Yajna and the fruit of yajna, both are actions. What is the origin of action? Where is the unmanifested potentiality of action? The doer of an act is the mind. Before an action, a person thinks of it and the thought gets manifested as corresponding vibrations or sensations in his mind. Those mental vibrations are then transformed into actions in the external world. That is, after thinking about an act, when the hands and feet begin to move, then the action being done is called a kriya, an act. Vibration exists in the mind or sublime level and an act exists both in the crude and sublime levels, because all vibrations are not necessarily transformed into acts. Whenever there is an act, then the existence of a precedent thought is a certainty. That is why karma or yajna is called psycho-physical.
Human beings cannot exist even for a moment without performing an act. Salvation means the eternal emancipation from this very karma or yajna. Ordinarily, yajna is of four kinds: Bhuta Yajna, Nri Yajna, Pitri Yajna andAdhyatma Yajna. Of these four yajnas, the first three, namely bhuta, nri, and pitri yajnas, are psycho-physical, that is, both mental and physical, but adhyatma yajna is 100% internal. The origin of bhuta, nri and pitri yajna is in mental vibrations and they take shape in the physical world. The actual origin of karma, however, is in the mind.
Suppose I donated 10 rupees to a?particular person. This is called nri yajna. In the first instance, I gave the donation mentally, and when this mental donation took the shape of a physical act, then I practically made the donation.
As soon as the thought of giving the donation occurs in the mind, the physical act of donating flashes before the mind, that is, the act had actually originated in the mental domain. Adhyatma yajna, on the other hand, originates in the domain of the soul and terminates in the soul.
Bhuta yajna means services rendered to any created entity of the manifested world. For example, watering trees, serving cattle, undertaking scientific explorations and doing anything for the sake of welfare. In Sanskrit, ‘bhuta’ means ‘that which has been created’. It does not mean ghost or spirit.
Nri yajna is action for human welfare. In fact, nri yajna is a part of bhuta yajna because human beings are also created beings.
Pitri yajna means remembering the ancestors and sages. As long as a person possesses the physical body, he remains indebted to his ancestors. Those who are capable of working for their own emancipation as well as that of society, by virtue of knowledge acquired through austerities practised by the sages, are indebted to the sages. Sages are those who are helping and who have helped human society in numerous ways, such as the invention of new objects.
You enjoy the fruits of the inventor of railway engines. Is it not a fact that the present intellectual currents originated from the fountain of their wisdom?
Many people say that science is detrimental to civilisation and an impediment to civilisation, that the old world was indeed good. They forget that science also existed in the old world and, although it was very undeveloped, people had adopted it according to their standard of wisdom and knowledge. We are progressing on the road constructed by them. On the other hand, those sages who have looked to the well-being of humanity certainly deserve our revered memory. To pay homage to them is pitri yajna.
Adhyatma yajna is 100% internal. The impetus for adhyatma yajna comes from the soul and this impetus becomes operative in the mental province. The mind performs the sadhana and the karma also terminates in the province of the soul. That is, the ultimate goal of mental sadhana lies in the province of the soul. Adhyatma yajna is a liberating sadhana and the remaining three, bhuta, nri and pitri yajna are both liberating and subjugating.
-Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii
