Comparison Of Animal Sacrifices In Hinduism And Jewish Culture
Introduction
Have you ever been in a situation where you find yourself doubting which path actually leads to God? Or, how do I know this or that religion is true enough to take my life to go heaven after I die? These are the common thoughts and worriedness that comes until and unless we find true evidence on what we believe in. According to the Adherent, there are 2,500 religions in the world out of which Christianity covers 31% and Hinduism covers 15. 1% of total.
Since these two religions are one of the most followed religions in the world, I would like to compare these two religion’s animal sacrificial systems and prove Jewish (called as Christians in Antioch) practice of animal sacrifice is totally different rather than the same. I would like to define sacrifice form the English Oxford dictionary as, “An act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to a deity. ”
I have structured my paper by comparing both system’s sacrifices (on their purposes, methods, and effects), objections from the Hindu scholars, and significant practices and beliefs on Hindu sacrificial rituals and finally I have concluded my paper by giving some evidences that shows Jewish sacrificial system as more trustworthy and believable. Through my paper, I want to show the importance of knowing both religionss sacrificial systems that will help to understand both religions.
Since my background is Hindu, I have had many Hindu friends who actually thought Old Testament sacrifice and Hindu sacrifice are the same. I also had friends who used to claim themselves as both Christian and Hindu. What made them think like this? Is it true that both religions have the same God? Does different path lead to the same God? If not, how do we understand these two religions are different? It is common to think like this because Hindu scholars have impacted their theology by some external research. Stephen Knapp claims that Hindu has the main influence on the Old Testament sacrificial system as Jewish had directly taken from Hindu Vedas in their rituals and has same the concept of trinity of god. He is trying to say that it is groundless or illogical to say that the Old Testament’s sacrificial system is different from any other religion’s rather all are equal and same. My aim from this paper is to show a closer view on the purpose, methods, and effects of Old Testament’s animal sacrifice in Torah and Hindu animal sacrifice in Vedas and prove that they are different in terms of restoring a relationship with God, dealing with sin, and approaching to a holy God.
Purpose for Jewish and Hindu sacrifice
The purpose of Hindu sacrifice is to nourish their gods and goddess since they cannot prepare their own foods and to have a good life after death. Hindu gods are dependent on human beings for the food as they cannot prepare on their own. Since god designed a unique relationship between human and god to support each other, humans are responsible to feed god with the purest form of cooked food by following a certain recipe. If people worship and do sacrifice, god, in return, will bless them with a good life after the first death. The objective of the Jewish’s sacrificial system was to build a good relationship with God and to uphold his holiness. Building a broken relationship between God and human being is the final aim of the expiatory sacrifice. God only lived among Israelites when his dwelling place (tabernacle) was not polluted by human sins. Guilt offering was offered to remind people how much they have gone against God and what are the ways to come back to Him. Expiatory sacrifice acts as a bridge that helps wrongdoer or sinners to repent before God and ask for heavenly forgiveness.
There is no such thing like a broken relationship between god and human in Hinduism but there is a concept of sin. The sin makes them impure and therefore blocks all the blessings from gods and goddess. Building a good relationship with god and goddess comes as a secondary purpose after making them happy with good foods while the primary purpose of Jewish sacrifice is to have good relationship and uphold holiness.
Methods for Jewish and Hindu sacrifice
Since the primary purpose of Hindu sacrifice is feeding to gods and goddesses, it is very important to follow the prescript steps to cook food. The methods used in Hindu animal sacrificial process indicates “the steps to prepare good and accepted food that their gods want”. Vedic srautra is a manual that priest use; it has three divisions, and, on each division, they have their own offerings like different kinds of grains and animals. People cannot cook as they like but they should follow certain steps while cooking to be accepted by god and goddess. Usually, the foods are cooked with butter and with some specific ingredients. God should be the one to try the food before anyone and the cook should maintain a peaceful atmosphere with the clean cooking place.
The methods used in the Jewish animal sacrificial process indicates God as God of order and God of holy. The pieces of different parts of the body have to face in specific directions and not all kinds of animals were allowed to sacrifice. The animals should be blemish and clean. Leviticus 19:2 claims that “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. ” The system of sacrifice provided a way to be holy for people to reconcile with God. God is holy so all things that are connected with the work of God (sacrificial animals, place, priests, meeting room and all things) had to be holy and pure. Leviticus 7:20-21 mentions cutting off the person from the people if they eat from the sacrifice that belongs to the Lord.
