Gita 03.15 – Yajna makes the transcendental accessible

This verse, thank you nityam yajne pratishthitam here Krishna is telling karma brahma udbhavam viddhi where does karma come from? from brahma udbhavam so here brahma the word brahma can have many meanings and here brahma refers to the vedas brahma udbhavam viddhi brahma akshara samudbhavam akshara brahma refers to the imperishable so akshara here refers to god brahma akshara samudbhavam tasmad sarvagatam brahma the all pervading brahma nityam yajne pratishthitam is manifested in yajna so now here we have to understand what is going on, what is the line of thought that Krishna is talking through this chain so yajna Krishna is explaining the rationale of yajna and by looking at the conclusion we can go backwards so he says yajne pratishthitam in yajna it is present what is present? the all pervading brahma sarvagatam brahma that means now god of the absolute truth is everywhere but he is not accessible everywhere to us just as electricity is present everywhere but we cannot just touch our hand and get electricity if we get anything we will get mostly shock moisture is there in the atmosphere but if i want to drink water i cannot just hang my tongue out and get the moisture the moisture has to manifest in an accessible form it has to be converted probably through clouds through rains through rivers through taps into a glass and then i can drink it so the important point is that sarvagatam brahma so brahma becomes accessible to us yajne pratishthitam yajne refers to the all pervading brahman sorry yajne refers to fire sacrifice so what is being said over here is that yajna might what is this yajna, why is it being performed what is its rationale so all that is being explained over here by saying that in yajna the all pervading absolute truth becomes manifested so karma brahmoh let's go back to the start now so basically Krishna is telling that you can access the spiritual absolute truth through yajna now if you look back at the causal chain so living beings subsist on grains grains come from rains yajna comes from the rains come from yajna yajna karma samudbhava yajna is a part of karma karma comes from shastra yajna and shastra comes from god so in this way we have a whole cycle which originates in this absolute truth now how do we move forward from this point we understand that actually when a person is performing yajna that leads to satisfaction of the gods the immediate cosmic cycle is mentioned over here that we satisfy the god and the god satisfies that is true but beyond that Krishna has also said they get the ultimate benefit the ultimate benefit is that yajna not only arranges for grains but also gives access to the absolute truth now whatever yajna is performed it may be for certain devatas but in chanting of the mantras Vishnu is usually there and Vishnu is at the heart of the prayers and by that by those prayers Vishnu actually is invoked so the principle of sacrifice has its purpose of making transcend the transcendental absolute truth accessible to us so in the Upanishads yajna is envisioned as a bridge between our world and the transcendental world that means yajna is envisioned as a connecting link between us and supreme absolute truth Krishna so what exactly happens when we do yajna actually when we do yajna we approach the lord how? we connect with him because the principle of sacrifice means we give up something lower or something higher we give up that something which is materially attractive to us for the sake of spiritual growth ultimately there might be some material reciprocation that may also be happening but at least there is a raising of consciousness because there is an increased awareness there is a higher reality in nature that things are not just simplistically to be reduced at the mundane level now so so the reason that that is being talked about is that if we just assume that our duties are what society has taught us what the culture defines our duties to be then we will not be able to attain the absolute truth to attain the absolute truth we need to recognize that actually there is a sense of duty which transcends which has to transcend our social, cultural and other such designations that is a transcendental duty so scriptures do talk about our worldly duties also and they talk about our transcendental duties also so so we learn about our duties from scripture and ultimately scripture comes from god and in that way god becomes accessible to us so this principle of access to god is very important otherwise yajna can become a waste of time and even a waste of resources there are some people who light a fire sacrifice and then by lighting a fire sacrifice they use the same yajna, fire from the fire sacrifice to light the bidi that they are drinking, that they are smoking its a travesty of sacrifice actually yajna has to be done by people who are pure and if somebody is as impure as is indicated by the lighting of this thing then it is a total travesty of what yajna is meant to be but when yajna is performed properly then there is an acknowledgement of the higher forces in the universe and ultimately there is an acknowledgement of the highest person that is Krishna the highest absolute truth and in that way the consciousness expands, in that way the person rises to a higher understanding of reality now the question comes up how will one know how far one is to one is on the spiritual journey when one is doing yajna there are different kinds of yajna and the karmakandi yajnas will take one very slowly onwards, they will take one very slowly whereas the devotional yajnas will help one to go much faster now in kanyuga sankirtan yajna is recommended and sometimes the question comes up that is it that just to gain the prestige of yajna to the process of kirtan this compound word of sankirtan yajna has been created doesn't yajna mean sacrifice fire sacrifice, then how can sankirtan where there is no fire there is nothing like that how can that be called as a yajna so actually it's not something which is just done extraneously to add prestige to sankirtan actually the principle is we offer our externals so that we can offer our internals the idea of yajna is of connecting with god, even when we do charity of any kind, we offer some ahuti in sacrifice, the idea is what we want to offer our internal, we want to offer our heart to god, but because our heart is caught up in the world, caught up in so many things in this world, so we offer what is in our heart to god so money is in my heart, i will offer that to god so the things that money can buy are there in my heart, i will offer those things to god so when the ahuti is offered in yajna the important thing is not just the lighting of a fire and putting of the oblation in the fire the point is offering for god what is in one's heart, so that one offers a heart, offers a part of one's heart to god, one gives a place in at least one part of one's heart to god now when we chant the holy names we are also doing the same thing when we are chanting we are invoking krishna's presence and then we are offering him our consciousness, now ultimately where our consciousness is that is where our heart will be eventually, so when we offer our consciousness to krishna we are essentially offering our heart to him and in this way we move forward in our spiritual journey in going closer to krishna through implementing the principle of sacrifice sankirtan yajna is also a yajna in which the consciousness is the ahuti that is offered in the fire of the holy name and that also takes us efficaciously in this age it is the supremely efficacious way of going closer to the absolute truth.