Yajna
Satsanga by Shri Siddhartha Krishna
at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, Rishikesh, Uttaranchal
on 19th February 2006

My Most Beloved Friends,

This time I will touch a beautiful subject from the Upanishads. Upanishad means the deep and secret knowledge of the Supreme Self. So much has been described, so much has been talked about the Self in the Upanishads, but eventually it is not the reading, but it is the experience that counts. It is the experience that matters. One of the central aspects of the Vedas, of which Upanishads are a small part, is Yajna. Yajna…How to translate it into English, this is very difficult. If we say “fire sacrifice”, than it is just one small aspect of Yajna. The complete Yajna is universal. It is happening everywhere. But what is it? What did it mean to the ancient seers? This will be the subject of our discussion today.

Dharma and its Three Pillars
According to the Chandogya Upanishad “Dharma”, known also to Buddhists as “Dhamma”, has three pillars, on which Dharma stands. What is Dharma? Dharma is usually translated with the word “Religion”, but Dharma is good thoughts, good speech, good deeds, it is everything that is beautiful. Everything good that is happening in our life is Dharma. Religion is derived from the Latin word “religio”, which means fear of the Supernatural, or from “re + ligare” which means to bind. But Dharma is fearlessness and freedom. The Divine Laws, viz. love, compassion etc. that govern this Universe are also called Dharma. If they wouldn’t exist this universe would perish. They sustain this world. The world would be destroyed if there would be no Love. All these beautiful qualities, virtues are a part of Dharma. The Sanskrit term “Dharma” means that which holds, “dhaaraNaad dharmah”, Dharma is that which bears, holds.

Adhyayana = study
But what is it that sustains Dharma? Three pillars are described in the Chandogya Upanishad. The first one is Yajna. We will talk about that later. The second one is Adhyayana, study. In Patanjali’s Yogic terms or in the terms of Taittiriya Upanishad it is also called Svadhyaya, self-study, to study about the Self and to contemplate on it, to listen about it and then eventually to meditate upon it. All this comes under Adhyayana, svaadhyaaya, Self-study.

Dana = gift-giving
Then Daana, which means to give. Whatever has been given to us because of our good karmas, whether it is Divine Wealth, wisdom, knowledge or it is material wealth, that doesn’t matter, to share it with others, to give it to others, this is called Daana. These are the three pillars of Dharma on which Dharma resides, abodes, rests. However, even if we just remember one word, Yajna, it is enough. Everything is included in it. Self-study and gift-giving, both can be included Yajna. Yajna is universal.

The three meanings of the root Yaj
What does the word Yajna mean? Because it is a Sanskrit term and the words in Sanskrit are like containers, you have to open it and then look into it, and only then the deeper esoteric significance of that word is discovered. The word Yajna is derived from the root Yaj that has three meanings.

Yaj = 1. To worship the Divinity
The first meaning is to worship the Divinity that exists in everybody and everywhere. Some people get lost with Hinduism, because there are so many Divinities, but please always remember that the God, the Supreme God is one. This is very clearly stated in the Rigveda which is the most ancient scripture of the Indian culture, “the truth is one, but the wise men describe it in endless ways”. There are many different names for one Lord. Even according to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad there are 33 Divinities or Gods, but they are the manifestation of one single God, Supreme Lord. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states that when somebody tells you “worship him, worship him” always keep in your mind that it is this Supreme Truth that has become all these, all these are his creation. Deva, Divinity, is the Supreme Truth which manifests itself in all different forms, so that we can worship it, just for our convenience. And the Sanskrit word for worship is “Upaasanaa”, which means to sit near. According to the explanation of Bhagavan Shankaracharya “to sit near” means to meditate upon. “Worship means a prolonged state characterised by the flow of an identical idea, like a flow of oil.” (Commentary on the Gita 12-3) The flow of water breaks, but the flow of oil is constant, it never breaks. So the Vrittis, the modifications, the fluctuations of our mind need to flow in that constant manner when we worship, when we do Upaasanaa. This is the first significance of the root. The word is Yajna and its root is Yaj. So we are still just trying to understand the root from which the word is derived.

