Sacrificial Fire

One can make scholars study and recite the Vedas and Shastras, and himself study and recite; 
One can get experts to perform Yajnas and yagas and himself perform them well; 
One can persuade pilgrims to visit holy places and himself journey to every spot; 
One can instruct candidates in the eight siddhis and himself demonstrate them all; 
But, one cannot master his senses five 
And turn his mind to inward path, 
And be in steady Samadhi Bliss 
Steeped in Awareness of Self alone.

The Vedas are the foundation of Bharateeya culture. If in modern society, a trace of spiritual illumination is visible, we can ascribe it to this Vedic basis and the way of life it demarcated. For, all moral codes (Dharma) have emanated from the Vedas. Veda moolam idam Jagat - “All the worlds have Dharma as their sustenance.”

The Yajurveda elaborates the importance of Yajnas. These promote the peace and prosperity of the world, as that is the primary aim of all Vedas. The Yajurveda hymns extol the glory of the Gods and propitiate the Divine Forces. As a result, gold and grain, wealth and welfare, plenty and progress are secured by mankind.

The Yajna is centred on the adoration of Fire. Man is bound intimately with Fire all through his life. Man is a warm-blooded creature; warmth promotes intellect and intuition. Calling upon God and placing the offerings in the Fire are acts which bring about rain to provide rich harvests. Fire is thus a valuable medium for gaining safety and security, for preserving morality and goodness. The Ocean too has Agni (fire) latent in its loins.

Fire Is Present Everywhere

Man has in his stomach the latent Fire that digests food. God resides in man as this Fire. “Aham Vaishwanaro Bhootva Praninam Deham Ashritaha,” says Krishna. “Having become the Vaishwanara Fire, I enter the body of living beings.” So, it is God that keeps all the limbs trim and makes keenness and knowledge possible. The latent Fire causes eight functions. It hardens and strengthens the muscles. It develops energy. It ensures healthy progeny. It makes one patient and therefore a better instrument. It increases the duration of life. It sharpens and deepens memory. It confers boldness of thought and action.

In order to light the Fire in the sacrificial enclosure, a churning rod of hardwood is used on a block of similar hardness. The timber has to be banyan or peepul. The block is the mother and the churner is the father. Agni or Fire is the child. It consumes the parents—Uurvasi the mother and Pururava, the father—when it is born! They are reduced to ashes, that is to say, that child becomes one with them and they become one with their progeny. All three are inseparably related. The son of God, Jesus, declared, “I and my Father are one.” The religion of the Parsis also considers the highest truth as “I am the Light” and “The light is in me”.

The Yajurveda has a name for Agni, Tiger! When Agni is treated without faith and reverence, it destroys the very person who feeds it, just as the tiger which tears its own cubs with its deadly claws. Another characteristic of Agni is its presence everywhere. The scientists and technologists today are proud that they have grasped the secrets of the five elements—sky, wind, fire, water, and earth—but they are still unaware of the intimate kinship each of them has with a man and his daily life. The sages of the past have delved into the mystery and revealed it to the world. Notice, for example, that birds do not rest on the ground at night. They prefer tree tops. Why? The rishis of Vedic times explain that they seek to avoid the heat latent in the earth but patent to them. Man is unaware of this fact but the birds know it.

The Mystery Behind The Ritual Of Fire

The norms of action and behaviour in this land, of those who are cognisant or not cognisant of the reasons, are all in conformity with the Vedas. They have penetrated the nature of the people so deeply that no one can act in contravention. Every phase of their activity, from dawn to dusk and nightfall, are as dictated by the Vedas. Living is, in fact, a real Vedic Yajna, whether one knows it or not.

In the Yajna that is being performed here, every formula that is uttered and every offering made has to be suffused with renunciatory feelings and the awareness of the Divine. We have here Suryanamaskaram (Salutation to Sun God) on one side, Rudrahoma (Fire Offering to God Rudra) on another, Vedaparayana in another place, Sahasralingarchana (worship of thousand Shiva Lingas) nearby, worship of Shakti (Divine Mother) at the end, and pandits reciting Devi Bhagavatam, Ramayana, etc.

Why are these varied items gone through? Among these priests, the chief is termed Brahma. One of them will be reciting the Rigveda, another will be reciting musically the Samaveda, and the third person will be reciting the Yajurveda. The Atharvaveda includes the very essence of the three Vedas and it is recited by the person designated as Brahma. The deities extolled in the Vedas are here invoked and invited to shower Grace on all mankind. The Chief priest, designated as Adhvaryu, watches the activity and sets right any fault or failing. His is the overall supervision of the Sacrificial Fire, its upkeep and worship, and his is the responsibility for meticulous performance.

Whatever Offered To God Can Never Be Lost

Behind this ritual of Fire, there lies a small mystery, which has to be cleared so that you can understand how the offering, addressed to the deity which is invoked by the mantra uttered while placing it in the Fire, can reach that very deity. Well, the Yajurveda describes the Flames of the Sacred Fire as the Tongues of God. When the offering is dropped into Fire, in the name of the God, the proper name and address have to be uttered at the same time. It is like the post box. When a letter is properly addressed and dropped into the box at Prasanthi Nilayam, it will reach any place, even as far as Japan or Russia. If the address indicates Prasanthi Nilayam, it will be delivered to the person at Prasanthi Nilayam. The address has to be full and correct, that is all. And, the stamp has to be of the correct value.

