25 Nov 2015
[Padanamaskarams Swamiji,
My daughter Arsha, asked why the Lord is said to be Yajna Swarupa in the Shivapanchakshara Stotra (Yajnaswarupaaya jataadharaaya…). A number of possible explanations came to mind, I seek Your guidance on whether those ideas are relevant and how they could be correlated. Also, there might other relevant concepts that too need to be correlated.
At Your Divine Feet
Nikhil
Why is God said to be of the form of sacrifice (Yajna Swarupa)?
The possible explanations that came to my mind are:
1. In the Chhandogya Upanishad , King Pravahana had posed five questions to Shvetaketu. Neither Shvetaketu, nor his father Gautama had been able to answer the questions. Finally, the king himself instructed Gautama and provided the answers to the five questions “Asau vaava loko gautama agnistasyaaditya...tasyaa aahutergarbhaH sambhavati (5.4-5.8). In this discussion, the king explains how all creation--from the macro-level of the heavens) to the micro-level of a human being--is nothing but the product of yajna (sacrifice). In other words, the entire process of creation is a gigantic yajna being performed by God. This process of yajna is observable even in any component of creation. Thus, the process of creation by God is nothing but a yajna (sacrifice) of (items created by) God, done by God, for (the entertainment of) God. It proves that God is of the form of Yajna. This is similar to the definition of democracy--government of the people, by the people and for the people.
2. The Gita also states the same concept that God is the offering, the One who is offering, He is the fire, etc. (Brahmarpanam brahma havih…).
3. In a more specific aspect, God’s giving Himself to humanity (Datta) in the form of a Human Incarnation is the best example of yajna (sacrifice). Through the form of the Human Incarnation, God performs acts of (i) giving divine knowledge, (ii) being constantly concerned about the ultimate welfare of His devotees, and (iii) taking up the suffering of deserving devotees on His human body. All of these acts of sacrifice, prove that He is of the form of Yajna.
4. From the point of view of devotees, they reach the ultimate goal of attaining the grace of God through the act of sacrifice (yajna). As already explained by You, the correct meaning of a devotee performing yajna for God is: cooking the best food (with plenty of ghee) on the physical fire (bhautika agni) and feeding it to the Human Incarnation to pacify His digestive fire (Vaishwanara agni). In a broader sense, yajna means the sacrifice of work and fruit of work to the Human Incarnation as per God’s wishes. Since approaching Him and achieving His grace is also based on Yajna, God is again proved as Yajna Swarupa.]
Shri Swami replied: All the interpretations given by Dr. Nikhil to his daughter, Chi. Sow. Arsha are very good and acceptable. However, I am giving My interpretation in correlation with his explanation through analysis, which is more important than even scriptures. First, you must analyze the topic carefully with the help of systematic and scientific logic without remembering the scripture. In the end, you must see whether your concluded concept can be applied to the scripture or not. If the conclusion applies, it is good. If the conclusion does not apply to the meaning of scripture, you have to find a different meaning of the scripture in to which the concluded concept by your sharp analysis applies. Never search for a different meaning of your concluded concept at any time. You have to search for the different meaning of the scripture only in to which the analyzed conclusion can be inserted. If the analyzed conclusion is contradicted by the scripture in spite of your hectic efforts, you should conclude without any hesitation that the scripture is wrong. This means that the scripture told by God is not wrong, but, some wrong person introduced this statement into the scripture. This possibility exists with every scripture. At any cost, you should not suppress your analytical faculty. If you doubt error in your analysis, you can discuss with other scholars and divine spiritual preachers. During the discussions also, your consciousness should be satisfied without any force or effect of respect towards others. You should not fear for anybody as far as the process of analysis is concerned. The divine preacher is the ultimate authority since you will be convinced by Him following all these conditions. When you propagate the spiritual knowledge, you must be very careful since it is the most dangerous work surpassing even the crime of demons. The damage given by demons affects either the physical body or the internal mind on receiving the pain, which is limited to this birth only. If you propagate a wrong concept, the analytical faculty is damaged and such damage is extending to several births. This is the reason why you should take up this work on the command of God. Shri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa asked Swami Dayananda about the permission from God to propagate the divine knowledge. Both are divine