Theory of Self Sacrifice - Tyaag in Vaishnavism (and how to cultivate it).

· 5 min reading time | raginghotplate

What is Vaishnavism?

Vaishnavism is a branch of religion which is practiced by Hindus. People who believe in Vaishnavism are known as Vaishnavs and they usually worship the Hindu God - Vishnu or avatars of Lord Vishnu.

Theory of Self Sacrifice - Tyaag

In Sanskrit, “Tyaag” usually means sacrificing, leaving, foresaking, resigning anything of value. In Vaishnavism, the main idea of tyaag is that one should be able to sacrifice things of value for the betterment of themselves and/or others.

”The one who has the ability to sacrifice, is the one who should be granted the right to consume.”

People are attached to many things, some of them being good food, money, luxury, etc. but what if, it all just went away someday? When you die, all the money you earned, the food you ate and loved, it will all be left behind in the mortal world… So, will you die in regret? Of course, not. Deep down, you will accept the theory that no one can ever escape death, the rich, the poor, the wise, the illiterate - They all are equal in front of death.

Hence, it is important to cultivate the habit of sacrificing things for your own betterment so that you do not regret doing so - which is known as tyaag.

Just how much is too much?

This concept is often really hard to grasp, but I will make it easy for you. People nowadays tend to overconsume. Now you should ask, why? Why do people want to destroy themselves with overconsumption? It’s simple really - In earlier times, people’s self worth was determined by the things they “produced/created”. A craftsman would take great pride in his craft, A blacksmith would take great pride in his blades. However, as the industrial revolution came around and the work was done by machinery, people started thinking less and less of their craft, and started consuming more which lead to this problem.

Coming back to our topic at hand, You may have seen people overeating or oversleeping. Oh, the food just tasted good, Oh, I never knew when 5 minutes turned into an hour… This small trivial thing that we ignore, is the key to knowing our limits. It’s okay to overeat or oversleep at times, it’s mostly how us humans test our limits and boundaries with ourselves, seeing how far we can push.

Just make sure to keep this in mind, that this is your limit, X is the amount of food you eat before you give up, Y is the total time you go to sleep for, etc.

Self Sacrifice, Tyaag

You may remember, I mentioned the following -

“The one who has the ability to sacrifice, is the one who should be granted the right to consume.”

Let us consider that you have the problem of oversleeping, you go to sleep, trying to wake up early for some reason. You wake up, tired, turn off the alarm, and go back to sleep. Just five more minutes, you think… Soon you wake up an hour later, only to realise and regret the fact that you didn’t wake up soon enough.

Whenever you go to sleep, you should go with the mindset of waking up. Since, you tend to “consume”, you rest in the comfort of your bed and it’s your problem you cant wake up on time.

How is this related to sacrifice? If you tend to oversleep, its better not to sleep at all - Hear me out here, it isn’t about sacrificing sleep or anything.

You should sacrifice your comforts. If you want to wake up early, you know that your comfortable bed wont allow you to wake up at all, you should sleep on the floor.

This ability to sacrifice comforts is basically why you should have the right to enjoy them in the first place.

Know the basics? Future applications

But Hotplate, you just talked about oversleeping, but I have other problems! It’s alright, since the theory of self sacrifice talks about sacrificing comforts; it can be applied in many aspects of life. It’s oftentimes better to focus on your tasks than trying to rush and mess them up for some reason or the other. Hurrying a task is bad because of many reasons. You should “sacrifice” the world for that small task, or simply not do the task at all. संसारं त्यजतु (Samsaaram Tyajayu)- Sacrifice the world

Sacrifice the world?

Weird concept, I don’t get it! How can we “sacrifice” the world. Well, its not actually “sacrificing” the word. It’s focusing so much into the task at hand, you enter a flow state and somehow, the world just doesn’t matter to you.

There are other interpretations too based on different situations, many people tend to sacrifice their worldly possessions/materialistic possessions in order to live with peace. The great example of this is Buddha, he sacrificed his throne in order to achieve enlightenment.

This is done on a huge scale though, you should try this on a smaller level by focusing on your tasks to forget the world, or to sacrifice junk food for good, healthy food, the possibilities are endless.

Conclusion

You saw through an example of oversleeping, why self sacrifice/tyaag is a good ability to possess and how can it help you in your day to day life.

Key takeaways from this blog -

Nothing can be achieved without sacrifice. Sacrifice is the greatest investment you can make in yourself.