Tattva

Sri Krishn has submitted four prevalent thoughts in chapter eighteen of Bhagvad Geeta. First, that coveted deeds should be foresworn. Second that the fruits of all action should be given up. Third, that all actions should be relinquished, for they are all blemished. And fourth, that it is wrong to forego yagya, charity, and penance. Expressing his accord with one of these thoughts, Sri Krishn says that it is also his conclusive view that yagya, charity and penance are not to be forsaken. In verse six of chapter eighteen, he says, “It is my considered belief, O Parth, that these deeds as also all others ought certainly to be accomplished after forsaking attachment and desire for the fruits of labour.”Let us discuss here in light of verses of Bhagvad Geeta about the real concept of “Yagya” which has been stressed over here and asked for not to be forsaken.

As per preaching of Sri Krishn, the appointed action is only one, the action that we call worship or meditation. This one action-the ordained action-is “Yagya”.Sri Krishn has explicitly told Arjun in the ninth verse of Chapter 3: “Since the conduct of yagya is the only action and all other business in which people are engaged, are only forms of worldly bondage, O son of Kunti, be unattached and do your duty to God well.” True action is that which frees the Self from shackles of the world. But what precisely is this deed, the undertaking of yagya, which effects the accomplishment of action? In Chapter 4, Sri Krishn has elucidated yagya in more than a dozen ways which are collectively but a portrayal of the mode that provides access to the Supreme Being. In fact, all the different forms of yagya are internal processes of contemplation: forms of worship that render God manifest and known. Yagya is thus the special, ordained means by which a worshipper traverses the path that leads to God. The means by which this appointed task is accomplished-regulation and serenity of breath, meditation, reflection, and restraint of the senses-constitute action.Sri Krishn has also made it clear that yagya has nothing to do with non-spiritual matters. True yagya is performed by internal operations of the mind and senses. Knowledge is the consciousness of the immortal essence that ensues from yayga at its successful completion. Yogis who are blessed with this transcendental awareness become one with God. And once the goal that had to be achieved is reached, there is no need for any further action by the liberated Soul, for all action merges into the knowledge that is gained from direct perception of the ultimate essence. The liberation of the Soul is thus also liberation from action.

The performance of yagya is the only real action. But instead of discussing what yagya is, Sri Krishn first dwells upon its genesis. He preaches in verse ten of Chapter three:
Saha-yajnah prajah srstva
purovaca prajapatih
anena prasavisyadhvam
esa vo ’stv ista-kama-dhuk
“At the beginning of kalp-the course of self-realization, Prajapati Brahma shaped yagya long with mankind and enjoined on them to ascend by yagya which could give them what their hearts aspired to.’’

Prajapati Brahma, the god presiding over creation, made mankind along with yagya at the beginning and told men to progress through yagya. This yagya, wholly propitious, was prescribed or ordained as the action which would satisfy their hunger for realization of the eternal God. Who was the creator of mankind along with yagya? According to Sri Krishn there are no beings like gods. The sage who has realized and become one with the Supreme Spirit, the fountainhead from which all mankind has arisen, is “prajapati”. Wisdom that results from knowledge of God is itself Brahma. At the moment of this realization the mind becomes a mere instrument. It is God himself who then speaks through the voice of the sage. There is constant growth of wisdom after the commencement of spiritual adoration, or worship. Since at the beginning this wisdom is endowed with knowledge of God, it is called brahmvitt. Gradually, as evil impulses are subdued and the knowledge of God is enriched, this wisdom is said to be brahmvidwar. As it ascends yet higher and gets more refined, it comes to be known as brahmvidwariyan. At this stage, the sage who is blessed with knowledge of God also achieves the capacity to bring others on to the way of spiritual growth. The highest point of wisdom is brahmvidwarisht, that state of divine inundation in which the spirit of God flows through it like a crystal current. Men who have attained to this state enter into and dwell in the Supreme Spirit from whom all mankind is born. The minds of such sages are mere instruments and it is they who are called “prajapati.” By dissociating themselves from the contradictions of nature, they create the Self who is yet unaware of the process of meditation or God’s worship. Conferring perfection which is in accordance with the spirit of yagya is the creation of mankind. Prior to this human society is unconscious and chaotic. Creation has no beginning. Sanskar has always been there: but before the sages conferred perfection on it, it was deformed and in a state of anarchy. To shape it in accordance with the requirements of yagya is the act of refining and adorning.