personalities and human incarnations of God doing different divine programmes for the sake of different sects of devotees. Swami Dayananda propagated the ritual of thread marriage to everybody. The sects of devotees in this context were emotional in criticizing Brahmins, who have negated this ritual to other castes. The immediate solution was to pacify them by extending this thread marriage to everybody, which was the immediate solution for that sect. This solution shows the defect that the thread marriage alone is the path to get the grace of God. In that case, the damage already done to the previous generations cannot be rectified. When this point strikes the minds, another sect becomes emotional. This sect should be pacified by the concept that thread marriage is one of several paths to get grace of God. All the castes are eligible to get the divine grace since all are His children only. This point pacifies the next sect, which belongs to Paramahamsa. Both the immediate solution and permanent solution are equally important like first aid and further treatment. The comment of Paramahamsa is to be understood that one concept preached may be applicable to one sect only and need not be universal. Both are correct in their related directions of divine work. Hence, the concepts derived from the divine preacher, which are concluded convincing your consciousness, should be propagated to avoid the risk.
Let us enter into the present topic. There are two forms of God. The absolute form is unimaginable. The relative form is imaginable with which the unimaginable form gets identified by homogeneous pervasion (Vaashyam). The relative form is also the same God since the first form identifies with it like the current getting identified with the wire in which it flows. The second form, called as mediated God, is always finite due to the boundaries of the medium. You should not call the first form as infinite (taking the contrary word of finite) since infinite is also imaginable like the cosmic space. The first form is unimaginable, which is beyond finite and infinite. Now, the present subject is that the sacrifice (Yajna) is God. If you take God, here, in the unimaginable form, the sacrifice is certainly God because every part of the sacrifice can be the same unimaginable God since this is possible for the unimaginable power of omnipotent God. In this line, there is no possibility of any analysis since unimaginable God is beyond analysis. But, the unimaginable God does not pervade any sacrifice to get Himself identified with it, even though such possibility is possible. Generally, the unimaginable God enters the energetic body or human body to become the incarnation to preach spiritual knowledge in the upper world and in this world respectively. The entry of God in inert statues is also denied by the Veda and not to speak of inert activity like sacrifice. Hence, this possibility is ruled out even though it is not impossible to the unimaginable God.
If you come to the second line of explanation, God should be taken in finite definable form. The same God can exist as definable form and indefinable form (Nilayanamchaanilayanam cha— Veda). The explanation for the co-existence of the same God is explained above with the example of electrified wire. Here, in the prayer on Lord Shiva, it is said that Lord Shiva is the sacrifice, who has channelled hair (Jataa). The adjective indicates that God is in the finite form. Lord Shiva is the energetic incarnation of the unimaginable God and thus is in finite form. One finite form cannot be the other finite form due to the spatial gap existing between the two finite forms. If this gap disappears since all these finite forms become one God, these finite forms lose their identity and then the sacrifice will be without its characteristic parts. Since we are discussing about the finite forms existing in the imaginable domain, the analysis is a must. The different parts of the sacrifice like doer, material sacrificed, the fire receiving the material, the receiver like human incarnation etc., are also finite forms only differing from each other due to the interim gap. In such case, neither the finite energetic incarnation like Lord Shiva nor the finite human incarnation like Lord Krishna, cannot be the sacrifice composed of finite parts. Hence, the finite energetic medium like Lord Shiva cannot be the sacrifice.
Now, the concluded concept is that neither unimaginable God nor the mediated God can be the sacrifice. The scripture also supports this point in straight way as we see in the Gita, which says that sacrifice is born from the practical activity (Yajnah karma samudbhavah), the practical activity is born from the Vedic scripture (Karma Bramodbhavam...) and the Veda is born from God (Brahmaakshara samudbhavam). According to this, the sacrifice is the grand grand son of God and hence, itself cannot be grand grand father. Here, the Veda is said to be Brahma. The word Brahma is used for God. If the Veda is Brahma and if the Veda is born from God (Akshara), this means that God is born from God.
