I explained earlier all this to say how Yajna came into being and how it became so significant in our life. Yajna was our way of celebrating the discovery of fire. We offered to it every good thing of our life. Our ancestors who initiated these sacrificial rituals did not have much to give. They had wheat/ rice and they made offering of it to fire. They sacrificed even their best animals to greet this god who had come to transform their life so radically. And everything was impromptu and spontaneous. It was an outpouring of a simple, innocent and unsophisticated heart-mind that our people had then. They were a rural people and cities had yet to come into come into being.
By the time of Krishna and Gita, civilization had made great strides- thanks to fire. Now it seemed meaningless to dance or sing around the fire. Fire had no longer taken as a greatest blessing that it was when it was discovered. So Krishna grafted a new word into the old system of Yajna and called it jnana-yajna or the ritual of knowledge. So Krishna thought of igniting the fire of knowledge, which is the last luxury of a society that comes to the pinnacle of materialistic prosperity. Jnana-yagna or sacrificial ritual of knowledge stands for a special path, and every traveler on this path burns his ego, “I-ness” in the fire of knowledge of reality. Ordinary fire burns everything that is gross, but it cannot burn subtler elements like thoughts of arrogance, pride and ego. Only the fire of knowing can destroy it.
It is interesting that down the centuries the symbol of fire remains alive. And it is not without reason. The most important reason was that in life of primitive man there was nothing like fire which by nature moved upward. Water moves downward: pour it anywhere and it finds its ways to downward area and moves on. But no matter we do, the flame always moves upward. So the fire becomes the symbol of ascension- upward journey. The flame of fire reflects man’s highest aspiration to reach the unknown.
Like water, human mind as we know it is inclined to move downward. Fire was the first thing in the knowledge of man that rebelled against the law of gravitation. The earth seems to have no power over the fire. Therefore the seers who first exalted the fire and danced around it in joyous homage declared their aspirations to become like fire and ascend to heavens. Their prayer said, “we want to turn our spirit into flame so that even if it is put in abyss it will continue to move upward and reach the zenith.” So the ritual of the sacrificial fire was symbolic and significant.
Wishing you good health & happiness,
Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation-the stress management people
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