Some such accomplished sage or sages created yagya besides creating mankind at the beginning of kalp, the course of Self-realization. The word ‘‘kalp,” however, also means cure of sickness. Physicians affect such cures and there are some who even rejuvenate us. But their remedies are only for ephemeral bodies. The true cure is that which provides liberation from the general malady of the world. The beginning of worship or adoration is the commencement of this remedy. When meditation is complete, we are wholly cured. Thus sages with their beings in the Supreme Spirit gave a proper shape to spiritual excellence and yagya, and instructed men that they would prosper through the observance of yagya. By this prosperity they did not mean that clay houses would change into brick-and-plaster mansions. Neither did they promise that men would begin to make more money. They rather wished men to know that yagya would fulfill their God-inclined aspirations. Sri Krishn preaches further:
devan bhavayatanena
te deva bhavayantu vah
parasparam bhavayantah
sreyah param avapsyatha

“And may you cherish gods by yagya and may gods foster you, for this is the means by which you will finally achieve the ultimate state.”

Cherishing gods by yagya means fostering sacred impulses. And that is also how gods foster mankind. Thus, by mutual augmentation men will ultimately achieve that final bliss after which there is nothing more to achieve. The deeper we enter into yagya (later yagya will be explained as a way of worship), the more is the heart enriched with divinity. The Supreme Spirit is the only God and the means-the impulses-that provide access to that God are the ‘‘divine treasure’’ because they bring the ultimate God within reach. This is the true divine wealth. The divine riches we earn and store by yagya will give us nothing else besides joys related to the revered God. They are the only powers which give. There is no other way to attain to the adored God.Sri Krishn adds further:

“The wise who partake of what is left over from yagya are rid of all evil, but the sinners who cook only for the sustenance of their bodies partake of nothing but sin. All beings get their life from food, food grows from rain, rain emerges from yagya, and yagya is an outcome of action. Be it known to you that action arose from the Ved and the Ved from the indestructible Supreme Spirit, so that the all-pervasive, imperishable God is ever present in yagya.”

All creatures are born from food. Food Is God himself whose breath is life. A man turns to yagya with his mind fixed on that divine manna. Food results from rain: not the rain that falls from clouds, but the shower of grace. The yagya which have been undertaken and stored earlier themselves come down as a shower of grace. Today’s worship is given back to us as grace the next day. That is why yagya is said to generate rain. If an indiscriminate oblation or offering to all of the so-called gods and burning of barley grains and oil seeds could produce rain, why should deserts have remained barren? Thus rain here is the shower of grace that is an outcome of yagya. This yagya, again, arises from action and is indeed brought to completion by action.

Further in Chapter four of Bhagvad Geeta, Sri Krishn preaches in more details about real concepts of “Yagya”.In verse twenty three and twenty four, he preaches:
“When a man is free from attachment, his mind rests firmly in the knowledge of God, and when his actions are like the yagya made to God, he is truly emancipated and all his actions cease to be.’’ Performance of yagya itself is action and direct perception of God is knowledge. Acting in the spirit of sacrifice and dwelling in the knowledge achieved from direct perception of God, all the actions of this liberated man who is devoid of attachment and desire undergo a process of dissolution. He says: “Since both the dedication and the oblation itself are God, and it is the Godlike teacher who offers the oblation to the fire which is also God, the attainment, too, of the man whose mind is set on God like action is God himself.” The emancipated man’s yagya is God, what he offers as oblation is God, and the sacred fire to which the sacrifice is made is also God. That is to say that what is offered by the Godlike worshipper to the sacred fire that is an embodiment of God is also God himself. That which is worthy of being secured by the man whose actions have been dissolved and stilled by God’s loving touch is also God. So this man does nothing; he only acts for the good of others. These are attributes of the realized sage who has reached the stage of final attainment.

It is only now that the meaning of yagya is explained. From verse twenty five and onward in chapter four, Sri Krishn preaches: “Some yogis perform yagya to foster divine impulses, whereas some other yogis offer the sacrifice of yagya to (a seer who is) the fire of God.” He now depicts the yagya performed by worshippers who wish to be initiated into yog. These novices undertake sincere performance of yagya to gods to foster them, that is, they strengthen and augment divine impulses in the heart. Here it is useful to remember how Brahma had directed mankind to foster gods by yagya. The more virtues there are cultivated and garnered in the heart, the more the worshipper advances towards the ultimate excellence until he at last attains it. The novice worshipper’s yagya is thus aimed at strengthening the forces of righteousness in his heart. Other yogis perform yagya by offering sacrifice to the accomplished teacher in his heart-the sacred fire that is an embodiment of God.Sri Krishn further adds that in the human body he is the adhiyagya or that in whom the oblation is consumed.Sri Krishn too was a yogi and an accomplished teacher. These other yogi offer oblations to the Godlike teacher who also annihilates evils like fire. They perform sacrifices aimed at this accomplished teacher who is also an embodiment of sacrifice. In brief; they concentrate their minds on the form of the accomplished teacher, a realized sage. Further he adds:

“While some offer their hearing and other senses as sacrifice to the fire of self-restraint, others offer speech and other sense objects to the fire of the senses.’’

