Veda and Yajna

The Veda, from छन्दस् Chandas to ब्राह्मण-आरण्यक उपनिषद् Brahmana-Aranyaka Upanisad. is a repository of revelatory Word. Words from the cosmic to the material levels. By chandas is meant the collections i.e. Samhitas of Veda Metrical Rṣi-Vāņis, litaries, Psalms required in यज्ञ

यज्ञ yajña is the Action, the अनुष्ठान anusthana, the ceremony, the process from अग्निहोत्र to अश्वमेध by which a human is elevated higher and higher from a common man-woman to a benevolent emperor- empress, till he/she is merged in Identity with Self 3, Creation or God Brahma

Sacrifice is not an equivalent term for Yajña. The word ‘mutual’ has to be prefixed. Mutual sacrifice is yajña. Mutual yearning and giving is Yajña. Whole Nature and conscious creatures are doing yajña in some form or other, from Cosmic Purusa to ordinary Purusas i.c. individuals. The root pr means to fill. The root vas> us means to shine. So Puruşa means a concrete figure of approaching Light. ‘We belong not to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future’ says Sri Aurobindo.

Veda and Yajña are intertwined.

The Yajamana becomes less and less bereft of his/her upadhis, i.e. assumptions, like appearance, dress, learning, money, social or political status etc., the masks of his/her inner self, till he/she becomes an atomic zero. Simultaneously he/she is filled up with the layers or no-layers of the higher Self, SELF. Hence the constant muttering with each mantra of offering – अग्ने इदं न मम, सोमाय इदं न मम, अदितये इदं न मम This offering is for Agni, for Soma, for Aditi the undivided whole (from the root to cut in pieces). This is not mine. This self-negation asserts the affirmation of the Vast Self creeping in the body-mind-prāna of the giver receiver making his / her body a सत्त्वतनु, भागवती तनु, ब्राह्मी तनु । The आर्य Arya or the Rși approximates or becomes the Devala. The Pujaka approximates or becomes the Deva or Devi. This is the clue to the immortality of Vaidik Rṣis, Buddha, Mahavira, Jesu, Nanak (meaning ‘dear little boy’), Guru Govind, Vallabha, Caitanya, Dayananada, Ramkrishno, Sarada, Bijaykrishno Goswami, Bibekanando, Robindronath, Aurobindo, Mira, Raman, Pranavananda, Nigamananda, Mahanambroto and other Rṣis, Siddhas and Kavi-manīsis or Saints like Bidyasagar (if had in his trance a vision of a flowery devayana path by which Bidyasagar went after his death.)

Rishi Maham-mad effaced his ‘tanu’ altogether. As Allah’s slave, he wanted to remain submerged completely in Allah’s halo and did not allow his devotees to draw his picture. But these ‘devotees’ are moving farthest from Allah by their acts of tyranny making our earth a hell, so that even many mussalmans in India are causing terror in the ears of ninety per cent Aryas of India.

The essence of Yajña is in the performance of life by an Arya, embodied in one sentence of Yajña-Valkyas’ Isopanisaden: Enjoy whatever is given by the Lord/Mother as prasada. Your ‘giving’ becomes a divine residue of pure gold. A moving life taking just decisions, hard and soft as situation demands. Rṣi-Muni Yajña-Valkya was a Master who touched and caught the touchstone of Veda, who peeled out the outer Yajña as Valka, the skin of a tree, as food for the ordinary.

