by the action ”(Bhagavad-Gîtâ, III, 9), and each action performed is a new bond. But the action executed as part
of divine activity, when he who executes it is nothing but the agent who seeks nothing and desires nothing for himself as
a separate self, such an action offered as a sacrifice, does not bind its author, because then it is the All who works through
of the part, and not the part that works by itself. The action links man, "except that which is done by sacrifice."
(Id., III, 9). Such is the path that leads to freedom. Matter binds by selfish activity; the Spirit frees by the activity in a guise of sacrifice.
The Spirit triumphs thus of matter; the immortal man triumphs of their bodies, and
the human will is unified with the divine Will. "We abandon ourselves to Him" (Quran, II, 83), and man offers his body
as "a living sacrifice, holy and accept God" (Romans, XII, 1). (A. Besant: The Universal Text book of Religion and Morals,
part I, p. 121 and following). –To implement the Law of Sacrifice, it is recommended that every day, before
Begin the daily work, make yourself the offering to the One to whom you dedicated your life. Your first thought will be the
consecration of his whole being and all his powers and energies to his Lord. Then he will offer in sacrifice all thoughts,
words and deeds of daily life in the service of Divinity and the venerating Masters who activate and direct human evolution,
and as an expression of the divine Will, will accept with unchanging spirit everything that happens to it: prosperous or adverse luck,
regrets or joys, he will offer everything in sacrifice. We will add, finally, that in the law of sacrifice, that a Master has
called "law of the evolution of man," lie some of the deepest truths of Occultism.
(See: Annie Besant: Ancient Wisdom, all of Chapter X). (G.T. H.P.B.)
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