Yet other yogi offer all their senses of action-ear, eye, skin, tongue, and nose-to the fire of self-control, that is, they subdue their senses by withdrawing them from their objects. There is no real fire in this case. As everything cast into fire is reduced to ashes, even so the fire of restraint destroys the outward looking senses. There are then yogi who offer all their senses of perception, sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, to the fire of senses; they sublimate their desires and thus turn them into effective means for achievement of the supreme goal. After all, the worshipper has to carry on his task in this world itself, assaulted all the while by good as well evil utterances of people around him. No sooner than he hears words that arouse passion, however, he sublimates them into the feeling of renunciation and thus bums them in the fire of the senses. Here we have the fire of the senses. Just as objects put into fire are burnt out, sensual forms–sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound-are bereft of their power to distract the worshipper when they are transformed and shaped in accordance with the requirements of his goal. Having no longer any interest in sense-perceptions, the worshipper does not now assimilate them. In verse twenty seven of Chapter four, Sri Krishn preaches:
Sarvanindriya-karmani
prana-karmani capare
atma-samyama-yogagnau
juhvati jnana-dipite
“Yet other yogi offer the functions of their senses and operations of their life-breaths to the fire of yog (self-control) kindled by knowledge.’’

In the yagya Sri Krishn has so far spoken of, there are a gradual fostering of pious impulses, restraint of the working of senses, and parrying off of sensual perceptions through a modification of their intent. In a still higher state than this, yogi offers as oblation the functions of all senses and operations of life-breaths to the fire of yog that is lit up by knowledge of God. When restraint is integrated with the Self and the operations of breath and senses are stilled, the current which stimulates passions and the current which propels one towards God merge into the Self. The outcome of yagya then emerges as God-realization, the culmination of these spiritual exercises. When one dwells in the God who had to be realized, nothing else remains to be achieved.Yogeshwar Krishn again explains yagya.He says:” “Just as many perform yagya by making material gifts in service of the world, some other men perform yagya through physical mortification, some perform the sacrifice of yog, and yet others who practise severe austerities perform yagya through the study of scriptures.’’ There are many who make sacrifice of wealth. They contribute riches to the service of saints.Sri Krishn accepts whatever gifts are offered to him with devotion and he is a benefactor of those who make these gifts. This is the yagya of wealth or riches. To serve every man, to bring those who have strayed back to the right path, by contributing wealth to the cause is the sacrifice of riches. These sacrifices have the capability to nullify the natural sanskars. Some men mortify their senses through penances for the observance of their dharm. In other words, their sacrifice, made according to their inherent properties, is penance-humiliation of the body, and it belongs to the stage between the lowest and highest levels of yagya.There are many who practise the yagya of yog. Yog is the joining of the Soul, wandering amidst nature, with God who is beyond nature. Nature and the Self are two entities, distinct from each other. There is yog when the nature-based Soul meets the identical God, and when nature is dissolved in the Soul. This is the true yog. So there are many who resort to a strict practice of restraint because it is conducive to this union. The practicers of the yog of sacrifice (yagya) and they who are given to severe austerities keep in view their own Self and perform the yagya of knowledge. Here, nonviolent but severe austerities such as restraint, religious observance, the appropriate posture of sitting, serenity of breath, withholding of the mind along with the physical organs, retention, meditation and perfect absorption of thought in the Supreme Spirit, are indicated as the eightfold features of yog. There are many who undertake Self-study because they aim at Self-knowledge. Reading books is but the first step to Self-knowledge, for in the true sense it is derived only from contemplation of the Self which brings about attainment of God, and the final outcome of which is knowledge or intuitive perception.Sri Krishn now points out what is done for this yagya of knowledge or contemplation of the Self. He says:

apane juhvati pranam
prane ‘panam tathapare
pranapana-gati ruddhva
pranayama-parayanah
“As some offer their exhalation to inhalation, others offer their inhaled breath to the exhaled breath, while yet others practise serenity of breath by regulating their incoming and outgoing breath.”