Yaj = 2. To come into contact, Satsanga
The second significance of the root is to come together, to come into contact; for example all of us have come into contact with each other. We are sitting together and we are trying to pursue the Divine Knowledge which has been described in the ancient scriptures. And such a contact was considered so essential and necessary to obtain wisdom in Ancient India that the word for contact in Sanskrit also means knowledge. The word is Samgati, which means to come into contact and according to ancient dictionaries such as Medini Kosha it also means knowledge. And to come into contact with saintly people is so essential for our spiritual development that without that contact the knowledge cannot come into existence. “binu satasanga viveka na hoi” in the Ramacarita Manasa it is said that without Satsanga, which means to come into contact with Sat, Sajjana, truthful people, Viveka, knowledge of discrimination, knowledge about what is right and what is wrong, cannot dawn upon us. Then he says that that contact only happens with the grace of the Divine Lord. This contact is so essential that in one of the Buddha’s commandments, in Sutta Nikaya, it is stated that if you want to come into contact with anybody, then come only in contact with great people, with truthful people, with great saints. Meet them, sit in their presence, understand the essence of Dhamma from them, only then the Divine Intelligence would dawn upon you. Panna in Pali and Prajna in Sanskrit mean Divine Intelligence. The same word is used by Lord Patanjali “Ritambhara tatra Prajna” (In the state of Union, Divine Wisdom dawns upon us) and the same word is used by Buddha in the Suttanikaaya in its Pali version, “pannaa labhati naannato”, this Divine Knowledge, this Divine Wisdom, this Divine Intelligence can not be obtained from anybody else, accept the people that have realized the Truth. This Sansanga only happens by God’s grace.

This contact with great saints is extremely essential. We can obtain knowledge by reading books. We can become a scholar by reading books. Everything is written in the books. By reading them we can even get it into our mind which is very easy comparatively. But to bring it in our life, to introduce the Divine Wisdom into our daily day-to-day life, is very difficult. The gap between our head and heart remains deep and vast. It is very difficult to fill that gap. Even after becoming a great scholar, how to live all that we have studied, how to experience it, this remains the greatest challenge. Only a living master can help us there. No book, no film, no CD, nothing helps there. It has to be a living entity. So even after becoming a great scholar and after getting all the information that we need to have to be able to walk on this path of Spirituality, the first step only occurs when we come in contact with truthful people, with Sat, or with Sat-Guru. Sat means that which exists, somebody who exists, somebody who can describe that Truth. Somebody who lives it.

You might have heard the word “Acarya” in Sanskrit. It is quite a famous word. People always say “I’m an Acarya” which means I’m a master. But what the word Acarya in itself means? It is a person who teaches “Aacaara”, conduct, how to behave, how to live. And how does he teach it? Through words? No, it cannot be taught through words. If I keep on telling you, do this and that, and never do it myself, nobody would listen to me. And this is what is happening in today’s world. Nobody is listening to anybody. There are so many masters, but nobody is listening to them. Because they use words, but they don’t live them, they don’t teach how to behave through their own behavior, through their own life, through their own living example. The word Acarya means one who teaches as a living example. And that is why in ancient India, if you read the Upanishads, the teachings were very little, just a very few words, but the students lived for years together with their masters, while serving them, being in their presence and just absorbing the knowledge that is radiating from them each and every moment of their life, this is Satsanga which is even more essential and necessary than this verbal dialogue for which we usually use the word Satsanga now a days. Today when we talk about Satsanga people think now he will start to talk on some spiritual topic. But talking is not a necessity for Satsanga, on the contrary it is a hindrance for deeper communion. There is a very beautiful statement about Dakshinaa Murti. Under a Banyan tree something absurd, really strange is happening. Dakshinaa Murti was a five-year old child, Self-enlightened child. The statement is, “under a Banyan tree there is an absurd scene, the teacher is a small child and the students are old people. The discourse of the master is silent and the students are freed from all their doubts.” This is indeed also the divine communion that we can see in the life of Lord Buddha. Once Ananda asked him, “O my master! Have you described everything to me?” Ananda was an intellectual person, so he approached Buddha and asked such a question. He used to memorize everything. Whatever Buddha taught him, he memorized it. He remembered all the teachings of the Buddha. One can only memorize words. The Wisdom has to bee understood. That is why he never became a Buddha, he always remained a Sthavira, an old monk and never reached the state of Buddhatva. He even didn’t become an Arhat, an able one. So he goes to Buddha and asks, “have you described everything to me?” Buddha goes into deep silence and meditates for a few moments, picks up a few leaves from the ground and says, “Ananda! Whatever I have told you, or whatever anybody else has told you, whatever you have studied or heard from any source, is just this much, just a handful of leaves. And everything, as much as all leaves that you see around you in this forest and all forest and everything else, still remains to be described, but cannot be described through words.” This is why silence eventually is the last means to communicate the Divine Teaching. There is no other means left. Words can never pass the message. Upanishads tell us, “From where the mind, along with speech, comes back without reaching it. So this is the significance of the word Satsanga, which is one of the significances of the root Yaj.