How to correlate the point mentioned in the prayer on Lord Shiva, which is similar to the above point that the Veda is God? In the Veda, several other items of the creation like food, mind, analysis, knowledge, respiration, space, light etc., are also said to be God (Ref. Brahmasutra—Adhikaranams). Hence, this is the basic issue of several such topics. The way of solution for all these contexts is to find out the sense for which the word God stands so that such sense can be applied to all these items of creation. The word ‘God’ (Brahman) means greatest (as per its root word) or highest or most sacred etc., God is greatest in the entire creation. The creation contains certain categories of items. One category is books or scriptures. In the category of scriptures, the Veda is highest because it is preserved by way of recitation from one generation to other generation avoiding the possibility of insertions in the absence of printing technology. The word ‘God’ gives the sense that the Veda is highest in the category of scriptures. When you say that God is highest in the entire creation, the same word ‘highest’ is used in this category also. The president of the country and the president of village use the same word ‘president’. Similarly, the sacrifice is the greatest practical activity in the spiritual path since there is practical sacrifice of material to the deserving receivers. The common word is ‘greatest’ (Brahman). In the olden days, the activity done to lit the fire was also very very hard. Cooking the food on the fire and sacrifice of it to the deserving devotees was considered to be the highest in those days. Debates in the spiritual knowledge were conducted in the hut of each sage on rotation. Serving the cooked food to all the devotees was the most important and most sacred practical step (Karma Yoga). The lit of fire and cooking food were standing for the sacrifice of work (Karmasamnyasa). Serving the food material earned by the sage was considered to be the sacrifice of fruit of work (karmaphalatyaaga). Lord Dattatreya also attended such debates to give the concluding remarks. He was offered food in the beginning and such worship of God was called as Yajna. The word Yajna comes from a root word ‘Yaja’, which means worshipping the Lord in human form along with His devotees.
The verse in the Gita (Brahmaarpanam...) stating that submission, ghee, fire, doer, goal and the activity are God also should be understood in the above light. Hence, in this verse all the items mentioned must be understood as greatest or most pious since the total Yajna is the highest step of practical philosophy. The word Agni should be taken in the physical sense while the process of cooking takes place and the same word should be taken in the sense of its root word (Agri) meaning the first person to be worshipped with food. The hunger-fire of the receiver of food should be also taken in the sense of divine Agni (Vaishvaanara). If you take the Agni everywhere in physical sense only and burn the food in the physical fire, such sacrifice is opposite to God and becomes the worst activity. Food is created by God to pacify the hunger of all the living beings and not to burn it and cause pollution leading to natural calamities. Hence, the most important aspect of the sacrifice is to give food to a hungry living being and if this aspect is absent, the sacrifice is not greatest and most pious, which becomes lowest and worst due to lack of knowledge. Hence, the sacrifice of knowledge is greater than such worst material sacrifice (Shreyaan dravyamayaat... Gita). If the sacrifice is performed in the real sense, the practical sacrifice is certainly higher step than knowledge since the implementation of knowledge in practice is the real Yajna that alone brings the divine fruit.
The creation of God is also referred as God. Here, again, the creator, the process of creation and the product of the process of creation (world) cannot be one item only, in which case, there cannot be process and product. Hence, in this context also, the process of creation done by God should be taken as the greatest and most precious work. In the Gita also, God says that every greatest item in a category is Himself only. Here also, you should take that every greatest item in a category is greatest as far as that category is concerned. Such interpretation applies straight to every context without any twist or difficulty in application. Such concept of interpretation exists in this world also. The teacher says that a specific book is the Bible for a student in a specific subject. It means that that specific book is as important as the Bible for a Christian. The word ‘Bible’ carries on the sense that it is the most important. It does not mean that the specific book itself is the Bible in its characteristic form (Svarupa) since the same alphabets exist in the Bible as well as the specific book!
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