Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
or sacrifices : bat this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people : and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."-(Jeremiah, VII. 21-23).
Here we have the authority of the Lord himself to show that the passages which seem to enjoin sacrifice, in their exoteric sense, are not to be read literally, but in a hidden or higher sense. Surely, it is poor theology to maintain, and that in defiance of the dictum of one's own God, that he loves the flesh and blood of his animal creation, and is pleasurably affected by them. David understood this much better than the moderns. Addressing his deity, he sings:
“ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire ; mine ears hath thou opened: burnt offerings and sin offering hast thou not required."-(Ps. XL. 6).
With the New Testament the spirit of sacrifice altogether changes. Jesus said :"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."-(Matthew, IX. 13 & XII.7).
It will be noticed that the animals selected for sacrifice were invariably the bull, the ram and the he-goat. Now, if we can understand that the ancients saw a remarkable resemblance between the signs of the Zodiac and the chief limbs of the human body, and employed the zodiacal symbols to conceal their true philosophy from the profane, it would not be difficult to grasp the hidden sense of the passages whose exoteric and vulgar significance leads to a slaughter of the innocent lives of animals. Three of these Zodiacal signs are of special importance for our purpose, for their symbols happen to be identical with the three animals mostly selected for sacrifice, although, in later times, other