Yaj = 3. To give
The third significance of the root Yaj is to give. To share with others whatever has been given to you by the Lord. So in pure grammatical significance the word Yajna which has been derived from the root Yaj means, 1. to worship the Divinity, 2. to come into contact with Saintly people, 3. and to give, to share. This gives us a small picture of Yajna and what it is. In Yajna we worship the Divinity, we come into contact with great souls and we give to others. Such a Yajna is universal because it doesn’t belong to one particular religion, but in every religion we perform such Yajna. In every religion we worship the Divinity, the form can differ, the Divinity is always the same, and this is approved by the statement of the Rigveda, “the Truth is one, but the wise men have their different approaches”. I would like to add to this that different wise people in different times and in different places used different terms to denote one single Divinity. To worship the Divinity and then to come in contact with those who have already worshiped that Divinity for quite a long time and try to live that life, then to give to others, all this is called Yajna, which is one of the most central aspect of Vedic Sanatana Religion, known as Hinduism now a days.

Five Yajnas
There are five types of Yajnas, five different types to worship. The first one is called Brahma Yajna. It has different significances. It can also mean the greatest worship or it can also mean to worship the holy word or the holy teachings. The word Brahman in Sanskrit in fact denotes something that is omnipresent, something that exists everywhere. In the same way as the Supreme Truth exists everywhere, His Divine Knowledge, His Divine Word, is considered eternal and omnipresent in Hindu Culture. The Lord and Lord’s word, both are considered eternal and omnipresent. That is why the Lord, the Supreme Truth and Its words, the holy book, both of them are referred to by the same term “Brahma”. The Vedas are also called Brahma and the Supreme Truth that has been described in the Vedas is also called Brahma. So to worship that Holy Word means to read it and then trying to live it, experience it in our life. This is the first form of Yajna.
This is also called Svadhyaya in various scriptures which means to study about the Self. It is one aspect of the first step towards Yoga, which is called Kriya Yoga by Patanjali. According to Patanjali Kriya Yoga is Austerity, Self-study and complete surrender to Lord. When we take BrahmaYajna in its universal application, if we take it in a universal significance, we consider every Holy Divine text the word of that Supreme Lord, may it be the Bible, may it be the Dhamma Pada or the Tripitaka, may it be the Vedas, may it be the Upanishads, may it be the Gita, may it be the Koran, may it be the Avesta, to read them and trying to live in accordance with their teachings is called Brahma Yajna.

Benefits of Brahma Yajna
What is the benefit of doing this? Patanjali gives a list of benefits. If you ask Lord Patanjali that what is the benefit of Svadhyaya, the first thing that he will say is “inner purification”. Purification from ignorance, purification from ego, attachment, hatred and fears. The second benefit of performing Svadhyaya (Self-study) is the ability to reach the state of Samadhi. The third benefit that he mentions is “Ishta devataa samprayogah”, meeting with the desired Deva, radiant beings, to obtain the radiant modifications of our intellect. Our mind has different fluctuations and modifications, at times dark ones and sometimes radiant ones. The radiant modifications of our mind are called Devas, Divinities, and dark thoughts, dark modifications of our mind are called Asuras, Demons. This has been very much stated by Shankaracharya in the commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. So, to be able to reach the desired Divinities and to introduce them into our personality, Self-study is extremely essential. The statement of Lord Patanjali means by performing Self-study you come in contact with your desired Divinity. These are the benefits of Brahma Yajna, The first aspect of Yajna.

Devayajna
The second Yajna is the fire-sacrifice that we perform in the Yajna Shala, where we burn fire, we worship the fire, considering it as a symbol of the Supreme Lord. It is the most wonderful symbol that we can have in this world, more wonderful than any other symbol. It is universal. You will see a candle, a lamp in all temples, in churches, everywhere. Why? Because fire is in the center of everything. It is in the center of our body, in the form of Jathara Agni, gastric fire. It is in the center of this earth. It is in the center of the solar system in the form of the sun. Everything is rotating around Light, with the power, the force, given by that Light. The fire exists within everything and it is the same fire in all different manifestations. If we have three flames in front of us, none of them is different from each other. It is just that space that is creating a difference. The moment you bring them together, they become one flame. So the fire is hidden everywhere. It is not visible here in this desk, but when you rub it, the fire will manifest. It is everywhere like God, but you have to make an effort to manifest it, to be able to see it, to be able to experience it. One of the most wonderful qualities of the fire is that it always faces upwards. However you place a candle, the flame will always go upwards. Fire is a great purifier. It purifies everything. It destroys darkness. Whatever is given to the fire, it consumes it and then distributes it to everybody. You put herbs and melted butter into the fire, and they reach everybody. Such a fire, let me make it very clear, is not only worshiped in Hinduism. If you read the Old Testament, “Aahitaagni” priests have been mentioned. The Sanskrit term means “priests in whose houses the fire never extinguishes” and such priests have even been mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. The book Leviticus which is from the Old Testament mentions very clearly,

