The Beauty of Sacred Sacrifice
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November 8, 2010
I will give you some of the sacred sentiments expressed by the great devotees like Kabir, and define the experience of bhakti. Very beautifully, bhakti is described by Kabir: The bhakti path winds in a delicate way. On this path, there is no asking and no not asking. The ego simply disappears the moment you touch him. The joy of looking for him is so immense that you just dive in and coast around like a fish in water. If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his.
The bhakti path winds in a delicate way. On this path, there is no asking and no not asking. Kabir is making you understand clearly the difference between suffering and yearning, vyakulata.
The ego simply disappears the moment you touch him. The joy of looking for him is so immense that you just dive in and coast around like a fish in water. If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his. Please understand, Kabir is not saying, 'If God needs a head' or 'If Guru needs a head'. No. He says, 'If anyone needs a head', because when you are in love with the Master, in love with God, or just in love, you are ready to sacrifice not just for Him. In the extreme love, when you are experiencing the extreme sacred sentiments, you feel that everything is worthy of sacrifice.
With sacred sentiments, more than hearing too much, just hear one sentiment and contemplate on it, work on it, meditate on it, so that you can imbibe it. So I don't want to give you too many sacred sentiments today. The key word for you to meditate on today is 'If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his.'
If God needs or Guru needs it, you know that if you give it, you will get it back immediately. You will get hundreds of heads! You know he is going to care of you. But here Kabir says, if anyone needs a head. It means, you are just in love, you are so fulfilled that the sacrifice does not look too big. You just feel that whatever you need to have through your head, you already have it.
Understand, when the sacrifice does not look too big, it is a real sacred sacrifice. All sacrifice really happens, or really becomes a sacred sacrifice, when you don't even know you are sacrificing. And just for any simple thing, you can just sacrifice.
That is what Kabir talks about here. It is such a beautiful feeling. It is not even a sacrifice, it is just sharing; a casual expression of your flowing fulfillment. A casual expression of your fulfillment is what I call sacred sacrifice.