03 Sep 2019
Shri PVNM Sharma asked: These days, people perform ritual-sacrifices or yajñas by burning ghee in the physical fire. You have told us that there is not the slightest use of such sacrifices and that instead, they cause pollution. Could You please explain the same in greater detail?
Swami replied: There are three types of fire and they are: (1) Laukikāgni or bhautikāgni, which is the fire produced by burning sticks, (2) Vaidyutāgni, which is the fire produced through electricity and (3) Devatāgni, which is the fire of hunger in the stomach. This hunger-fire has been called Vaiśvānara in the Gita. In any ritual-sacrifice (yajña), the first two types of fire are only instrumental in cooking food and they are known as yajña sādhanam. The instrumental fire is only meant to cook the food and not burn it. The third type of fire, which is the hunger-fire, lies in the stomach of a deserving hungry person. The cooked food is to be fed to that person. In other words, the food is to be burnt in it. This third type of fire is known as yajñaupāsya.
The hotā is the priest, who, nowadays, pours ghee in to the physical fire, due to the misunderstanding of the true concept of yajña. Havanīya is the fire into which the ghee is poured and burnt. Haviḥ or Havyam is thought to be the ghee that is fed to the fire, which is a misunderstanding. Actually, haviḥ does not mean the ghee itself, but it means the cooked food, which has been fried in plenty of ghee. Thus, food cooked in plenty of ghee has been called ghee itself. It is a figure of speech (lakṣaṇāvṛtti), whereby the possessor of an item is addressed as the item itself. For instance, you can call out to an apple-seller as “O apples!”. In this case, the food contains ghee and is the possessor of the ghee, which is referred to as ghee itself. How funny would it be if a doctor advises a patient to avoid oil and patient replies that he never drinks oil directly! When the doctor says that the patient should avoid oil, he means that the patient should avoid oily food or food that has been fried in a lot of oil. The doctor obviously knows that no one drinks oil directly! Thus, in the context of the ritual-sacrifice, ghee does not mean pure ghee, but food containing plenty of ghee.
Similarly, the fire in the context of the sacrifice does not mean the physical or electrical fire, which is used to cook the food. Fire means the hunger-fire that lies in the stomach of the priest or the Sadguru. So, the sacrifice is not pouring pure ghee into the physical or electrical fire, as per the common misunderstanding. The real meaning of yajña is to offer food containing plenty of ghee to the hungry priest, in the beginning, before we have the food ourselves. Food containing plenty of ghee is rich food or the best food, which alone should be offered to the priest. The priest is called agni, which means fire. Agni comes from the word agri, which means ‘the first’ or ‘the beginning’ (Agraṃ nayati iti agniḥ). Agni, thus means the priest, who is given the first place (agri or agni), by offering food to him, before all others.
The first hymn of the Ṛg Veda (Agnimīḻe...) says that the priest (ṛtvik) is the hotā, who offers the ghee-containing food into the fire (agni), which is himself. It means, the hotā or the person offering the food himself is the havanīya or agni. This fire (agni) to which the food is offered, is called āhavanīya. As per the misunderstood procedure of the present-day, where the priest pours ghee into the physical fire, the hotā is different from the havanīya. But the the first hymn of the first Veda (Ṛg Veda) says that the hotā and the havanīya are one and the same. So, it is clear that the present-day practice is wrong. Not only is this wrong practice the result of a misinterpretation of the Veda, but it is also causing pollution and stopping the rains due to global warming. If the priest is the Sadguru, and if you offer Him the best food cooked in plenty of ghee, there will be good rains. This is because, when Sadguru, the Divine Priest, is pleased, all deities including the Rain-god are pleased. The Sadguru contains all the deities in His body as told in the Veda (Yāvatīrvai...).
Today morning, I was invited by the devotees of Satya Datta Sādhanālaya Sevāśram to attend a conventional sacrifice, called Sāvitra Kāthakāgni Cayana Mahāyāga. But I refused to attend the sacrifice, giving them the above analysis. The Veda says that food must not be destroyed (Annaṃ na paricakṣīta) and ghee is the most precious food. God synthesized food from the inert five elements for the sake of souls and if souls destroy food like this, God is insulted. God Kapila has told in the Bhāgavatam, while preaching to His mother, that only a fool burns ghee in the physical fire in the name of performing a sacrifice. In the same Bhāgavatam, God Krishna asked the wives of sages in the forest, to give food to His hungry friends instead of burning it in the fire.
Laukikaagni bhautikaagni Vaidyutaagni Vaishvaanara Yajnasaadhanam Yajnaupaasya Hotaa Havih Havyam Havaniiya Lakshanaavrutti Agram nayati iti Agnih Agnimiile Rutvik Aahavaniiya havaniiya Yaavatiirrvai Annam na parichakshiita Bhaagavatam
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