“And the Lord spake unto moses, And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. Forever the fire shall burn on the altar and never it shall go out.” – Leviticus (The ritual precepts) 6-12,13"

Even in the Koran it is stated, “Praise be to Him who is in the fire and who is also around the fire. Praise Allah, the lord of the worlds.” (Surah An Naml 27-8)

Lord Zarathushtra says, “Contemplate the beams of Fire with a most pious mind. Fire purifies everything it touches, and itself remains pure. Nothing, ever, can pollute Fire.” You must read the teachings of Lord Zarathushtra regarding the Fire, they are extraordinary and wonderful.

 So this fire is a central aspect in every religion because every religious mind was fascinated and attracted towards it when it saw this radiant object, which is really a wonderful symbol, on which we can meditate, analyze its properties, and internally try to become like that fire, i.e. introduce all its beautiful qualities into our personality. I think this is what Lord Zarathushtra means when he says, “Fire teaches many a lesson to all who contemplate its beams with an enquiring mind.” The Rigveda also mentions very clearly, “By meditating upon the Fire, one obtains Divine Wisdom.” And this is why we worship the fire in this second aspect of Yajna, which is Devayajna, which means to worship the radiant one. This is the second Yajna.

Pitri Yajna
The third Yajna is to worship our parents, masters and forefathers. Our mother who has given us this beautiful human body which gives us a chance for relief and salvation. It is the most precious and beautiful gift that we have been given by God. God has given it to us, in the form of our mother. The first necessity to reach salvation is that we need a body, a strong healthy body. To experience the beauty of this life we need a body. So we need to be thankful to our parents and then to our masters. The Vedas command us, Matri devo bhava, Let your mother be God unto you; mother is God. Pitridevo bhava, let your father be God unto you, father is God. Acharya devo bhava, let your master be God unto you, master is God. To worship all of them, to take care of them, to obey them, to serve them, this is called Pitri Yajna, the third aspect of Yajna.

Nriyajna
The fourth Yajna is Nriyajna, which means to worship the entire humanity. Nri means human. To worship the humans, to serve them, take care of them if they are in grief, pain or sorrow, to work hard for the well being and peace of the entire humanity is Nriyajna.

Bhutayajna
Bhuta means all the creatures that have come into existence. Any living being is a Bhuta. To worship it, to serve it, to see the Divinity in everybody, in every creature, is BhutaYajna. This is the fifth and the last Yajna. And that is why the greatest devotee according to Krishna in the Gita is he who is engaged in the well being of every creature.
And the last abode, the goal that we need to reach even after salvation, even after we have reached Moksha, or whatever our goal is, is to become beneficial for the entire creation. If the ultimate goal there is to serve the humanity, and not only the humanity, but to serve, to be beneficial towards every creature, for me this is Supreme Perfection. This is the supreme goal at least for me, higher than any other religious, philosophical or dogmatic goal. Serve the entire creation! We have reached the end. If any questions are left, let us discuss them together.

Questions and Answers

1. Question:
How have you reached at your definition of the word “Upanishad”? If the word “Upanishad” means the most secret teaching etc. can you explain the grammatical definition of the word?
Answer:
Wherever something secret esoteric is being mentioned in ancient Vedic scriptures, like the Upanishads, the Brahmanas or the Vedas itself, it is called “Upanishad”. Always such a context starts with the quotation “Now this is an Upanishad”, which means this is a secret esoteric teaching. So this is a very common word that has been used in ancient scriptures. “Upa” means to go near and “ni” is a prefix added to “shad”, which is the root in this word, means, total destruction, annihilation. So the implication would be that a teaching, which unites the individual soul to the Universal Soul and totally annihilates, destroys ignorance, darkness, is called Upanishad. This explanation is given by Bhagavan Sureshvara Acarya, the direct disciple of Bhagavan Shankaracharya.

