sacrifice

This year, we celebrated Eid-ul-Adha in my father's village in Pakistan. Village #65. Very different than in the States on a bunch of different levels, but one of the most obvious was observing the sacrifice. Not very common out here to bring a goat in your front lawn and...you know....do the deed.

When the second goat was being taken away, all the goats started "baaah-ing" like crazy. And just like your supposed to, everyone was very careful not to get the goat too excited, in order to limit the suffering of the animal. No knives were shown, the sacrifices were done outside where other animals cant see....but still the goats went nuts. Do they know whats happening?

Life grows, life goes.

Its harder to kill something that you've raised and taken care of. I mean jeez, I was just feeding and playing with the goats for like 3 days before slaughter and I was trippin out!

One admires the obedience of Abraham to accept serving out the order from God to sacrifice his son. From what we know, he put aside his personal feelings to do what he had to do.

I also remember the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita. Basically, Arjuna is doubting his role as a warrior right before a very important battle. He does not want to fight because it happens to be against his friends, family, and teachers. Lord Krishna then advises Arjuna on universal harmony and duty; that only through taking action and fighting that battle for justice will he surrender himself to the greater unity with the divine aka achieving enlightenment. Arjuna's own fear and hesitation is what impedes his step towards realizing the greater truth.

The only thing stopping us from exploring the truth is ourselves...