29 Aug 2024
[Ms. Bhargavi Veesam asked:- Paadanamaskrams Swami, Swami, through Your discourses I learnt that Yajna means 'feeding the hungry'. Thank You so much for educating us. But Swami I didn't understand why God allowed king Dasaratha to perform the Ashvamedha Yajna (which could include burning of wood, offering of ghee rice etc ). And I don't know the actual facts, but I also learnt somewhere that Ashvamedha means 'Bali of a horse' Swami I got two doubts, Is the procedure of the Ashvamedha Yajna incorrectly described in spiritual texts (by today's scholars)?]
Swami replied:- Ashvamedha means purification of senses so that the attachment to the world gets reduced. A spiritual debate on this topic takes place and there is no killing of a horse. This is the original infrastructure of any Vedic Sacrifice. Later on, foolish practices developed and all those wrong procedures were inserted into spiritual texts. Actually, a horse made of flour obtained from stored grains for three years without germination, is cut and the horse represents the fast running senses and not cutting the actual horse (Manyuḥ paśuḥ - Veda).
Q. Why is Ashvamedha Yajna performed?
[If Ashvamedha Yajna was performed, is there any particular reason behind this? Please elaborate the exact reason behind performing Ashvamedha Yajna for Lord Rama's birth. If Lord Rama wants to take birth, He can take His avatar directly or if needed, He can also take his birth by making Dasaratha to perform some other pooja or havan etc. But why only Ashvamedha Yajna? Please clarify my doubts, Swami. Jai guru Datta Swami. By Miss. Bhargavi Veesam]
Swami replied:- Putrakaameshti Yajna was said to be performed by King Dasharatha. Purification of senses (Ashvamedha) is necessary for getting a divine child. Especially, for getting God as child, a lot of devotion to God with controlled pure senses is the subject of all this procedure. It was purely a form of worship to God without any violence to any horse. Insertions were made by several demonic people belonging to atheism with a view to spoil the holiness of the religion. Such insertions exist in other religions also. All such insertions were rubbed on the name of God and holy sages. We must use our common sense and deep logical analysis to reject such illogical and idiotic practices and get the pure scripture in every religion. Conservatives blindly follow every word of the text in literal sense believing that all that is old is gold. Other type of conservatives, who are atheistic scientists, reject all the old scriptures stating that all the latest is the best. Both these extremists are like drought and flood. We must analyse both old and latest with deep sharp logical analysis and accept the logically established truth whether it is old or the latest. If the old conservative says that the text is dictated by God, we ask for an audio-video cassette while God dictated the text. Without such strong proof, what is the guarantee that the conservative is not telling a cooked up story?
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