Sacrifice

The idea of complete self-sacrifice is illustrated in Mahabharata and narrated by Swami Vivekananda in his Karma Yoga lectures.

After the battle of Kurukshetra the five Pândava brothers performed
a great sacrifice and made very large gifts to the poor. All people
expressed amazement at the greatness and richness of the sacrifice, and
said that such a sacrifice the world had never seen before. But, after
the ceremony, there came a little mongoose, half of whose body was
golden, and the other half brown; and he began to roll on the floor of
the sacrificial hall. He said to those around, 'You are all liars; this
is no sacrifice.' 'What!' they exclaimed, 'you say this is no
sacrifice; do you not know how money and jewels were poured out to the
poor and every one became rich and happy? This was the most wonderful
sacrifice any man ever performed.'

But the mongoose said, 'There was once a little village, and in it
there dwelt a poor Brahmin with his wife, his son, and his son's wife.
They were very poor and lived on small gifts made to them for preaching
and teaching. There came in that land a three years' famine, and the
poor Brahmin suffered more than ever. At last when the family had
starved for days, the father brought home one morning a little barley flour, which he had been
fortunate enough to obtain, and he divided it into four parts, one for
each member of the family. They prepared it for their meal, and just as
they were about to eat, there was a knock at the door. The father
opened it, and there stood a guest.

Now in India a guest is a sacred person; he is as a god for the time
being, and must be treated as such. So the poor Brahmin said, 'Come in,
sir; you are welcome,' He set before the guest his own portion of the
food, which the guest quickly ate and said, 'Oh, sir, you have killed
me; I have been starving for ten days, and this little bit has but
increased my hunger.' Then the wife said to her husband, 'Give him my
share,' but the husband said, 'Not so.' The wife however insisted,
saying, 'Here is a poor man, and it is our duty as householders to see
that he is fed, and it is my duty as a wife to give him my portion,
seeing that you have no more to offer him.' Then she gave her share to
the guest, which he ate, and said he was still burning with hunger. So
the son said, 'Take my portion also; it is the duty of a son to help
his father to fulfill his obligations.' The guest ate that, but remained
still unsatisfied; so the son's wife gave him her portion also. That
was sufficient, and the guest departed, blessing them. That night those
four people died of starvation.

A few granules of that flour had fallen on the floor; and when I
rolled my body on them, half of it became golden, as you see. Since
then I have been traveling all over the world, hoping to find another
sacrifice like that, but nowhere have I found one; nowhere else has the
other half of my body been turned into gold. That is why I say this is
no sacrifice.'