Make Every Moment a Yajña

How amazing is this! A person can get sacrifices galore performed through scholars versed in Vedic ritual lore and himself perform them; a person can praise the holiness of diverse shrines and sports to inspire others to journey thereto and himself journey thither; a person can teach the eight Vidyas to many and make them experts and himself master them all.

But few are there who succeed in mastering their bodies, senses, and wayward minds and turn inward to gain perpetual and unchanging equanimity.

Life is most precious. The breath (prana) which sustains it is even more precious. Nevertheless, it becomes often necessary to give up this precious prana while attempting to realize some goals. Human nature is such that man is never content with a single achievement. He feels “there is always room at the top.” This urges him on and on towards higher and higher goals. He wins many victories and craves for more. He never attains satiety. To be ever discontented – that state alone gives him contentment!

Man embarks upon an undertaking with a purpose, goal, or an end in view. But the endeavor is sublimated into Yajña (sacrificial rite which can draw down the Grace of God) only if the purpose, goal, or end is the glorification of God, regardless of other considerations.

"Yajño vai Vishnu," say the Vedas. God is the Yajña, for He is the Goal. His Grace is the reward. His creation is used to propitiate Him; the performer is He, the receiver is He. When the ego of the sacrificer does not claim a place, the Yajña is rendered Divine.

Without Faith Adoration Is Artificial

Aham hi, Aham hi, Sarvayajñanam: "In all yajñas, I am the Doer, the Donor, the Consumer, the Acceptor." This is the reason the Chief Priest in a Yajña such as the Veda Purusha Saptaha Jñana Yajña we are inaugurating now is named Brahma. The priest nominated as Brahma has to guide the rest of the ritualists; he must have his wife by his side, or else, his credentials are inadequate. The wife represents faith (shraddha). Without faith, praise is hollow, adoration is artificial, and sacrifice a barren exercise.

Really speaking, the heart is the ceremonial altar; the body is the fireplace; the hair is the holy grass, darbha; wishes are the fuel-sticks with which the fire is fed; desire is the ghee that is poured into the fire to make it burst into flame; anger is the sacrificial animal; the fire is the tapas we accomplish. People sometimes interpret tapas as ascetic practices like standing on one leg or on the head. No. Tapas is not physical contortion. It is the complete and correct coordination of thought, word, and deed. When this is achieved, the splendor of fire will manifest.

Talking of thought, word, and deed in the context of the Veda Purusha Saptaha Jñana Yajña, I have to tell you that the Rig-veda is vak (speech) taken form. The Sama-veda contains hymns that are sung. It is stotra (hearing) which has taken form. Whenever the speech is saturated with truth and compassion, or inspired by service to others, it becomes Rig-veda. Good deeds are Yajur-veda. There is no compulsion that you should have an external altar as here. Only you should be vigilant about the purity of the words you utter or listen to and the deeds you engage in.

Five Yajñas Are Prescribed For Every Human Being

Every act of yours from sunrise to the onset of sleep is a Yajña, remember! There are five yajñas prescribed as mandatory for every human being:

1. Rishi Yajña – activities devoted to the study of scriptures.
2. Pitri Yajña — activities devoted to the parents who conferred the body and who fostered and guided you. Acts by which you express your gratitude and affection, adoration, and appreciation are really holy Yajña.
3. Deva Yajña — acts done as reverential homage to God who endowed you with mind, intelligence, memory, and consciousness and who is inherent in every cell as Rasa, the vital energy. (Raso Vai Sah – He is flow of energy). He is angirasa, present in every anga or limb. So, Deva Yajña involves the right use of these instruments God has given you.
4. Atithi Yajña — adoration of guests. Everyone has, sometime or the other, the chance to welcome a guest and treat him with affection and please him with sincere hospitality. They may be one’s own kith and kin or strangers, but they are all to be honored as if sent by God. Then, acts done to entertain them and to make them feel at home are raised to the status of Yajña.
5. Bhuta Yajña — unselfish acts done while dealing with trees, plants, animals, birds, and pets like cats and dogs.

There are also a few more yajñas prescribed in the scriptures. Jñana Yajña is one of such. Jñana is usually taken to mean knowledge gained from scholars and books and acting in accordance with that knowledge. But derived knowledge cannot be jñana. Knowledge can never ripen into wisdom so long as the ego persists in craving for results which can satisfy desire. When the ego fades away, Knowledge can shine as Wisdom. Jñana reveals that in the Veda purusha sacrifice performed here and in all other yajñas celebrated elsewhere, God is the Prompter, the Sacrificer, the Sacrifice, the Product achieved, and the Recipient of the product.

Many people perform yajñas without cleansing themselves. Only those yajñas that have, like this one, the peace and prosperity of the world (Loka-Kalyanam) as the avowed purpose, can reach God. For He is Yajñabhuk (the consumer of the offering); He is Yajña-bhrt (guardian of the Yajña) and Yajña krt (performer of the Yajña). He is all; it is only when He is all that the act becomes genuinely Yajña. If this attitude can soak into every activity, it will sanctify every moment of your life and make it a Yajña.

People resort to Gurus to receive mantras (mystically powerful formulae to be recited by them for their spiritual uplift); others seek men of medicine and holy monks to get yantras (esoteric talismans to ward off evil forces); some others learn from pandits, tantras (secret rites for attaining superhuman powers). But all this is wasteful effort. One should accept the body as the tantra, one’s own breath as the mantra and one’s heart as the yantra. There is no need to seek them outside oneself. When all words emanating from you are sweet, your breath becomes Rig-veda. When you restrict what you listen to and prefer only sweet speech, all that you hear becomes Sama gana. When you do only sweet deeds, all that you do is Yajur Homa. Then, you will be performing every day the Veda Purusha Saptaha Jñana Yajña, the Yajña which propitiates the Vedic Spirit.

Purnachandra Auditorium, 2-10-1981