In Jewish sacrifice, unclean animals were not allowed to eat or sacrifice which interestingly contrast with Hindu sacrificial animals. They consider sacrificial animals as demons. Therefore, they believe that when animals are killed during rituals, the good soul in the demonic animals will come back to the Human body as re-birth. There are no such things as clean and unclean animals rather there are higher and lower animals depending on the animal’s progressive development. In the Jewish sacrificial system, animals were just the symbol foreshadowing the Ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.
Effects for Jewish and Hindu sacrifice The effect of Hindu sacrifice was blessings for good lives and good relationships among people. “The nature and the gift of offering” gives the divine grace to the people as there exist the interrelationships between god and people. Hindu offerings to kali, mother of protector and blessing, by using goat and other vegetal substances that makes her happy and in return devotees get good lives and peace among family members and community. The effect of goat sacrifice of Bali is to have a positive appreciation of life and hope for clean and acceptable life after the first death.
The effect of sacrifice in the Torah was the forgiveness of God and reconciling the broken relationship with people. A forgiveness code is declared as an effect of sacrifice by the priest at the last moments of each expiatory offerings. Leviticus 4:26, mentions about priest making atonement for leader’s sin and asking God for their forgiveness. Scapegoat signifies Jesus as taking all the sins of human beings. The sacrifice was meant to wash people’s sin and reconcile the broken relationship with God. Similarly, verses 26, 31, and 35 also mentions about the forgiveness after the atonement. Reconciliation was only possible after forgiveness.
Naysayer
At this point Hindu scholars may raise one possible objection that Jesus is like Ram, Krishna, and Buddha who is one of the incarnations of god, gained spiritual knowledge in India from 12-30 years old (silent years) from Hindu priests and masters, then used Hindu theology to teach in Israel. Therefore, believing all goals of Hindu and Jewish ritual practices are the same. This idea is further supported by Chaplain Levi Dowling who later wrote a book called Levi’s Gospel where he mentions about Jesus traveling to India and learning from Brahmins and Buddhists and also Nicolas Notovitch claimed that he found a scroll of Jesus in Tibet which he preached in Israel.
On the one hand, I agreed with Hindu belief that says Jesus is God even though they compare with their other gods. But on the other hands, I still insist that Jesus never claimed about Hindu Vedas in his teaching rather Mark 12:29 clearly states that he is a monotheistic God. According to Mark 6:3, people knew him as a carpenter in his society. He spoke some of the parables out from his experience of carpentry as he talks about building the house on the rock on Matthew 7:24-27. The final evidence for Jesus was not in India is found in Luke 4:16 “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. ” He visited the synagogue, not Hindu temples in India.
I cannot argue against the whole sacrificial practice of Hinduism. However, I can argue for some specific differences that shows the Jewish sacrificial system more trustworthy and truthful. Firstly, Hindu gods and goddess requires food to survive which shows that they are more human-like, not gods. According to V. Jayaram, gods and human are interdependent. This clearly tells us that they are eagerly waiting for the next day for the food as they are desperately hungry.
Secondly, if there is a sacrificial system, there is a barrier between God and human beings. Ephesians 2:11-22 says that because Jesus offered himself as living sacrifice, there is no longer a barrier between God and humanity. Christians do not need to offer sacrifice like Hindu does every day because Jesus died once for all and his sacrificed covered all sins.
Lastly, how could Hindu gods be happy when devotees put their faith on the slaughter instead of putting of gods? Devotees are insecure of physical and new life after death if the slaughter does not kill the animals at once. Hebrew 11:6 clearly say “But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. ” God of Israel need faith on him, not in the animals or slaughters.
Conclusion
Hindu and Jewish animal sacrificial systems have their own theological approaches and importance on ritual practices. Hindu believe that by feeding gods and goddess, they will receive a blessing in their lives. They follow the prescribed recipe to cook and offer foods to gods to show their humbleness and caring attitude. However, there is an objection that Jesus must be one of the incarnations of Hindu gods who taught to Israelites from the knowledge of Hindu masters during his stay in India. Many bible verses prove that this statement is false. The practice of sacrifice in Hinduism still shows that there remains a barrier between god and human. Christians do not practice any kind of sacrifices anymore as Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice once for all.
Therefore, there is no barrier between God and human now. God does not need food to eat as he owns everything in this world. The acceptance of sacrifice depends on God when people offered, not on the priest or on the slaughter so they put their faith directly on God unlike Hindu people put their faith in the slaughter. All in all, we can say the sacrificial system that is mentioned in the Torah is more effective and true from the Hindu sacrificial system if we compare with its three aspects: purpose, method, and effects.
