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The Five Great Sacrifices:
Linking Ancient and Modern Hinduism
Swami Samarpanananda
PB July 2011
With massive social, economic,
and political changes all over the
world the daily religious devotions that
were practised by the ancestors of the Hindus
have become cumbersome in today’s world.
Moreover, the modern generation bereft of ancient
traditions find itself at a loss in explaining
what Hinduism, and religion in general, really
is. There is unanimity, however, in the belief in
God having many forms, reincarnation, karma,
dharma, creation in cycles, and the infinity of
time. Further, the belief in the Vedas as sacred
and Om as the symbol of God, along with veneration
of the guru, Gaya, Ganga, Gayatri, and
go, cow, is prevalent. Beliefs apart, Hinduism has
now boiled down to performing samskaras—
sacraments—and puja, either at home or in a
temple; occasionally attending satsanga, holy
company; singing and listening to bhajans, devotional
songs; watching digitalized mythological
tales; observing fasts, ritual cleanliness, and some
food habits; and a few other activities put forward
by the many sampradayas, traditions, that
were born and grew during the last century.
One of the trends in the ways Hinduism is followed
at present is the wrong notion that rituals
have become irrelevant in today’s world. When
Swami Vivekananda was in London, in 1895, two
visitors came to see him, about whom he wrote
to Mr E T Sturdy: ‘Both of them want to know
the rituals of my creed! This opened my eyes. The
world in general must have some form. In fact, in
the ordinary sense religion is philosophy concretized
through rituals and symbols. It is absolutely
necessary to form some ritual and have a Church.
That is to say, we must fix on some ritual as fast as
we can. … We will fix something grand, from birth
to death of a man. A mere loose system of philosophy
gets no hold on mankind.’1 Later Swamiji
spoke about having a new Smriti, religious code
of conduct, framed for the present age.2 Although
Swamiji asked one of his disciples to produce a
modern Smriti, the project never materialized.
And if this is ever to happen, we have to first
understand what links the various Hindu sects of
the ancient, medieval, and modern periods; we
have to first look at the core of Hinduism.
The Essential Hinduism
Sri Ramakrishna taught: ‘The Eternal Religion,
the religion of the rishis, has been in existence
from time out of mind and will exist eternally.
There exists in this Sanatana Dharma all forms of
worship—worship of God with form and worship
of the Impersonal Deity as well. It contains
all paths—the path of knowledge, the path of
devotion, and so on. Other forms of religion,
the modern cults, will remain for a few days and
then disappear.’ 3
Defining the essential trait of a Hindu Swamiji
said: ‘If a Hindu is not spiritual I do not call him
a Hindu.’ 4 These two statements together imply
that despite all the changes and reforms that keep
taking place in Hinduism at regular intervals,
true Hinduism is what leads one to direct spiritual
growth and what continues as sacred trad-
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