A Vedic story - Shunashepa (शुनःशेप), the poor boy who was sent for sacrifice by his own father in exchange of livelihood.
Shunashepa literally means the 'tail of a dog'. Hrischandra/Ambarish did not have any children. He consults the sage Narada, he tells the king that he should appease god Varuna to bestow him a boon for a child. So Ambarish learns the rituals, and does a penance. In due course, Varuna is pleased with Ambarish's devotion to him and asks what he could do for the king. The king asks for a heir to his throne. However, Varuna is looking for someone for his own duty, and so he gives the king the blessing but with a condition. The king will get a son, but he needs to sacrifice this son to Varuna when he turns 12.
Rohit(The first rays of the sun) was born. He grows up a fine boy, and is a delight to watch. But as he grows towards his 12th year, king Ambarish gets more and more depressed thinking about the impending doom. As he turns 12, Varuna turns up at the night before the birthday and asks Ambarish for the sacrifice. Ambarish cries and says that his son is not yet ready. Varuna, seeing the father's tears, melts in his resolve and decides to give him one more year. The next year, Ambarish again cries and comes up with some other reason. Varuna, being the gentle god, again gives Ambarish one more year.
Curious about what made his dad suddenly fall into a depression, Rohit one day confronts his father and cajoles him to tell him the truth. Unable to bear the weight of the curse anymore, Ambarish spills out the story about Varuna and the penance and the birth and the condition. His narrates the his birth story. Rohit asks Narada for advise. He says anyone who is willing to sacrifice instead of Rohit, Varuna will accept the human sacrifice.
Rohit goes around the kingdom in search of a willing candidate. While on his tour in the fringes of his kingdom, he comes across an extremely poor and starving commoner Brahim called Ajigarta. This fellow seems rather needy. He is going around the town, trying to find some food, as was the practice with Brahims of the time. Rohit gives him some food, and asks him about his family. Ajigarta says he has three sons. Rohit asks him if he will be willing to sacrifice one of them - anyway he has three (!) - in exchange of a sustainable means of livelihood. Rohit promises Ajigarta 108 cows in exchange of one of his sons - any one.
Ajigarta goes home and narrates the offer to his wife. At first his wife cannot bear the thought, but the Brahmin goes on. He explains the offer, and then dreamily adds how he cannot sacrifice his elder son, as he is already helping him in the daily work. Irked by this, his wife starts ranting how she is unable to think about the youngest child being sacrificed as he is so dear to her, and also so .. so young!
Sadly, Shunashepa, the middle son is at home at this. He is normally at his guru's place - Vishwamitra (विश्वामित्र ), but for some reason he has returned to collect his belongings. He listens to the two parents and cannot believe his ears. A wave of self-loathing comes over him and he steps in. He tells his father that since none of them really cared about the second son, he might as well sacrifice himself. At least he will die in the hope that his death has given his thankless family some means to survive the world.
Shunashepa, melancholy about his life so far as well as his impending doom, slowly starts his journey towards the palace, while his parents try in vein to change his mind. While on his way, he prays to his guru sage Vishwamitra for strength. It is said that he meets the powerful sage somewhere during the journey, and upon hearing his plight, Vishwamitra teaches him two sets of hymns - one in the praise of Indra and another in the praise of Vishnu. He knows that once his brothers are pacified, Varuna will not harm Shunashepa.
So the poor boy reaches the city. There is a lot of preparation done for the sacrifice, and a large pyre is built in the middle of the central chowk. Shunashepa proceeds to this, where he is received like a royal dignatory by the king, his queens and the crown prince. He is given a nice fragrant bath, silk robes and food before he ascends the pyre. Once Shunashepa is on the pyre, and the sacrificial rituals begin, the boy looks up, calls out Indra and Vishnu and starts singing the verses taught to him by the great sage.
Indra and Varuna and Vishnu listen to these, and they are immensely pleased. They also know that this poetry is other-worldly and does not belong to the boy. They ask Shunashepa where he learnt these verses, and he tells them about sage Vishwamithra. When the gods realize that the boy has the blessings from the Brahma-Rishi Vishamithra, they are pleased even further, and cancel the sacrificial plan altogether. Not just that, but they bestow long life upon the boy, and general welfare, good monsoon and agriculture to Ambarish's lands.
So what could have been a tragic human sacrifice turns out to be a happy incident for all involved. The story is interesting in many aspects, apart from the obvious human sacrifice angel. But what I like the most, are two things - the sense of duty and lack of fear in the face of adversities in Shunashepa.
The Internal Meaning
Vedic Rituals are full fo Sacrifices. In material life it is symbols. When these rituals are performed, symbolic offerings are made to the Agni which will transfer that offering to heavens and you are blessed with material riches.
Agni means Purity. Sunakshepa was the author of Agni hymns in Rigveda. In Vedic times the Rishis struggled to explain the concepts. So they turned to poetic language and to stories. Not only that they also injected them into the stories based on their age and goal of explaining the Truth and Self.
In the story, Sunakshepa is the middle son of a miser Ajigarthi. The miser is bribed by cows means wisdom, he is agrees to sacrifice his son. Meaning SON is his own manifestation of his SOUL. When he is ready for sacrifice, he was presented with 108 cows. He is ready to tie him to the sacrificial post. Ajgartha agreed to slaughter his son for another 108 cows. When you are ready to sacrifice your manifestation meaning your soul, efforts, knowledge and life, new wisdom is dawns on you.
Sunakshepa refused to die, he prayed to vedic gods, which invoked Ushas or Dawn, meaning his enlightenment of Sanathana Dharma started to glow. Boom it started glowing towards 1008 brightest Suns.
The Concept Sunkashepa trying to explain is...
Sacrificing human is a symbolism to teach deeper truths of reality. The theory is, true nature lies in the involution and evolution of soul. Sacrifice the body or flesh to reach the higer knowledge, meaning not Human Sacrifice.
The sun is fully manifested knowledge. Cow is involution life and the son the evolved life, so that the evolution of soul takes place. The sacrifice has to take place in order soul to evolve. There is always sacrifice in order to grow. For soul the Sacrifices comes in the form of experiences on the lowest plane of manifestation.
To gain the Eternal Knowledge and Sanathana Dharma, the Soul with its knowledge and experiences must be sacrificed. What does sacrifice means? Yogic life and quest for Vishnu.
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