Yagna

Published on 7th October, 2018, in Mid-day. Buddha said that desire is the cause of suffering. Outgrowing desire enables one to experience freedom from suffering. The Vedic approach was very different. Suffering can be reduced when we pay attention to, and try to satisfy, each other's desires. This gave rise to the ritual of yagna. The person who conducts the yagna was called a yajaman. He lit a fire, and chanted hymns in order to invoke a deity or devata. He gave the devata something to eat, and said, "Swaha." Swaha means what was mine is now yours. Technically, it is the transfer of deeds. ..

Published on 6th May, 2018, in Mid-day. It is common amongst Western scholars and their Westernised students to differentiate between the Vedic yagna and the Puranic puja, rituals that define the two major phases of Hinduism, one that flourished over 3,000 years ago and one that emerged 2,000 years ago. Of course, at the other extreme, we have the bhakta-Indologists who insist that Hinduism has no history, or phases, or evolution – that everything was homogenous and static, until Muslims came into the land 1,000 years ago. The truth is somewhere in between, as usual. Vedic yagna is conventionally translated as 'sacrifice' and Puranic puja ..