Meditators on the Self, sacrifice the vital air to apan and similarly apan to pran. Going even higher than this, other yogi restrain all life-winds and take refuge in the regulation of breath (pranayam).That which Sri Krishn calls pran-apan, Mahatma Buddh has named anapan. This is what he has also described as shwas-prashwas (inhaling and exhaling). Pran is the breath that is inhaled, whereas apan is the breath which moves out. Sages have found by experience that along with breath we also imbibe desires from the surrounding environment and, similarly, transmit waves of inner pious as well as impious thoughts with our exhalations. Non-assimilation of any desire from an external source is the offering of pran as oblation, whereas suppression of all inner desires is the sacrifice of apan, so that there is generation of neither internal desire nor grief because of thoughts of the external world. So when both pran and apan are properly balanced, breath is regulated. This is pranayam, the serenity of breath. This is the state in which the mind is supreme, for restraint of breath is the same as restraint of mind.Every accomplished sage has taken up this subject and there is mention of it in the Ved (Rig, 1.164.45 and Atharv, 9.15.27). The mind is linked with breath. That is the state of victory of the mind when the eye is set on the breath, when the name is incorporated into breath, and no desire of the external world can enter into the worshipper. With this the final outcome of yagya emerges.

Further Sri Krishn adds: “Yet others who subsist on strictly regulated breath and offer their breath to breath, and life to life, are all knower of yagya, and the sins of all who have known yagya are destroyed.’’

They who partake of restricted food offer as oblation their breath to breath-life to life. Regulation of food and pleasure is a necessity. Many yogis who observe such discipline renounce their breath to breath, concentrating on inhalations and paying no heed to exhalations. With each incoming breath they hear OM. Thus men whose sins have been destroyed by yagya are men of true knowledge.Sri Krishn now speaks of the outcome of yagya.He says: “O the best of Kuru, the yogi who have tasted the nectar flowing from yagya attain to the eternal supreme God, but how can the next life of men bereft of yagya be happy when even their life in this world is miserable?”

What yagya generates-what results from it, is nectar-the substance of immortality. A direct experience of this is wisdom. The one who feeds on it becomes one with the eternal God. So yagya is something which with its completion unites the worshipper with God. According to Sri Krishn, how can the next world bring happiness to men bereft of yagya when even the mortal, human birth is beyond their reach? It is their inevitable lot to be born in lower forms and nothing better than them. So the observance of yagya is a necessity.Sri Krishn adds: “Many such yagya are laid down by the Ved but they all germinate and grow from the ordained action, and performing their various steps you will be free from worldly bondage.’’

In brief, the world is an expanded form of the mind. So the mutable world is the object that has to be offered as a sacrifice. When the mind is perfectly controlled, there is also perfect control over the world. The outcome of yagya appears clearly when the mind is fully restrained. The nectar of knowledge that is generated by yagya takes the man who has tasted it to the immortal God. This is witnessed by all sages who have realized God. It is not that worshippers of different schools perform yagya in different ways. The different forms cited in the Geeta are only the higher and lower states of the same worship. That by which this yagya begins to be done is action. There is not a single verse in the entire Geeta which defends or approves of worldly enterprise as a way to the realization of God. Now Sri Krishn preaches in verse thirty three of chapter four:
sreyan dravya-mayad yajnaj
jnana-yajnah parantapa
sarvam karmakhilam partha
jnane parisamapyate
“Sacrifice through wisdom is, O Parantap, in every way superior to sacrifices made with material objects, because (O Parth) all action ceases in knowledge, their culmination.’’

The yagya of wisdom, made by means of austerity, continence, faith, and knowledge, which brings about a direct perception of God, is the most propitious. All actions are fully dissolved in this knowledge. Knowledge is thus the crowning point of yagya. Thenceforth there is neither any profit in the doing of action nor any loss in abstaining from it. In the same way there are yagya that are performed with material objects, but they are insignificant in comparison with the yagya of knowledge which enables a man to have direct perception of God.Sri Krishn has just told us, that real yagya is restraint of the vital winds of life, subduing of the senses, and control of the mind. From where can we learn its mode? Sri Krishn’s pronouncement is that it can be had from only one source, namely, the real enlightened sage who has known the reality. He preaches:
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tatt va-darsinah
“Obtain that knowledge (from sages) through reverence, inquiry and innocent solicitation, and the sages who are aware of reality will initiate you into it.’’

So Arjun is advised to approach seers with reverence, self-surrender, and humility, to be instructed in true knowledge through devoted service and guileless curiosity. These seers will enlighten him on it. The ability to acquire this knowledge comes only with a wholly dedicated service. They are seers who enable us to have direct perception of God. They know the mode of yagya and they will teach it to Arjun.
(For more details, kindly refer “Yatharth Geeta” the world famous exposition on Bhagavad-Geeta by Paramhans Swami Shri Adgadanand ji who is an accomplished and totally enlightened sage from India.This exposition is available at www.yatharthgeeta.com for ready reference in almost all the major languages of the world).

Shri Mrityunjayanand is a disciple of most revered Swami Adgadanand ji and is fully committed to the universal promotion of the message of Bhagavad-Geeta. You can contact him at sinhamk26@yahoo.com

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