There are people who observe only the outer acts of the Yajna and blame Brahmanas for “wastefully pouring ghee into the fire, while men are underfed and starving”, and accuse that “they are foolishly spending money over profitless pursuits.” Even educated persons join in this ignorant condemnation.

The ryot ploughs the field, prepares the plots, lets water into them, and makes them fit to receive the seeds. Then he scatters four bags of paddy on the land. An ignoramus who does not know agriculture laughs at him. “You have gone mad. You throw the paddy into the soil, when the people are starving; they would gladly eat.” But, in return for the four bags lost, the ‘mad man’ will bring home forty bags after harvest. When two tins of ghee are poured ritually into the sanctified Fire, the world will gain two hundred tins of ghee.

Whatever is dedicated and offered to God can never be lost. People can gain enormous benefit by offering even a little to God. “A leaf or a flower, a fruit or a little water” that is enough, if offered with devotion. Draupadi gave Sri Krishna the fraction of a leaf sticking to the side of a vessel and God granted her endless good fortune. Kuchela gave a handful of parched rice and received from the Lord awareness of His endless Glory. The Yajna bears witness to this inner significance.

Utterance Of Mantras Must Emerge from The Heart

Offer love and receive love. Give and take. But, the educational system today lays stress only on taking, a one-way traffic! Giving is taboo, totally absent. As a result, when you do not look at God, God too does not look at you. When you look towards Me, your form appears in My eye and My form appears in your eye at the same time. If you do not look towards Me, your form cannot appear in Mine. One-way traffic will not help.

The Rigveda that is recited here by the Hota priest is fully hymnal, adoration of the Divine; the Udgata sets the same hymns to music and recites them musically. The Adhvaryu repeats the Yajurveda. All three are propitiating the only one. The Governor Govind Narain quoted in his speech the Vedic declaration, “Ekam Sat; viprah bahudha vadanti” Only ONE is; the wise describe it in different ways.”

It is like the head of the family being addressed as father by the son, father–in-law, by the daughter-in-law, grandpa by the grandson, and lord by the wife. Though four persons use four different names, he remains the same. Similarly, Yogis, Bhogis, and Tyagis, the Arta, the Artharthi, the Jijñasu and the jñani (The ascetics, materialists, renouncers, the spiritual seeker and the realized) use different names for the ONE, without a second, whether you offer to Agni (Fire God) or Aditya (Sun God), it reaches the same ONE.

Sacrifice The Wayward Mind, Dedicating It To God

Theists, atheists, agnostics, polytheists, henotheists, all accost God by various names but they all refer only to the ONE. In this Yajna (sacrificial rite), offerings are addressed as Rudraya namah, Varunaya namah, Indraya namah, Vayave namah and placed in the Fire for Rudra, Varuna, Indra and Vayu (Cosmic destroyer, Rain God, God of senses and Wind God). The sages visualized God in those forms. After the fields are ploughed and the seeds are sown, we want rains to help in getting a rich harvest. So, prayer is directed to Varuna, to the address of Varuna. When you desire Kasturi to come but call ‘Kutumba Rao,’ how can you succeed? For rains, you have to call on Varuna, and not on Agni! That is to say, the proper mantras have to be uttered and the utterance must emerge from the heart.

The sages of the past were not ignorant fools and the mantras and rites they framed and prescribed were not born of amateur enthusiasm. They are the results of wisdom and actual experience. Reciters who are not aware of this truth will mouth the hymns and mantras in a casual manner. Others who ruminate over the meaning and feel the emotions of exaltation and supplication are able to derive delight. Recitation without understanding the meaning might grant a little superficial satisfaction but the hymn can pour from the heart only when the meaning is sensed.

The inner meaning of Yajna is ‘renunciation,’ “Sacrifice or giving up”. For whom? For the Divine. “Lord! The heart that you gave me, I am offering it in return,” is the spirit of that renunciation. The heart he has given, the feelings He evokes, the wealth He has conferred, the fame He has awarded—these have to be gladly offered back. As part of these Yajnas, it is laid down that an animal, a goat, or a horse has to be ‘sacrificed’ that is to say, “given up.” People ask whether it is not a cruel act.

Scriptures dealing with rituals are comparable, it is said, to Aranyam, the jungle. They are called Aranyakas. The terms used in the scriptures have many meanings and it is hard to trace the straight meaning and prefer it to the crooked and deceptive one. For example, the Ashwamedha or Horse Sacrifice, does not mean the ritual killing of a horse. The name Ashwa given to the horse describes it as an animal which is restless all the time — symbolising the mind which is agitated, both while awake and while dreaming. The horse can never be calm and quiet. Its legs, tail, or ears will be quivering or shaking always. The banyan tree is called Ashwattha, since its leaves will ever be shaking, wind or no wind.

What is recommended is ‘sacrifice’ of the wayward mind, dedicating it to God so that it becomes stable and calm, and not bringing a living animal and killing it. That is adherence to the outer literal meaning of the injunction, not to the inner and valid import. Listen to the significances of Vedic aphorisms and rituals and scriptural injunctions with selfless, pure, and joyful concentration. Treasure them in the heart for practice in daily life and for sharing with other earnest souls.

Prasanthi Nilayam, Inauguration of the Veda Purusha Saptaaha Jnana Yajna, 21.10.1982.