Sacrificial rites

Expressions researched:
"rites and sacrifices" |"sacrificial rites" |"sacrificial ritual, rites"

BG Chapters 13 - 18

Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites.

BG 16.17, Translation and Purport:

Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes proudly perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules or regulations.

Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites. And since they do not believe in authority, they are very impudent. This is due to illusion caused by accumulating some wealth and false prestige. Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God. They make a show of performing sacrifices, or they worship the demigods, or manufacture their own God. Common men advertise them as God and worship them, and by the foolish they are considered advanced in the principles of religion, or in the principles of spiritual knowledge. They take the dress of the renounced order of life and engage in all nonsense in that dress. Actually there are so many restrictions for one who has renounced this world. The demons, however, do not care for such restrictions. They think that whatever path one can create is one's own path; there is no such thing as a standard path one has to follow. The word avidhi-pūrvakam, meaning a disregard for the rules and regulations, is especially stressed here. These things are always due to ignorance and illusion.

SB Canto 3

The Lord confirms there that in the beginning of creation Brahmā created the Manus, along with the ritualistic sacrificial method, and blessed them: "Continue these sacrificial rites, and you will be gradually elevated to your proper position of self-realization and will also enjoy material happiness."

SB 3.20.51, Purport:

The importance of sacrifice is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā, Third Chapter, verse 10. The Lord confirms there that in the beginning of creation Brahmā created the Manus, along with the ritualistic sacrificial method, and blessed them: "Continue these sacrificial rites, and you will be gradually elevated to your proper position of self-realization and will also enjoy material happiness." All the living entities created by Brahmā are conditioned souls and are inclined to lord it over material nature. The purpose of sacrificial rituals is to revive, gradually, the spiritual realization of the living entities. That is the beginning of life within this universe. These sacrificial rituals, however, are intended to please the Supreme Lord. Unless one pleases the Supreme Lord, or unless one is Kṛṣṇa conscious, one cannot be happy either in material enjoyment or in spiritual realization.

CC Madhya-lila

With reference to the Vedic rites and sacrifices performed by the great sages of Naimiṣāraṇya, headed by Śaunaka Ṛṣi, the sages pointed out that association with a devotee for even less than a second is beyond comparison to a thousand Vedic rituals and sacrifices, elevation to heavenly planets or merging into the existence of the Supreme.

CC Madhya 22.55, Purport:

With reference to the Vedic rites and sacrifices performed by the great sages of Naimiṣāraṇya, headed by Śaunaka Ṛṣi, the sages pointed out that association with a devotee for even less than a second is beyond comparison to a thousand Vedic rituals and sacrifices, elevation to heavenly planets or merging into the existence of the Supreme.

Nectar of Devotion

"A person who honors the prasāda and regularly eats it, not exactly in front of the Deity, along with caraṇāmṛta (the water offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, which is mixed with seeds of the tulasī tree), immediately can achieve the results of pious activities which are obtained through ten thousand performances of sacrificial rites."

Nectar of Devotion 9:

There is this specific statement in the Padma Purāṇa: "A person who honors the prasāda and regularly eats it, not exactly in front of the Deity, along with caraṇāmṛta (the water offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, which is mixed with seeds of the tulasī tree), immediately can achieve the results of pious activities which are obtained through ten thousand performances of sacrificial rites."

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Despite being highly elevated in the knowledge of Vedic sacrificial rites, all such nondevotee brāhmaṇas, although they think of themselves as very highly elevated, are ignorant, foolish persons.

Krsna Book 23:

Although the companions of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were simple cowherd boys, they were in a position to dictate even to the high-class brāhmaṇas engaged in the Vedic rituals of sacrifice. But the smārta-brāhmaṇas, who were simply sacrificial-minded, could not understand the dictation of the transcendental devotees of the Lord. They could not even appreciate the begging of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Although they heard all the arguments on behalf of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, they did not care for them, and they refused to speak to the boys. Despite being highly elevated in the knowledge of Vedic sacrificial rites, all such nondevotee brāhmaṇas, although they think of themselves as very highly elevated, are ignorant, foolish persons. All their activities are childish because they do not know the purpose of the Vedas, as it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: to understand Kṛṣṇa. In spite of their advancement in Vedic knowledge and rituals, they do not understand Kṛṣṇa; therefore their knowledge of the Vedas is useless. Lord Caitanya, therefore, gave His valuable opinion that although a person may not be born in a brāhmaṇa family, if he knows Kṛṣṇa or the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness he is more than a brāhmaṇa, and he is quite fit to become a spiritual master.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

A boy is born in a brāhmaṇa family, but unless he's educated, unless he's purified, he cannot be allowed to perform the sacrificial ritual, rites. That means he's dependent on these other processes. So..., but here a devotee who is chanting without any offense, he becomes immediately purified without depending on the other purificatory process.

Lecture on SB 7.9.11-13 -- Hawaii, March 24, 1969:

The brāhmaṇa—not this caste brāhmaṇa, but actually, those who are brāhmaṇa, qualified brāhmaṇa—they are called śuci, purified, purified.

So this purification, how it is done? Now, yaḥ smaret, "one who remembers," puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ, "Kṛṣṇa, always," sa bāhya, means "externally," and abhyantaram, "internally," śuci, "purified." So if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa always, either loudly or silently or within yourself, mind, if you chant, so there is no question of impurification. It is... You remain always in, what is called, antiseptic stage, or prophylactic stage. Purification is there simply by remembering Kṛṣṇa. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantaraḥ śuciḥ. There is another verse. The purport of that verse is that simply by pronouncing this transcendental vibration, one becomes so purified that immediately he becomes eligible to operate sacrificial, ritualistic ceremonies. Now, sacrificial, ritualistic ceremonies, in the Vedas, priestly, that is, that work is, I mean to say, allotted to the brāhmaṇa class. Now, Jīva Gosvāmī has discussed this verse in this way, that "Even a caṇḍāla, a persons in the family of dog-eaters, if he chants the holy name of the Lord, he becomes so purified that immediately he becomes eligible to operate sacrificial, ritualistic ceremony." So Jīva Gosvāmī has commented in this connection that a boy, a child born in the brāhmaṇa family, in order to accept him as real brāhmaṇa... He's born in a pure family. That's all right. But there are other ceremonies, reformatory ceremonies, and this thread ceremony is also one of the ceremonies. So even taking birth in the brāhmaṇa family, he has to undergo the ceremonies to come to the stage of a pure brāhmaṇa. But here chanting of holy name is so powerful that he does not require even dependence on those ceremonies. Immediately he becomes. Unless a person... A boy is born in a brāhmaṇa family, but unless he's educated, unless he's purified, he cannot be allowed to perform the sacrificial ritual, rites. That means he's dependent on these other processes. So..., but here a devotee who is chanting without any offense, he becomes immediately purified without depending on the other purificatory process. These things are discussed.