2. Question:
Why is it so important to perform the rituals in Yajna and what is the connection of Yajna and rituals?
Answer:
As I just said, the ritual, worshipping the fire, is just one aspect of the Yajna. When we make a cake why is it so necessary to follow the exact instructions provided to us in a cook-book? Why is it necessary? That is why so much emphasis has been laid on the correct pronunciation of the Mantras, purity in all the rituals and in whatever is being performed. In every ritual there are three aspects, to know the ritual, to have faith in the ritual and then the most beautiful this is the Upanishad of the ritual (the symbolical significance of the ritual). “Yadeva vidyayaa karoti shraddhayaa upanishadaa, tadeva viiryavattaram bhavati” means, a ritual only becomes powerful when it is performed with knowledge (how you need to perform it in the correct way), faith and Upanishad (knowledge of the symbolical esoteric significance of the ritual). It doesn’t mean that it is totally useless if you don’t perform it in a correct way, because in fact it is faith which is the most essential part of a ritual. If you have faith, then whatever you do is perfect, is fine. God will accept it, but still the outcome of the ritual becomes really powerful when three aspects, knowledge of the rituals (i.e. knowledge about how it should be performed), faith and the knowledge of the deeper significance of the actions, are known to the practitioner. Shraddha means faith, devotion, love, which is the soul of the ritual. If there is no faith, if there is no devotion, if there is no love, then the ritual is a dead body, a corpse without life. A ritual is nothing without Shraddha, love, faith, devotion. So much has been discussed about Shraddha in the Rigveda, it is the greatest Dharma, it is the greatest law. It is like the Kohinoor gem which we have in the crown of the queen of England. The other aspect is to know how to perform it. The third aspect is the Upanishad of that ritual, the symbolism, to know what it symbolizes, what it is all about. It is just an external ritual, it is a picture, but whose picture is it? Everything has been described in the Brahmana’s, in the Vedas, it is just a matter of discovering it, experiencing it, and then knowing it.

3. Question:
I understood what you are telling us, but I’m not getting it why are there rituals? Is the faith, only shraddha, not enough?
Answer:
Faith needs an external expression. It needs to be expressed. Ritual is one of the many methods to do so. Performing an action is an essential thing. I think a person cannot remain without doing anything for a single moment, until and unless the person has reached a very high state of Purification. To reach this highest level of purity one needs to perform rituals that are able to purify our inner consciousness. The Yajurveda says that if you wish to refrain from sin, sin means wrong deeds, deeds that are painful, harmful to others, the only way is to engage yourself in good deeds, good actions. If we are not engaged in good and noble deeds, we would harm others by our behavior. We would sin; our nature is like this that we are bound to perform something that would harm others. So to refrain from those sins, the only way is to do something good. And I think that is why rituals and the whole symbolism in it are so significant. If they are performed with correct consciousness, with correct understanding, they become extremely beneficial, particularly for a Shadhaka. Even though Shankaracharya is considered a great renunciate and talks about Jnana, knowledge, and not so much about rituals, he emphasizes the importance of performing rituals again and again in his commentary on the holy texts. It would be a great misunderstanding if we think that Shankaracharya only talks about knowledge, whereas he places a great emphasis also on rituals. He states very clear again and again that performing rituals is the only means for the purification of our heart. For that purification, Deva Yajna, worshiping the fire, is essential. Because there we have got something in front of us, we have got an object, we have got a symbol, we have got a particular method. So it is like meditation, it is a very active type of meditation. Not the way it is performed by most modern priests, coming there and then running away, buzz the Mantras and quickly finishing everything. “Do you want me to finish the Puja in two minutes, Pandit ji, kindly be quick”-sort of thing!

4. Question:
Can those rituals be mental rituals also, or instead they have to be physical?
Answer:
There are three aspects in the Vedic system of meditation. Karma (rituals) Upasana (meditations) and Jnana (knowledge). Before knowledge Karma and Upasana have been mentioned. Karma is a physical ritual and Upasana, which has been described in the Upanishads also, is a mental ritual. The first stage is the stage in which we perform external rituals, and then from them you go slowly into mental rituals, and then eventually one also leaves away those and then you reach into the state of Jnana (Knowledge or Divine Wisdom). Bhrahmana texts mainly talk about rituals, external rituals. Aranyaka texts mainly talk about mental rituals, and Upanishads are all about pure knowledge, Divine Wisdom, Enlightenment.

My Dearest Friends, the time is over for today. Thank you all that you have come from so many different countries and especially from Korea. God may bless you!