Probing the Human Desire to Sacrifice

A brief ride into the riots, romances, and religions of the past

In the early 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi walked 385 kilometres from Sabarmati to Dandi. The reasons for this 24-day knackering walk could be many. Instead of walking, the leader could have arranged a Cadillac for himself, while his followers could have relied on handcrafted cycles.

Although the mission to evade salt tax and independently extract salt could have been faster with the help of wheels, the slower, the more tedious route had greater poignant effects. This hardship must have influenced at least a few mellow British soldiers, igniting their solicitude for the protestants. The salt march was able to get recognised in the silos of world history due to the laborious feat accomplished.

Probably in the 16th century, Romeo and Juliet’s love was strengthened by the antagonists in the story. Lovers who are never allowed to meet are remembered for centuries. Failed love stories are treasured more than successful ones. Nobody pays attention to the countless lovers of the past, who were not restricted to meet by their parents or kinsfolk. Does the lack of struggle mean lesser love? Had Romeo later decided to use a dating app to find another Juliet, the world would have forgotten the lovers, and there wouldn’t be a platonic play worth revisiting.

Hara-Kiri was an act of honour for the Japanese samurai, primarily during the 12th century. To die voluntarily was accepted by the samurai as a better alternative than being tortured and killed by the enemy. Nowadays, psychologists cite this situation as a form of suicide. However, around the same period, the Golden Age of Islam experienced a significant advancement. The Caliphates that invaded present-day Spain had the mindset of “fight till the last breath”. By probing the two historical records occurring in the same period, we can see how the human willingness to sacrifice life was practised differently based on the country of birth and intense propaganda.

Around the 10th century Viking Age, the ancient Scandinavians were awestruck by the thunderbolt created by Thor. On various occasions, to please the mighty god who flares the darkness with a hammer, the costliest gift was offered — life.

Imagine if the writ of crucifixion did not exist in the 1st-century Roman Empire and instead a quick and painless form of execution procedure existed. The crucifixion of Jesus made Christianity more messianic. Even today, the effect of this brutal act is depicted in every church. To resurrect after a few hours, the son of God sacrificed ounces of blood and endured the pain. Alternatively, if Jesus rebelled against the executioners or the idea of crucifixion was obliterated from the minds of ancient Romans, then the symbol of the cross would be nothing but a representation of mathematical proportion.

Thus, it is seen that the greatest stories of war, love, and crusades of two-legged creatures involved prolonged struggle and sacrifice.

The journey of sacrifice continues

Humans tend to appreciate sacrifices. Instant gratification is hugely condemned by modern society. Sacrifice is asked by the world, and the price of success asks for nothing less than everything. Even though humans know that life is merely a 4700-week journey, why do we treasure hardships? It is time to rethink the journey.

There are opportunity costs involved in all the activities we do. Even if we renounce the material world to live the rest of our life as a saint, there is a lost opportunity to drive a Mercedes. If you are highly ambitious, just sleeping a whole weekend could mean killing 48 hours of your life.

Many of the sacrifices that we undertake are need-based. When working on your fitness, you may have to resist the urge to consume sugar. A mother sacrifices around nine months of her life by neglecting physical shape, losing interest in appetite, and bearing excruciating pain for the baby. However, the most intriguing sacrifices come from beliefs, namely religion, love, and superstitions. This is where we intentionally sacrifice something for a benediction that we trust we will receive in the near or far future without a doubt.

Absolute surrender is sermonised by the ancient and limited words of gods and leaders of various institutions. Holy books talk about the ‘shalt’ and ‘shalt nots’. Society clings to the holy rules more religiously than the traffic rules. Such prescriptions based on beliefs lessen the individuality of a person and ignite a common behaviour found among animals — herd behaviour. This bandwagon behaviour leads us to offer vacuous sacrifices. Before we succumb to the next herd behaviour, consider what influenced us to make a sacrifice. A sacrificial act in the name of belief is justifiable only when the all-powerful person, thing, or power that you are worshipping is directly instructing you within the bandwidth of the five senses. Blind love towards Cleopatra might daze you, it will make you sacrifice true love in front of you, but Cleopatra is history, and she isn’t going to come to you, but wait, you can still believe she will come, if not today, tomorrow. Isn’t this the same practice followed in faith?

The last mile

Another facet to consider is that there could simply be no sacrifices at all!

The idea of sacrifice arises when you discover that the work you are currently doing is less pleasurable than what you could have done instead. For me, what Gandhi did for the Salt March seems to involve a lot of sacrifices, but if the leader himself was a passionate walker, he might have enjoyed every step and accumulated contentment as more followers joined the march.

When your love towards God is unconditional and pious, there is no sacrifice but worship.

Hence, you might be involved in an act of sacrifice in the eyes of your neighbour but not for yourself.

We are creatures of mind and meaning. We are creatures of thought. We are creatures of story. No matter what we are doing right now, let us probe our actions. Does it involve sacrifices? Is the juice worth the squeeze?

There is nothing wrong with living a life full of sacrifices, knowingly or unknowingly. After all, it might create stores worth narrating again.