________________
RELIGION-THE BRAHMIN POSITION
241
“Morality finds no place in this system. Sacrifice, which regulates the relation of man to the divinities, is a mechanical act, operating by its own spontane. ous energy (par son énergie intime); and that, hidden in the bosom of nature, is only brought out by the magic art of the priest." I
To these writers, the sacrifice, if only rigidly carried out in each one of its details, is the source of all profit and advantage. The gods (who are quite unmoral, not immoral, though they are represented in these texts as having been guilty of falsehood, chicanery, and incest) are utterly unable to counteract the effect of such a sacrifice. Indeed they owe their own supremacy, their own position in heaven, to sacrifices they themselves had thus carried out to older gods. And it is by the same means that they continue to defeat the Asuras, that is the Titans, the rival gods, who would otherwise storm the gates of heaven.
There were no temples, and probably no images. The altars were put up anew for each sacrifice in a field or garden belonging to the sacrificer. The benefit to accrue from the sacrifice went to him, and to him alone. He therefore had to pay for the performance ; for the animals to be slaughtered, for the numerous work people employed, and for the fees for the priests.
“As to the fees, the rules are precise, and the propounders of them are unblushing. The priest performs the sacrifice for the fee alone, and it must consist 1 Doctrine du sacrifice chez les Brahmanai, p. 9 (Paris, 1998).
16
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
