[Advaita-l] On yajna

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Srinivas Gadkari prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Philosophizing the (vedAnteekaraNa) yajna vidhi-s (like OM TATSAT)  is good and palatable for the jnAnArthi-s..Like in adhyAtma rAmAyaNa we can always think rAma is parabrahman and seeta is mahaa mAya etc.  But IMHO, that should not stop us to know the practical procedure that has been followed in these rituals according to scriptural injunctions.  And this effort is in that direction only.  Hope you are with me here.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar

Namaste,


Here are some points related to yajna in general, based on my understanding:
- om, tat and sat expand respectively into
  brAhmaNa-s/ brahma vAdi-s, veda-s and yajna-s.
- Shri Jnaneshavara has clarified in his commentary
  on gitA, that these three respectively relate to
  states before karma is performed (om), while karma
  is performed (tat), and after karma has been performed (sat).
- So yajna is the act of contemplating on karmas performed
  using 'sat' (auspiciousness) as the guiding principle.
- So yajna can involve:
  - offering noble karmas to gods,
  - prayaschitta for not so noble karmas,
  - retuning citta vritti-s that are predominant when we perform 
    karma-s if we find that they are out of alignment with our 
    desired ('sat') goals. 
- So what may be purpose of an animal or any offering
  in a yajna?
  - any offering must be related to some aspect of karma-s
    performed. 
  - animals likely relate of specific strong citta vritti-s 
    within us.
  - if retuning of citta vritti-s can be achieved without
    actually killing any animal, that would be by far the
    most recommended approach.