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Sacrifice is a relationship with some other entity. In Vedic Hinduism, the goal of sacrifice was to enter a relationship with the divine in order to accomplish desired ends. When a sacrifice is given, it comes with an assumption of reciprocity; it creates a mutual obligation. In giving to the divine, one wishes to begin contact and bring the god to oneself; then a relationship may be formed. This relationship consists of getting what you want…longevity, wealth, children, life, etc.
In sacrifice, however, one controls only half of the relationship. Two major Vedic sacrifices represent the analogical thinking, which solves this problem.
The Vedic people had a vested interest in maintaining life; life is associated with heat (because the dead no longer produce any). As the sun is the clear source of heat in the world, we must consider how it gets to us (from an ancient civilization's perspective): through rain, thunder and lightning. These three things bring what is in the sky to the ground, where it can be ingested-keeping people alive. The sun might run out, however. In order to maintain this transference of life, a ritual of analogy was performed. Soma (a drug) was pounded loudly through a sieve, imitating thunder in the creation of falling liquid. The soma was then shared between Indra (god of lighting) and the priest of or ritual donor. This participation in an act similar to the one in the sky maintains the latter. It provides Indra with more life and it sustains the macrocosm by sustaining the microcosm. Such analogical thinking is common in religion.
The Vedas also tell of Parusa's sacrifice to create the world. As he has already dismembered himself once, he can't do it again; so an altar of bricks is constructed to replicate the cosmic event. By naming it so, each brick becomes a part of Parusa until the whole is formed. The power of naming, like analogical thinking, is not exclusive to Hinduism…consider the naming of the animals in Genesis. A pit of fire is then placed at the center of the constructed Parusa to represent the source of heat, which is life. The altar is then allowed to weather over the course of time, redistributing Parusa to the world.
These analogical rituals (considered to be such because of the tie they establish between microcosmic events and macrocosmic events) work because they are believed to do so. Undertaking such rituals provides the ritualists with a feeling of connection with the divine. They can give up something and control the outcome; they gain power over the other half of the ritual-the world continues to exist as needed. If problems occur within the environment or on another grand level, something must have gone awry on the microcosmic level-in other words, an error was made in the ritual. By properly completing their own half of the relationship, the sacrifice, they worshipers assure themselves of divine reciprocity.
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