Purpose Of Yajna

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The Threefold Purpose of Yajna from Hindu Dharma

The Vedic sacrifices have a threefold purposes. The first is to earn

the blessings of the deities so that we as well as all other

creatures may be happy in this world. The second is to ensure that,

after our death, we will live happily in the world of the celestials.

But our stay in devaloka, the celestial world, is not for all time. It

will last only until such time as we exhaust the merit earned by us in

this world. The joy known in the celestial world is also not full or

entire unlike the bliss experienced by great devotees and jnanins. It

is nowhere equal to the bliss of the Atman: which is also described as

"experiencing" Isvara.

Sankara has stated in his Manisa-Pancaka that the joy that Indra knows

is no more than a drop in the ocean of Atmananda or the bliss of

Self-realisation. However, life in svarga, the paradise of the

celestials, is a thousand times happier than life on earth with its

unceasing sorrows. The second purpose of performing sacrifices is to

earn residence in this paradise.

The third purpose is the most important and it is achieved by

performing sacrifices, as taught by the Gita, without any expectation

of reward. Here we desire neither happiness in this world nor

residence in paradise. We perform sacrifices only because it is our

duty to invoke the blessings of the gods for the welfare of the

world. In this way our consciousness will be cleansed, a

pre-requisite for enlightenment and final liberation. In other words

the selfless performance of sacrifices means that we will eventually

be dissolved in the Paramatman.

Sankara, who has expounded the ideals of Self-realisation and jnana,

says: "Vedo nityam adhiyatam taduditam karma svanusthiyatam" (Chant

the vedas every day. Perform with care the sacrifices and other rites

they enjoin upon you). The Acarya wants us to conduct sacrifices not

for happiness in this world, nor for the enjoyment of the pleasure of

paradise. No, not for any petty rewards. Sankara exhorts us to carry

out Vedic works without our hearts being vitiated by desire. This,

according to his teaching, is the way to make our mind pure in order

to realise the Self.