________________
492
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
“ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”—(Ps. LI. 17)
The bullock that has horns and hoofs is not acceptable, but the one that has no horns and hoofs is desired -- the pride of the face must be sacrificed ; the strong neck must bend before God.
In the book of Proverbs we are told : "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."-(XXI. 3).
Jesus puts the case still more emphatically. when he says:
" And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."-(Mark, XII. 33).
Finally, Paul gives up all attempt at secrecy and divulges the long preserved secret in his epistle to the Romans. He writes :
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that yo present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."- (Rom. XII. 1).
Just as in the astronomy of the ancients, the ram, the bull and the he-goat stand for the head, the face and the knees of the zodiacal man (the Kâla Purusha), so do they represent, ahankara (egotism), pride of power and carnality* in the science of symbolical correspondence. Hence, the sacrificing of the lower ahankara, pride and carnal desire is what is enjoined by the prophets, not an offering of the dead or dying bodies of animals, slaughtered in the name of the most merciful God himself. He is pleased with him only who offers
**Goat typified Generative Heat or the Vital Urge' (The Lost Language of Symbolism, Vol. I. p. 347),
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org