The first Yajna of the Vaidika gṛhastha is Agni-hotra – an equation of the Sun with the domestic Fire. Offering to and being filled up with the powers of Agni- external and internal and of the Sun resulting in the fan of the Rsis like fag Every house had an agni-śālā tended to by the couple. The wife did the offering, when the Yajmāna was absent. Rishi Dayananda has re-instated this healthy custom in his Arya-samaj. All T gṛhasthas up to the Vanaprastha stage, without any discrimination of caste or gender are performing agni-hotra morning and evening, daily with the Sun at dawn and at dusk. An agni-hotra University has grown in America tended by like-minded Indians and foreigners. The Parsis a branch of Vaidikas have their Agiari i.e. Agnyāgāra – community-halls where the sacred Agni is kept burning. Parsi men and women wear their / down their waist. Their Veda i.e. Avesta has very little difference in language and culture from Our Veda. Veda is the tree from which Avesta has branched off, due to a rift between the devotees of Indra and Varuna. Agni- hotra is a simple equating the Sun in the day and the Fire at night. A thanks-giving, a premium for the assurance of life. An acquirement of courage and joy.

The enormous Soma-Yajña is a new life altogether for the Yajmăna. A re-birth as a full man with his feminine half, the wife, making an Ardhanarīśvara. This is the fara conclusion of the science of psychology मनोविज्ञानम् । He with his priests the 16 ऋत्विक्s, the अहर्विद्s, the knowers of Time (= ), the astrologers-astronomers make the number 17. This is equal to the number of five seasons and twelve months together and makes up the mystic number 17 of Samvatsara = Prajapati. The implicit idea is that Time is the Creator/Creatrix of all, expressed in the yearlong Yajña na gavāṁ ayanam’ i.e. a procession of sun-rays through the 7 and 3 making a cycle of time, in the eyes- ears-minds of the humans and the accordion of Nature through her birds-animals-insects-trees-flow- ers-fruits-harvests. This HARMONY is Yajña. Singing in the chorus in the last hymn of RigVeda 10.191. The simple Pañca-Yajña is a daily thanks-giving to the gods (of the harvest, atmosphere etc), to the Rșis, to the ancestors, to birds beasts etc of the animal world and to men- women who come as sudden guests.

Yajña, the Yajamana

In the Dikṣaṇīyā iṣṭi – A quest for the initiation, an entry ceremony of the Soma- Yajña the Yajamana – most important individual of the Yajña has his first vowel in Udatta accent, the pratyaya is शानन, ( attached to the root यज् Yaj) not शानच् । Panini has the sūtra पूङ्-यजो: शानन् 3.2.128 to make it clear that 4941 and 44 Pavamana and Yajmāna is a constant affair. The Yajamana has to be constantly alert that his Yajña and his Soma is moving upwards.

उद् वयं तमसस् परि
ज्योतिष् पश्यन्त उत्तरम् ।
देवं देवत्रा सूर्यम्
अगन्म ज्योतिर् उत्तमम् । (Rg Veda 1.50.10)
In the encircling gloom
We had set our eyes on the light upwards
At last we have reached the upmost Light Surya
The Deva of Devas, the Light of all Lights.

The Yajmana in the initial rite is made to act as a foetus in the womb to be ‘born’ from the uterus. The rtviks reborn-self as ardha-nārīśvara. He becomes a ‘Savita’ (from the root su to give birth to) from below the horizon, arranging his colourful rays in the sky, then a ‘Bhaga’, a red sun piercing the horizon, disbursing the darkness of the previous night. A brand New-comer a ‘Bhaga-van’ in the society, a child free of adult-erration. Born at the confluence of Savita advancing – as – Surya and Saraswati, i.e. the Vaidik language flowing ever-afresh in the form of mantras, jumping as a dynamo with new ideas, new visions, new horizons, shattering dead old ideas and customs like a discarded pack of cards, keeping of course the everlasting ones.

Action was taken by Indra the Superman from the Himavan, 8000 years ago, at the instance of the Ṛsis, Rṣikäs and common subjects of ‘Prthivi”, i.e. Greater India, who were being crushed by Vrtra the titan and company. This greater India had her western hand extending at least up to Lithuania where Vaidik Accent is still present, and her Eastern hand extending up to Yavadvipa, now Indonesia, where impenetrable jungles still remain. where people love the tradition of Rāmāyaṇa and Mahabharata, where the people call their language 4 Bhāṣā just as Panini and Yaska did. They have called their airways Garuda | Our new linguistics should follow the words from the Vaidik- Bhāṣika- Samskṛti to the present, words like Soekarno (from Samskrit of sukarna), Narodom (from Samskṛt Narottam), Vapadevi, Meghāvati, Apsarā, Beni Santosso (from Sanskrit Veni Santosha) instead of discovering from the wrong end, i.e. English, European, American.

