Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! In this modern age, many of us consider our age-old religious rituals

like yajnas and yagas meaningless, ridiculous and outdated. Why has this

happened?

 

Ignorance is the main cause, the utter ignorance of thoughtless speeches. A

simple example. A District Collector went to a village on official work. There

in a field he saw a farmer who was just throwing paddy grains on his plot of

land. The official felt that this was the reason why India was so poor. `What a

funny man is this rustic fellow throwing away paddy grains at a time when people

are starving, " he thought. He finally decided to ask the farmer why he was doing

like that. The farmer responded, " Sir, I am not wasting these paddy grains.

Today it looks as though one bag of paddy is just thrown to the winds, but later

you will get fifty bags of paddy out of this one bag " . Then the Collector

understood that he was mistaken.

 

Likewise, watching sacred rituals like yajnas and yagas, one might feel that

ghee and lots of other materials are wasted by being put into the sacrificial

fire. It is not so. The smoke that comes out of this fire as these materials are

poured into the fire, and the Vedic mantras chanted simultaneously cleanse the

polluted air. The whole atmosphere is purified. So it is foolish to consider

these rituals as outdated, ridiculous, and meaningless. They ensure timely rains

and harvests. In fact all these rituals prescribed by our Vedic texts are meant

for the welfare of mankind and confer peace and bliss.