If yajnas are not done will there be no rains?

From Ankur P
It says in 3.14 that rains are produced from yajnyas. Does it literally mean that if yajnya performances are stopped, then there would be no rains? If that’s correct, even today how many people are performing yajnyas – whether fire sacrifices or sankirtan yajnya, but rains are still happening? How to understand this?
Answer Podcast:

Transcript

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Hare Krishna.
Question from Ankur Prabhu. In Bhagavad Gita 3.14, it is said that rain is produced by yajna. So, does that mean, that literally mean that if yajna is not done, then rains will not come? And does it mean, then how do we understand that so many, hardly any people are coming, performing yajna in the world today.
And still, rain is coming. So, how do we understand this? Answer, there are two different aspects to be understood over here. There is the principle of yajna and then there is the practice of yajna.
So, the practice, where the Bhagavad Gita talks about it specifically, is in terms of fire sacrifices. But the principle is cosmic cooperation. That cosmic cooperation means, that we are not living in a isolated cosmos.
We are living in an interdependent cosmos, wherein the supplies for our life’s necessities require a higher supervision and intervention for them to come properly. So, the vision is that the universe is not just a disorderly result of an arbitrary explosion. Rather, it is an orderly, universal government under the supervision of the Supreme Being, who acts through his representatives, the devatas.
So, now, the point is, that just as in an ordinary government, when we live in a state, we need to cooperate with the government by following its laws and providing taxes for whatever utilities we take from the government. Similarly, when we live in the cosmic government, we need to cooperate with that government by following its rules and paying taxes. So, the taxes are in the form of yajna.
So, yajna is the principle by which we cooperate with the cosmic government. And according to time, place, circumstance, the specific practice of that principle will vary. Just like in some governments, the tax may be given by, through the means of direct cash transfer.
In others, there might be just digital transfer. In more primitive forms, there might be barter. Or the government may just take one-tenth of the farmer’s produce.
Or something like that. So, the specific practice of how tax may be given may vary. But the principle of cooperation with the government is what tax signifies.
So, similarly, yajna signifies cooperation with the cosmic government. And now, if we see, yes, the specific practice of fire sacrifice is not being done much. But still, there are, all over the world, there are people who believe in God and offer worship to Him in some way or the other.
And that itself is one way, in one primitive and not necessarily fully developed way that consciousness of cosmic cooperation might not be there when people of different religions may do specific rituals according to their religions. Now, not all of these are authorized even from their scriptures point of view. But still, there is the expression of devotion, of some devotion to God that is there in that.
And that is also a rough correlate of correspondence to the principle of sacrifice wherein people do give, people do offer something from what they are going to enjoy to God. So, yes, there is, in principle, the practice, in principle, yajna is being performed wherever in some way worship of God is being done. Now, so, yes, when yajna is performed, although there are specific demigods forming the yajna medium, the principle is that they are cooperating with the cosmic government and that is headed by the Supreme Being.
Now, secondly, the result of non-performance of yajna is not necessarily stoppage of rain. It is erratic supply of rainfall. We see in the Bhagavatam that when the Rajivasis decide to stop yajna to Indra, what is the result? The result is that the rains come excessively over there.
Those specific circumstances are that Indra becomes angry and he, a vengeful spirit decides to destroy Vrindam, that’s why send the samvartha clouds. But the point is yajna does not lead to the stoppage of rains, yajna there in that particular case leads to excessive rains. So, the point is that there will be, if yajna is not performed, there will be disruption in the supply of universal utilities, specifically rain in this context.
So, that disruption can be either in the form of rains coming too less or rains coming too much. And we do see that as the world is becoming more and more religious, there is a lot of ecological devastation that is happening. Now, according to many surveys, almost one of every six rivers in the world is drying out before it reaches the ocean.
So, now there are factors like soil desertification and others which play a role in this. But one of the factors is also erratic rains. So, the consequence of non-performance of yajna is not just stoppage of rains leading to droughts and famines, but it can also be excessive rains leading to floods and correspondingly devastation or retribution in some other way.
So, essentially, we needn’t have a very naive conception that, you know, lighting a particular fire is going to cause the rains to shower down on the ground. We have to go beyond that sort of vision to understanding the principles that lighting the fire signifies cooperation with the cosmic government and non-cooperation with the government will lead to retribution. That can be in the form of either excessive rains or no rains.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.