Indra became the Vṛtra-ha, the slayer of Vṛtra. By this action, he became the beloved emperor, the heart-throb of nearly all subjects s of this vast ‘q’ Prthivi, i.e. Greater India. He became q, a constant and a superlative slayer of Vṛtra, by being Soma-pa-tama, the most qualified drinker of Soma a delightful nourishing herb, the intoxicating juice of which gave strength and vigour to the valiant. The herb Soma has been described in and our ancient physicians. Botanists will tell you about the synchronisation of the herb with the Moon, i.e. its daily growth in the bright fortnight up to the full Moon and less by one leaf in the dark fortnight, till only the stock remains. This enabled our archaic ancestors to name the herb as Soma, equating it with the Moon.

Indra established the kingdom of justice. He became 4 and f incarnate. ‘Prthivi’ heaves a big sigh of relief. The Rsis and Ṛsikās and Rājarsis lauded thanks to Indra and his friends of Himavan, the children of Aditi, the inhabitants of Devabhūmi, creating-composing our Veda for centuries and milleniums. Some of them became Indra or Indra-like in knowledge, power and even in body. For example, Ṛsi Bṛhad-diva, descendant of Atharva, the author of Rg Veda 10.120 says in the ninth verse-

एवा महान् बृहद्दिव अथर्वा अवोचत स्वां तन्वं इन्द्रं एव

Thus the magnanimous Bṛhad-diva (great, from the sky) Atharva spoke to Indra as to himself embodied. Ṛsi Vămadeva (beloved of the devas), author of Rg Veda fourth mandala says possessed by Indra, ‘I demolished nine-ninety forts of Śmbara (another tyrant like Vṛtra) and conquering the hundreth, I emerged the Deliverer of all. Rg Veda 4.26.3.

The author of Rg Veda 4.42, Rśi – emperor Trasa-dasyu (a trasa, ‘terror’ for as robbers) an ardha-deva i.e. demi-god, says

I rule man’s most lofty cover To me were given the ‘asurya’ powers
which the devas cling to.
Vruna am I, Indra am I.
By my majesty
I rule, hold and control
Two vast deep beautiful regions. Like Tvaṣṭā the Creator Holding and controlling The two vast regions the Sky and the Earth.
Is the emperor refering to Kashmir and Tibbat ?

Trasa-dasyu’s date we have calculated from Girindra Shekhar Basu’s Purana-praveśa and Ṛg Veda fourth mandala, as roundabout 5400 years from now. Bharata’s – Aindrabhiseka, consecra- tion to emperor-hood was done 5350 years ago by the great Rsi 41 Dirghatamă.

Rṣikā Vāk – fourteen generations before Ṛşi Yajña-valkya – became more than Indra or Varuna or a collection of all the devas. She became All. An ideal compeer of Rudra, the fierce healer, she bent his/her Bow with a twang that frightened the ‘Brahma-dvis-as’, the little- mongers who cling to little gods and little aims and hate the great, the vast. She slew them outright to the joy of the common people, अहं जनाय स-मदं कृणोमि She became the fierce and loving Mother of All. She became and still is the DAVI of our national festival Durga-pūjā, a synthesis of Kali and Sarasvati, of Vaidik and Tantrik Yajña, where her Devi-sūkta is recited, at the end of the recitations of Candi, in the ancient Vaidik language ‘chandas’, placed in Rg Veda 10.125, composed at least 4400 years ago from now.

