If yajna produces rains how did the West that did no yajna have rains?

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Transcript

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So, if it is yajna that produces rains and after Sri Prabhupada went to the west, then yajna was performed. So, if Prabhupada had not gone, would there have been no rains? Or how is this to be understood in terms of the provision of rains where there is no yajna being performed? There is, the Bhagavad Gita talks about both universal principles and specific expressions of those universal principles.
We could say yajna at a very specific level as fire sacrifice. Lighting fires. But at a generic level, it is the spirit of sacrifice.
Sacrifice essentially means that which I could use for my pleasure, I use for some higher cause. That is sacrifice. So, that mood of sacrifice is there everywhere in the world.
And also the mood of some level of religious devotion. Christians also give in charity. Christians also do some religious rituals.
And they are all done in the mood of sacrifice. And the whole idea is that Jesus gave himself in crucifixion, in sacrifice. That’s the understanding of Christians about Jesus’ crucifixion.
The principle of sacrifice is universal. It is found through different expressions in different cultures. The principle is universal.
And more importantly we have to understand what the Gita is saying over there. The Gita’s point is that there is interconnectedness in the cosmos. Now the needs that we have of say water, from water comes food, from water comes grains and then all our nourishment is not dependent on water.
Getting water is not in our control alone. So, a few years ago the Indian government tried to do cloud seeding to get artificial rains. It was a very publicized phenomena but it really didn’t do much.
And in America also they have been trying it for many years. Now there are many issues which come up with it. But the main problem is that even if we succeed in seeding clouds, first of all the clouds have to be there.
But there is no technology by which you can evaporate water and actually build clouds. So, the existing cloud like that, that we will be able to seed. But even after seeding, there is no control where the water will go.
You can’t make sure the cloud falls and only in a water tank the water goes. The water falls in a drain and it just drains away. So, the point is that there are factors beyond human which shape our human destiny.
And we need to propitiate, we need to satisfy those factors. There are devatas and ultimately the Supreme Lord who is behind the devatas. And there is some way in which we satisfy the Lord.
So, Srila Prabhupada explained the concept of yajna simply as taxes. Taxes means that if I am staying in a particular city or particular country, the government is providing me something. So, I have to provide something in return to the government.
Now, in some places there may be no taxes. But still we are expected to do something for the government in return. Some way, if I am taking something, I have to give something in return.
So, there is a specific way in which the exchange happens. In the past, people had barter system. I give some good and you give some good.
Now, we have currency system. Now, for a person who is complete, maybe from a very tribal kind of background, they never heard of currency. They say, you know, you bring a whole pile of grains and change it and you will get some paper.
You have been cheated over here. It just may make no sense to them. Or today, if somebody is living in a country where there is only currency and they have not heard of the concept of digital currency or cashless economy.
They say, you know, you go and take a whole suitcase of notes, you go to the bank and the bank simply gives you one piece of card. What is the use? You have been cheated. So, the specific forms of exchange can vary according to culture, according to economy.
But the principle is that we give something and we get something. The same way, the principle of yajna is that nature is providing us something. Ultimately, God is providing us through nature and in return, we have to do something to nature.
There is a specific way in which people may do it. So, we shouldn’t have, Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes in one of his books that God is not the monopoly of any religion. Nor is knowledge about God the monopoly of any particular religion.
God is actually, God and knowledge about God they are the universal gifts that we have got from higher sources for all of humanity. So, the same Krishna, same God who is revealed given in the Bhagavad Gita, He is also given in the Bible, He is also given in the Quran. So, there are different religions and they are basically means, different means by which people can rise from where they are to one step higher.
How much higher they will rise, what destination they will get, there are those specifics vary. But the principle of give and take with the higher aspects of our universe, that is universal. And in that sense, there is definitely some amount of religiosity that is there in all religions all over the world, in all parts of the world.
And based on that, the reciprocation and the provision of necessities happens. Does that answer your question? So, thank you very much.