The Significance of Animal Sacrifice

 The animal sacrifice is one of the rituals in Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In this ritual slaughter, people sacrifice goat, fowl, male buffalo, ram, chicken, camel etc. Buddhism and Jainism condemn ritual animal sacrifice. However, all these religions accept that animals have the souls and they communicate and worship to God in their own ways. Still, as ritual they perform the animal sacrifice. These religions talk about the non-violence. Some of rituals of all the religions are commemoration of some important incidents or a symbolism beckoning to some worth assimilating. In Hinduism, the follower of the Shaktism, sacrifice animals to invoke Shakti, the energy. In Islam, during the Hajj, they perform the animals sacrifice as a symbolic re-enactment of Abraham's sacrifice of a ram in place of his son. In Judaism, the animal sacrifice is done for the atonement of the sin by the individuals.

What the benefit we get by doing these rituals? At one side the scriptures of these religions talk about the animal rights and at the other side give the permission of the animal sacrifice. It looks contradicting. People are following these rituals from the centuries. No symbolism is empty. Definitely these rituals and symbolism would be telling something worth to us to follow for our betterment as a human.

The human is the culmination of the animal progress. Human has been kept above all the animals. Doing the act by human which commensurate the animals acts, means human is degrading himself. Human should be human, should not act like animals, or should not be wild. In the animal kingdom, there is only one law “Might is Right”. But in human kingdom there is a law of huminity in place. Even the weaker has right to survive in the human kingdom. If human start dominating the weaker which is the law of animal kingdom, then human does not remain human, he becomes animal. The animal sacrifice rituals symbolize -- to kill the animal and wild nature hidden within and be a human. There is not required for these symbols when the true understanding comes. The ritual without understanding is the barren of the result. Any number of animal sacrifices cannot help people to kill the animal hidden within, if the meaning of the ritual is not understood properly. And the person who understands the meaning of the ritual can kill the animal hidden within, even without doing any animal sacrifice externally in the temples or pilgrimages.