After Rṣikā Vāk, the Men of our New History are Rama the son of Dasa-ratha and the princess of Kosala, and Kṛṣṇa the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. According to our mega-historian Girindrashekhara Basu, a pen-friend and critique of Freud, Rama ascended the throne of Ayodhya (from root ga yudh, unconquerable) 4124 years ago, after having befriended the south and conquered Lanka. He is our fa- a Great Man according to ideal social human standard. Kṛṣṇa was born according to Girindra, 3458 years ago. He is our go a Great Man according to the super human standard of LOVE and JOY. This is the One World for which our three Rishis Rabi, Bibek (Bile) and Auro are striving including all progress done in 10000 years, instead of the economic political and divisionist world.
Devaki-putra Kṛṣṇa showed the way to this. He said go, Chandogya Upanisad 3.16. Each individual is carrying out a Soma-Yajña every moment of his/her/its life, through whatever they do. The first 24 years is : morning-crushing of the Soma-herb and taking its nourishing intoxicating juice. Next 44 years is Midday-crushing. The final 48 years is a third crushing. A total of 116 years. The first is equivalent to a childhood, i adolescence, youth, i.e. the years of education. The second is me married life after ad Sama-vartana, Return to the family-cum- social life. ff. You can rise up to ‘Indra the Unique’ f, if you are enterprising enough. The third stage is retirement and a new life not repetitive and ruminative.
In this, every moment of hunger af (from desiderative of the root As, to eat), thirst ffa (from disiderative of to drink) and dislike ( to like, to revel in joy) is the individual’s Dīkṣā (from dah, to burn) i.e. Initiation, going through the pangs of life. Every moment of eating fa, drinking ff and liking is Upasad 3, i.e. approaching the question-cum-solution. Every heart-felt laughter or breakfast-lunch-dinner-tiffins-in-between. The acts of love are like Stotras and Śāstras i.e. ritual recitations and psalms. And what is the afa? : Tapah, the austerities you have undertaken for the fulfilment of a just life. Danam your gifts of love. Ärjavam (from ‘Rju’ A-himsa, No vio-straight) your straight-forwardness, uprightness, equal to . The fourth is f lence without a cause. And the fifth is a Satya-vacanam truthfulness. This made Kṛṣṇa the Purusa Incarnate of Upanisad, Mahābhārata, Gītā and Bhagavatam. This earned him the title ‘Upendra’ in our literature. After Indra, who? Kṛṣṇa. The warrior of warriors. The lover of lovers. The best defender of Dharma, Justice for all.

Kṛṣṇa’s teaching on Yajña as told by Muni Padmanabha in Gītā, I summarise –

A colossal Yajña is going on in the whole Creation. A vast Yajamāna through a Vast Rtvik is offering a vast oblation thrown in a colossal Fire, running the final run to the Eternal in whom all merge in a vast Orchestra.

ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर् ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् ।
ब्रह्म एव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्म-कर्म-समाधिना ।।

Individuals and groups of individuals are performing yajña in different levels –

द्रव्ययज्ञास् तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञास् तथा अपरे ।
स्वाध्याय – ज्ञानयज्ञाश् च यतयः संशितव्रताः ॥

Of all these processes of Yajña, self-control and communion with all through self-knowledge is the best –

आत्मसंयम – योगाग्नौ जुह्वति ज्ञानदोपिते ।

Kṛṣṇa got the key of this Yoga from his Guru Ghora Angirasa anything. अ – पिपासा । No hankering for anything.

