Nikki from Live.Love.Yoga Blog posted the following quote:
The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy. The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.
– Ghandi
While I really like the Ghandi quote, I disagree with Nikki’s interpretation:
When you really come from Love, there is no need to sacrifice anything. You don’t need to sacrifice your time or your life or your freedom or yourself for anyone or anything or any cause. If your intentions are purely from Love, there is no feeling of surrendering or giving up of something for something else.
Nikki’s post deals with sacrifice as it relates to the things parents give up for their children. While I agree with her that there’s a problem in focusing only on what we give up for our kids and that we can reap great happiness from the offering of happiness, I think I see it in a slightly different light.
I interpret the Ghandi quote to mean not that there’s no sense of sacrifice when you give something up, but that the sacrifice is one of joy.
Having children, I sacrifice sleep. In return, I get to snuggle with my babies all night and see their joy and discoveries during the day.
I sacrifice the ability to come and go as I please, and I get in return the comfort of being needed and loved.
I sacrifice the carefree bouncing from one city to another when the career changes dictate it’s time for a move. Still we do the moving, we just do it with more attention to the emotional experience of moving, reflecting more deeply than when it was just the two of us.
For my children, I sacrifice the me that I thought I was and bit by bit, over the course of the hours and days and weeks and years, the true me beneath is being revealed. I notice the absence of that former me, but I revel in the daily, hourly revelation of the me that lies beneath.
Clinging to the need for sleep, I don’t notice the warm being curled up next to me.
Clinging to the need for freedom, I don’t notice the love with which I’m yoked.
Clinging to the need for constancy and a stable definition of Self, I don’t notice the peace that comes from slowly discovering who I really am.
Surrender, for me, is a joy. It’s the clinging to things and trying not to surrender and sacrifice that brings me suffering.
If it hurts, it’s clinging. If it feels peaceful and joyful, it’s sacrifice.
Imperfect Happiness 
I couldn’t agree with you more!
Clinging to things that you just can’t have at the moment is suffering for me as well!
I don’t think that person that interpreted that either has kids or a family.
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Nikki? She’s got kids. The link on my post is to a post of hers that also includes photos from the elaborate Angry Birds birthday party she set up for her child. You should check it out. It’s really cool (way more than I’d do for my kids, but not because of the sacrifice, but because I’m not skilled at party planning. Crepe paper is about the extent of decorating I can handle. I tried to make a ladybug cake for my daughter two years ago. It ended with me swearing over a pile of chocolate cake on the kitchen floor).
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You both make interesting distinctions about this. I kind of agree with both of you (is that ambiguous enough for you?)
I see the point of coming from love makes it feel like it’s not a trade or subjugating one thing for another. I see the point of clinging to expectation or outcome causing pain.
What I like is that there’s the possibility to for joyfulness in mindful action-in being present and moving forward into and with the moment.
And thank you for another great blog find!
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I actually quite like her point, I just have a different interpretation of the Ghandi quote. There are definitely so many things that I do out of love that just feel good and I don’t even notice the things I’m not doing. But there are a lot of things I do that feel good almost because I’m giving up something else. Like going on a Facebook fast.
It’s a subtle distinction, but I enjoy playing with it.
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