The Inner Yajna
Swami, in His discourse on one of the ten days of worship during the festival of Dasara,describes the significance of yajnas [sacrificial rites]. According to Him, they not only benefit the people who perform them, but also the entire world.
Since centuries and millennia, sacrificial rites like the Vedapurusha Sapthaha Jnana Yajna [which was being inaugurated in Puttaparthi] have been observed in India for the welfare of the world. These rites are not performed to benefit an individual, a family, a sect, a caste, or those who follow a particular faith. The aim is universal. The beneficiaries are all living beings, for the rites calm the elements and propitiate the deities presiding over the earth, the waters, the fire, the wind, and the sky. The sages of old chose some place away from the habitations of man, either on the bank of a river or in the recesses of a forest, for the celebration of yajnas. No one or no body of men can claim any special attention being given to them. The yajna is everybody’s privilege; it becomes a success through everyone’s effort. No one person can pride himself that he is indispensable. Handfuls of grain brought by those who had sincere desire to participate were heaped together. Handfuls of ritual fuel-sticks brought by the priests and pundits were stacked together. This was done as a symbol of the union of minds and hearts and as an assurance that each one can share in the blessings of the Gods invoked by the mantras [sacred formulas]. When the ego of a few is given free play and fame is offered to one or many, as often happens in yajnas today, the rites are rendered unholy and fruitless. This is the reason why yajnas have become occasions for ridicule and adverse criticism.
Among yajnas, there are two types—the outer and the inner. The outer is the reflection of the inner. The inner yajna is the bird in the hand; the outer is the bird in the bush. But, since the sanctified vision and urge are absent today, what is happening is the release of the bird in the hand with the attempt to catch the bird in the bush. The value and significance of the inner yajna have to be understood first. It involves the awareness of the divinity that is dormant but decisive in the very center of our reality. Worship it, propitiate it, please it, and become it.
The mind is the altar; place the animal that is to be offered as oblation (the evil qualities in your character, behavior, attitude) and sacrifice it to the deity invoked. Man is born as man, burdened by animal instincts and impulses that have attached themselves to him during previous lives as animal. He has passed through many an animal existence and each has left its mark on his mental make-up, just as the scar on the skin when a wound is healed. For example, man is afflicted with the disease of aggressive conceit. This is no natural trait for man. It is a relic of a former elephantine life. He is sometimes pitiably foolish. This is a relic of his existence once upon a time as a sheep. Some have an inborn tendency to steal. This, too, may well be reminiscent of his years in the dim past as a cat, which is a sly poacher creeping into homes in search of milk, cheese, and other tasty articles. Again, some men are endowed with a full equipment of unsteadiness and waywardness. This is an inheritance from the monkey he was, previous to his appearance in the world as man. Man is known in Sanskrit as nara and the monkey as va-nara. When va or valam (tail) is subtracted, vanara is reduced to nara; the monkey becomes man. Man has lost the tail, but he has still all the waywardness and unsteadiness of that animal.
The totality of such animal traces must be sacrificed on the altar of the mind, as part of the inner yajna. The outer visible yajna is a means to convey this inner purpose and message. When children are taught letters, the objects which they can see and identify are chosen and the spelling of the words by which they are known is selected. Under the picture of a chair, the word ‘chair’ is printed, and the child is persuaded to discover that c h a i r read ‘chair’. Later, the picture is discarded as superfluous. So, too, until the lesson is learned, the external ritual of fuel sticks being offered to the sacrificial fire has to continue. The ritual is the casket, the destruction of the animal impulses, the gem that it is designed to keep safe.
Here [in Puttaparthi] we see ritwiks [who recite hymns] who are specialists in the different stages of Vedic sacrifices. We hear the recitation of Vedic hymns. We have pundits reading the Ramayana, the Bhagavatha, and the Devi-bhagavatha from the original texts. We have the ceremonial worship of Devi [Divine Mother] on the lines of scriptural injunctions. A pundit is engaged in the puja [worship] of a thousand lingas [symbol of Siva]. There is another priest who propitiates the Sun God by means of ritual prostration to the accompaniment of mantras praising His glory. Godhead in all its manifestations of elements and forces is thus being adored for seven days as part of Vedapurusha Yajna. The five senses and their impacts, the five sheaths that enclose the atma [soul] are all symbolized in these activities.
The outermost sheath (kosa) is the annamaya kosa, composed of the material body made out of the anna or the food one lives on. Anna, the body built by anna, and the man are all the products of the self-same substance, the soil or earth. So that the material body be filled with felicity, the vital, mental and intellectual sheaths need to be sublimated. All the sheaths have to be finally merged in the illumination of jnana, beatific wisdom. The homa or the oblation in the sanctified flame is the symbol of this consummation. The fire you see is fed by fuel-sticks and ghee [clarified butter]; the flames of wisdom burn out the last traces of ego, ignorance, and desire. And what exactly is the ghee that feeds the flames? It is clarified butter; butter is churned from curds; curd is curdled milk; milk is drawn from the cow; the cow moving on four feet symbolizes the four Vedas. So, symbolically, the Vedas themselves help the light of wisdom to shine. The Vedas are embodiments of the truth that can liberate and save. Recitation of the Vedas purifies the environment and strengthens the will to be true. Truth is the basis of dharma [right action]. The Vedas expound the truth. These lessons are symbolically conveyed by the various ceremonial items happening in this sacrifice or yajna.
Many who are unaware of this significance find fault with those who partake in such yajnas. They criticize the loss of grain and ghee. They bemoan the waste of precious materials, caused by the irrational behavior of the priests. But the seers who declared the mantras, the Vedas, which prescribe the ritual, and those who faithfully celebrate the yajna are not foolish at all. Ignorant people lament the loss when the farmer scatters bags of grain on the ploughed field, for they do not know that when harvest time comes around, the farmer can collect from the field ten times the quantity of grain that was scattered by him. A single tin of ghee offered with appropriate mantras in the holy fire will result in a million tins of ghee for mankind. The vibrations of the mantras and the effect of the oblations will ensure prosperity and welfare all over the world. Prompted by universal compassion, the sages and the seers of old prescribed these yajnas so that they may result in the welfare of mankind. Thus, men of all climes and creeds are being benefited by the Hindus persisting in the observance of the directions of the rishis [sages].
In Bharat [India], the message has always been, “Tolerance, respect for all faiths, practice of the essential teachings of love and service, and the giving up of hatred, envy, and pride.” This yajna will help you to understand that message and live in accordance with it.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, November 1979