Kṛṣṇa was the Man of the Match between Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas which took place, according to Girindra, 3416 years ago. Before Kṛṣṇa’s teachings were consolidated by Muni Padma-năbha in Gītā, there was another practical Sociologist the Muni-Ṛṣi Yājña-valkya who innovated a ceremony called g. These representatives of the whole society consisting of all professions, all physical appear- ances, all social status, all genders, were tied to the Yupa one by one, consecrated with a mantra to the different aspect of the Cosmic Purușa visioned in Ṛg Veda 10.90, and then released. The idea was, we all are parts of the Purusa with infinite heads, infinite hands and infinite feet. Meditate, concen- trate of the oneness of the Purusa who is just ten fingers aloft of us all, and of All through Him. Then released go back each to your own duty making a harmonious society. Robindranath in his Santiniketan tuned a chorus to this effect –

आमरा शबाइ राजा आमादेर एइ राजार राजत्वे

We are all Kings in the Kingdom of Our King (afa,, psalm 10)

After Yajña-valkya came Gautam Buddha. He protested against the ritualistic and made the receptive people switch over to Instead of fire-sticks, ghee, food and killed animals thrown to the fire, he led them fire their faf, their attachment to the sense-objects and concentrate on IÈR ज्ञान

सर्वाणि इन्द्रियकर्माणि प्राणकर्माणि चापरे ।
आत्मसंयम योगानौ जुह्वति ज्ञानदीपिते ।। (Gită 4.27)

Buddha conveyed himself mostly in Pali, the common language broken from the universal language pre-Samskṛla accented Bhāṣā. His message became the Veda of the common people. Buddha’s influence is powerful in parts of Banga, Bihar, Chattagram in this subcontinent and in Sri Lanka, Maynamar, Japan, Chin, Mongolia, Korca, Tibbat. Like the Gita, Dhammapada is a scripture of the enlightened people all over the world. In India, three most enlightened Rishis Robindranath, Bibekananda and Aurobindo are devotees of Buddha, so much so that I call them a त्रिधा मूर्ति of मैत्रेय बुद्ध. I have already called them three days in ‘Puronotun Veder Kobita’. They along with the fourth Rishi Mahanam-broto Brahmachari, are by their writings of putting to ashes our age-old wrong ideas and making us fit to be 3 Aryas born free out of the slavery of our former and present rulers, soldiers of India Reborn. Not निष्काम which is next to impossible but संयत-लोभ-काम-क्रो -क्रोध-जीवनयुद्ध- fff: warriors who have controlled their hunger for more money, higher posts got by corrup- tion, lust and unjust anger, who are activists in the fight for and towards an elevated life.

Jesu came at least 640 years after Buddha. A Siddha-Rishi of the Essen sect, from descendants of Buddha’s arya Śramaņas, toilers of the manava-dharma, Jesu had for his field the illiterate fishermen of Galilee and started his cultivation. He told his humble devotees to kindle the fire of Love with the samidh of faith and prayer. This Śiva-purușa of Nazareth- Bethlehem-Jerusalem led them to the gate of Heaven, that is inner blissful state through immense ‘tapasya’, tortures, weilding occasionally his rod rudely to the businessmen and hypocrites. Finally his ‘Namah Sivaya’ : fa by Negro singers has melted the congregations in America and Europe. The Negro-Gita was ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ by Ṛşikā Harriet Beecher Stow ordained by the Superman Abraham Lincoln.

The Vipasyna centers of Satyanarayan Goenka initiated by his Burmese Guru are inviting all the – with meagre means, with their huge halls and solitary cells and controlled food. The huge beautiful open Lotus Temple of Delhi of the Bahais and the decorated Masjids of Central Asia are proclaiming silent namaza (North-Western pronunciation of Vaidik-Samskṛt Namas) and the Kāli- Kirtans of the sadhakas of Banga revereberating simple hearts in halls and open spaces. Thus the whole world is moving each with his own true Veda – Gitä, Dhammapada, Bible, Koran, Grantha-Sahib, Das Kapital i.e. the Gita of the atheists and the have-nots with their own mantra – slogans and true Yajña- karma.

The result will be not a party-laden vote-catching India, but a harmonious, integrated, coura- geous, valiant Dharma-bhumi rf Bharata a Land of Justice, with no reservations, no minority- majority problems. One, like our Army Navy and Air forces. True United Nations. Undivided Whole- अदिति पृथिवी .