The eye sacrifice⁹

Long, long ago, the asuras quite often used to defeat the gods. The asuras were the demons and the suras were the devas — the minor gods and the Cosmic Gods. The Guru of the asuras, Sukracharya, knew the art of reviving people when they die.

This meant that when the asuras were killed, they would again come back to life. But the devas, the Cosmic Gods, did not have that art. Eventually they got it in a very clever way and then they, too, became immortal.

Now the story starts. Once the asuras, the demons, were very, very ruthless in defeating the gods. In Heaven, they tortured the gods mercilessly, even the Cosmic Gods. The gods were no match for the demons.

The gods prayed and prayed to Lord Vishnu to save them. Lord Vishnu said, “I am sorry. I do not have the power to defeat the demons, so you have come to the wrong person. But I am ready to go to Lord Shiva. You can accompany me. Let us all go.”

Then the gods said, “Oh, no. You go alone. You two are such great friends.”

Vishnu went to Shiva to ask for his help. These Cosmic Gods are so kind to each other. On one occasion, they will say that Shiva is the supreme God; then they will say Vishnu is supreme; and then they will say Brahma is supreme. This time, Vishnu wanted to show Shiva’s supremacy. He wanted to prove that he was no match for Shiva, that Shiva had all spiritual power and occult power, and that Shiva’s third eye could destroy everything.

When Vishnu went to see Shiva, he saw that Shiva was in trance — high, higher, highest trance. Vishnu did not want to disturb Shiva’s trance, so he waited. He waited and waited for hundreds of years. Like this it went on.

Shiva was still not pleased. Then Vishnu decided that every day he would worship Shiva with one thousand lotuses — beautiful, fully bloomed blue lotuses. Every day he would do this to please Lord Shiva. For one thousand years, Vishnu prayed to Shiva for hours and hours. While praying, he would keep one thousand lotuses in front of him. One by one, he would lift them up and dedicate them to Shiva. Although Shiva did not respond, Vishnu went on and on, praying and praying and praying.

Then one day Shiva wanted to play a trick on Vishnu. Before Vishnu started praying, he used to collect the beautiful blue lotuses. He would put them at a particular sacred place, and then he would sit in front of the flowers and start worshipping Shiva. Alas, on this particular day, before Vishnu sat down to worship Shiva, Shiva secretly came in his subtle form and stole one flower, so the number did not remain one thousand — it became 999. Vishnu did not see this. Vishnu only saw many, many flowers. He started offering them to Shiva one by one. Each time he offered a lotus, he was praising Shiva, saying how great, how good, how kind Shiva was.

Alas, alas, at the very end of his offering, Vishnu found that there were only 999 lotuses. He was very, very sad because one lotus was missing. Vishnu began searching and searching for that lotus. Finally, he decided it was a hopeless case, so he plucked out his left eye. His eye also looked like a beautiful lotus. Vishnu put his eye in front of him, and with that eye he worshipped Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva immediately came and stood in front of Vishnu. He could not believe that Vishnu would do this kind of thing. Lord Shiva was so pleased with him. Then Shiva said, “I will give you my Sudarshan chakra, this round disc.”

We all know that this is now Vishnu’s chakra, but in the beginning it was Shiva’s chakra. The Sudarshan chakra will just go round and round and cut the throat of whomever it wants to kill.

Lord Vishnu most devotedly took the Sudarshan chakra from Lord Shiva. Then Lord Vishnu gave that Sudarshan chakra to all the gods to fight against the demons, and this is how the demons were killed. Then the gods gave the chakra back to Lord Vishnu. Vishnu said, “Now we know how to kill the undivine forces.” Then he asked Shiva if he would like to take back the Sudarshan chakra.

Shiva said, “Once I give something, I do not take it back. It is yours. You can use it from now on, throughout Eternity.”

Lord Vishnu continued to use that chakra. When Sri Krishna came to earth, he was an Avatar of Lord Vishnu. He used that chakra and nobody, nobody could stand against it. That is how he received it. Shiva gave it to Vishnu, and Vishnu gave it to Sri Krishna.

This kind of sacrifice Vishnu could make. He offered one of his own eyes to Shiva, and Shiva was very, very pleased.

A similar story I am sure you know about Gorakshanath. His Guru, Matsyendranath, wanted him to bring a most delicious meal from a particular lady. That lady had given a feast on the previous day, and Matsyendranath wanted to have the same kind of most delicious food, but on this day there was no feast.

To please his Guru, Gorakshanath went to that particular rich lady. The rich lady told him, “The feast was yesterday. Today it is all over. I cannot prepare another one.”

Gorakshanath begged and begged and begged. Then the lady started scolding him, “You are worse than a dog! Even a dog will leave a person after some time when it does not get food. You are worse than a dog!”

Gorakshanath said, “I am ready to be worse than a dog. I am not going to leave your place until you give me most delicious food for my Master.”

The lady said, “All right, let me see your love and devotion for your Guru. If you are ready to give me one of your eyes, if you are ready to offer it to me, I will go to the market and buy all the ingredients. Then I will make a most delicious meal for you to bring to your Guru.”

Immediately Gorakshanath took out one of his eyes and gave it to her. The lady could not believe it. She went at once to the market and bought the ingredients, and then again she cooked a most delicious meal.

When Gorakshanath came back to his Guru with the meal, his Guru was shocked to see that his dearest disciple had only one eye. He asked, “Why have you done this?”

Gorakshanath explained, “The lady was not willing to prepare a delicious meal again today. She wanted one of my eyes, and I gave it gladly.”

Matsyendranath said, “All right, can you give the other eye gladly to me?”

Gorakshanath said, “Of course!” Then the second eye also he removed and gave to his Master. The Master was so pleased. He ate the food to his heart’s content, and then, using his occult power, he gave back both the eyes to his dearest disciple, Gorakshanath.

These are similar stories about Gorakshanath and Vishnu. Shiva examined Vishnu to see how much love and admiration he had for Shiva, and Shiva was very, very pleased with Vishnu. Matsyendranath was also very, very pleased with his dearest disciple.

When we make a sacrifice, we feel that it is all over. No! God, in His very peculiar Way, gives us back much more in return, and He also increases our inner strength, our surrender-power.