________________
APPENDIX II
The step from external to internal sacrifice certainly preceded the emergence of absolute renunciation. An example for the internal sacrifice is the daily self-study of the Veda (svādhyāya), which is a great sacrificial session (mahāsattra) called the sacrifice to the brahman, the totality of Vedic knowledge and as such the universal principle.328 He who attends to the daily self-study of the Veda and knows the equivalences with the ritual acts of the sattra ‘is, in truth, freed from recurring death, goes to the union with (lit.: to the state of having the self of) brahman'. 329 By depending solely on himself the sacrificer is able to overcome recurring death.
Against the same background must be judged the teaching of Ghora Angirasa in the Chāndogya-Upanişad in which the word [653] ahimsā occurs for the first time in the sense of the new doctrine. Ghora equates the whole life of a man to the Soma-sacrifice, and he assigns to pleasures and progeneration their proper place without depreciating them. But he has a kind of moral code: the dakșiņās, the gifts to the priests, are identified with austerity, giving (alms), uprightness, non-injury and speaking the truth.330 Since also the other identifications are based on similarities, there is no reason to suppose that this particular one is arbitrary. The similarity between giving alms and dakşiņā is obvious. But what have the other virtues in common with the gift? I think that Ghora interpreted them as varieties of self-denial. By austerity one becomes emasciated, gives of one's own substance; thus the offerings of the dīkṣita who is practising tapas consist in that which is growing less of his body.331 Speaking the truth is not a matter of course: one speaks lies in anger, in drunkenness, and even while dreaming 332 Therefore the Vedic sacrificer has to enter on the vow of truth since men speak untruth, the gods truth, and in the sacrifice a man goes from the world of men to the world of the gods.333 Continuously speaking the truth is thus a severe kind of self-restraint. Ahimsā is not the rule in daily life either; by practising it one saves the life of creatures and denies oneself the natural tendency to live on the other beings. According to the ritual ahimsā-theory the creature injured or killed is healed
328 ŚB 11, 5, 6, 3-9. (cf. 7,3-9). 329 SB 11, 5, 6, 9 ati ha vai mucyate gacchati brahmanaḥ sātmatām. 330 ChU 3, 17, 4 atha yat tapo dānam ārjavam ahimsā satyavacanam iti tā asya
dakşiņāh. 331 MS 3, 6, 6. 332 Cf. RV 7, 86, 6. 333 Cf. ŚB 1,1,1.
125 For Personal & Private Use Only
Jain Education International
www.jainelibrary.org
