गीता सत्र - Class Notes

Sessions conducted by Acharya Prashant.

The Meaning of Yagya

— Fire Sacrifice —

Verse 3.11

देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वः।
परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ।।३.११।।

अनुवाद:
यज्ञ से देवत्व को आगे बढ़ाओ, तो देवत्व से तुम्हारी उन्नति होगी। इस तरह परस्पर उन्नति करते हुए तुम परम श्रेय प्राप्त करते हो।

Translation:
Nourish the gods with this (sacrifice), and may those gods nourish you; thus nourishing one another, you shall attain the highest good.

Ego is not a point but a range, and within that range it has choices. It can choose to be at a higher level or it can decide to stay at a lower level. Now this range forms the foundation of Yagya.

Here, "higher level" must not be considered absolute, and "lower level" must not be confused with something meaningless. We are talking of practical, behavioral, day-to-day choices—the options that we choose in our daily conduct. We are not saying here that the ego has the choice to become instantly liberated.

What then does Yagya mean?

Since I know that I can be better this very moment by making a better choice from a better center, therefore I will empower my own better center, my own higher possibility.

And how do I empower it?

By allotting my energy, my time, my attention, my concern, my respect, my resources—whatever is available to me to be used. I withdraw them from their current allocations and reallocate them to a higher position.

Yagya does not demand something enormous from us. Yagya does not ask one to become mystical or metaphysical. It simply says:

Do what you already know to be right. Do what you already know to be better.

Yagya is basically a doctrine of honesty.

Just move to a higher point within your range.

Verse 3.12

इष्टान्भोगान्हि वो देवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञभाविताः।
तैर्दत्तानप्रदायैभ्यो यो भुङ्क्ते स्तेन एव सः।।३.१२।।

अनुवाद:
देव यज्ञ से सेवित होकर और उन्नति को प्राप्त होकर तुम्हें वास्तविक अभीष्ट प्रदान करेंगे। जो देवत्व को दिया जाना चाहिए, वह देवत्व को न देकर जो स्वयं ही उसका भोग कर लेता है, वह निश्चित रूप से चोर है, अर्जुन।

Translation:
The gods, nourished by sacrifice, will bestow upon you the desired enjoyments. He who enjoys what is given by them without offering in return is verily a thief, O Arjuna.

In social or legal terms, one is a thief only when one steals from others. But in existential terms, you are a thief if you have spent your money and time unwisely.

You are a thief if you have offered your care, love, concern, and respect unwisely.

You are respecting those who do not deserve to be respected.

You are a thief, says Krishna.

You are showering affection on those who do not deserve any affection from you.

You are a thief because your affection should have been offered elsewhere—to the deserving recipient. You denied the deserving one. You snatched it away from him.

This affection is now falling in the direction of somebody totally unworthy, or something totally unworthy.

Offer whatever you have to the highest possible center available to you. That is the way one lives rightly.

Don't deprive yourself of what you potentially can be.

Don't keep spending yourself on things merely at your current level.

That is what Neti-Neti means in the context of Yagya.

Never say, "I have arrived."

One must keep reinvesting at a higher level.

Save yourself for a higher self.

Whatever you have, give it to the highest place possible.

The highest is always with respect to you. It does not mean socially higher. It means that which has the potential to pull you higher.

You are not merely spending wrongly; you are stealing.

The problem is that the one you are stealing from is faceless.

It is an opportunity loss, not a material loss.

When you spend wrongly, you are stealing, but you will never know from whom.

Think deeply about the soft and hard resources you have received.

Hard resources are land, money, property, etc.

Soft resources are your attention, time, care, and love.

Think of who you could have become had you invested yourself rightly.

Then think of the world.

Had we all expanded rightly, what could have happened to poverty, climate crisis, natural disasters, malnutrition, and suffering?

Instead of investing ourselves rightly, we choose to waste our resources, and that is the exact opposite of Yagya.

That is where it becomes Ayagya.

Verse 3.13

यज्ञशिष्टाशिनः सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषैः।
भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात्।।3.13।।

अनुवाद:
जो सर्वस्व यज्ञ को समर्पित करके बस जो अवशेष बचा, उसको खाते हैं, वे सब पापों से मुक्त हो जाते हैं, लेकिन जो अपने ही लिए पकाते हैं और खाते हैं, वे समझो कि पाप ही खाते हैं।

Translation:
Those who partake of the remnants of sacrifices are freed from all sins, but those sinful ones who cook food only for themselves, they verily eat sin.

Self-preservation is the agenda of the ego, not sublimation, not dissolution.

For the ego, it is always survival, never sublimation; always preservation, never dissolution.

Irrespective of what it is doing, it is doing so to self-preserve.

If this is seen clearly and acknowledged honestly, only then would Yagya start making some sense.

Yagya is the process of the lowly state of the ego feeding the higher state of the ego.

The Gita is there so that you can look at the entire drama from above—like the sky looking upon the earth.

The understanding that the ego itself is the range is central to the concept of Yagya.

When we start talking of Yagya, we start talking of the vertical range; the common man keeps talking only of the horizontal range.

Give the maximum possible to the higher one.

The higher one is who you truly are, and after that, whatever remains may be taken by you.

Retain only as much as is needed for the feeder to survive, so that he may continue feeding.

If the higher state is to be nourished, then the feeding hand must have some energy left.

The ego is an accumulation of random influences, and remaining a mass of those random influences is the very purpose of the ego—self-preservation.

The Prakriti of the ego is randomness, but spiritual discipline demands a well-directed, disciplined, and unidirectional movement—a rise upwards, vertically, like a rocket.