[Advaita-l] Yajna and Homa

[sriram]

Dear Sri Vyas
Yes you are right Yagna and Homam both mean the same.Perhaps a visual 
distinction that can be made is that homams are of short duration whereas 
yagnas can last for a fewdays depending on the agama vidhis.Krishnamoorthy.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at braincells.com>
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" 
<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 12:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Yajna and Homa


> On Sun, 2 Aug 2009, Krishna Subrahmanian wrote:
>
>> Dear members, I have a question. What is the difference between a
>> yajna and a homa? Is it the scale? Or is it the type of offering
>> (ghee versus others) or the mantras or purpose (kaamya karma versus loka
>> kalyana)?
>
> According to katyAyanashrautasUtra (1.2.5-7) yajna is marked by the verb
> yaj (yajati) and the oblation is given standing up with the exclamation
> vaShaT.  Homa or havan is marked by the verb hu (juhoti) and the oblation
> is given sitting down with the exclamation svAhA.
>
> But this is actually a rather academic distinction.
>
>> Yajna seems to have a broader meaning than fire ritual, but
>> homa is strictly a fire ritual.
>
> For all practial purposes the two terms are synonyms.  Even in the veda
> they are sometimes mixed.  (I'm thinking of the rk tasmAdyaGYat... in the
> purushasukta for instance.)  I guess you could say yajna is used more
> often for non-agni related "sacrifices" but this is not a technical
> difference.
>
> -- 
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>


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