Origin of Yajna

Satsang by Swami Satyananda

Throughout time, fire has been venerated as a symbol of spirit. The first mantra in the oldest written text of the ancient vedic civilization, the Rig Veda, is to Agni, fire:

Agnimide purohitam yajnasya devam ritvijam; hotharam ratna dhatamam -
I offer my humble prayer to Agni, who is the Absolute Divine, the awakener of the inner energy and the giver of prosperity.

In the ancient vedic scriptures, Agni is the messenger between the people and God. Agni is equally the fire of the sun, of lightning and of the flame that humanity lights for purposes of worship. As the divine personification of the fire of sacrifice, Agni is the mouth of the gods, the carrier of the oblation and the messenger between the human and the divine. Sacred fire acts as a link between man's consciousness and the cosmic consciousness. Sacred fire has the ability to convert the material offerings into psychic components, as offerings to the devatas, or illumined beings, presiding over the yajna.

Yajna invokes and propitiates various devatas or divine energies using fire, the symbol of Agni, as the medium for the attainment of various boons and general well-being. The sun (Surya) was the great luminary in the sky, who gave light and warmth to the world and was the source of life on earth and its sustenance (Pushan). So people began to offer prayers to Surya in the morning and evening. At night they had to depend on fire (Agni) for heat and light. Gradually, the link between Surya, the friend of all beings in the sky, and Agni, who lives among men on earth, was established. It was conceived as different aspects of the one supreme self-luminous deity who also resides in all beings as the warmth of life and assimilates all food offerings poured into the jatharagni (fire in the stomach), which digests all food.

It was observed that the sun drew up the waters with its heat and the vapours rose to the sky to form clouds, returning as rain, and the earth produced vegetation - a circulation between the sky and the earth. It was also observed that when fire burned, the smoke rose to the sky, leaving only ashes, and water heated in vessels also rose to the sky as vapour. So the idea arose that material offerings to the devatas in the sky could be made through fire. Fire also had its devata in Agni, and all the devatas were interconnected. If offerings are made to Agni, he would carry it to Surya and other deities in the sky.

The initial yajna was that of the divine being sacrificing himself to become the universe. The ancient vedic hymn Purusha Sukta tells of the transformation of the eternal, infinite being into the finite cognizable material world, initiating the eternal cycle of creation. So the spirit of sacrifice came to be recognized as the source of creation, the heart of all creative forces. This yajna was called sarvahut, the offering of all. The Purusha was the object of worship. Brahma, the creative aspect of the Purusha, performed it. The priests were the devas, the Purusha's senses. Brahma was the beast of the sacrifice. The altar was all of nature. The fire was the Purusha's heart.

The Purusha sacrificed himself to bring forth all of creation. This is a message of love, that the Purusha would consume himself in the fire of sacrifice, to create all the worlds. From his mind emerged the moon, the sun from his eyes, Indra and Agni from his mouth, and the cosmic breath, Vayu, emerged from his breath (prana). Atmosphere emerged from his navel, the sphere of light (divya loka) from his head, the earth from his feet, the directions from his ears. The devas created all the spheres or lokas from his cosmic body. Thus the gods worshipped the god of gods through sacrifice. The original sacrifice, the original yajna, became the law of life.


The world is God's offering to all beings; it is his self-sacrifice to us. Therefore, our duty is to reciprocate by offering sacrifice to him in thanksgiving. The essential dynamic of the universe is that of a perpetual ritual of sacrifice. Every living entity is compelled to devour other forms of life in order to survive. The devoured is the sacrificial victim and the devourer is the sacrificer. This transformation of life into life is the very nature of existence. All of creation's beings perform yajna: the sun, moon and stars, the animals, fish, insects and birds, the trees, grasses and flowers, are all in a continual process of service and sacrifice.

All existence can be reduced to a dichotomy of two factors: food (annam) and the eater (annada). Every being is the eater of another and in turn becomes the food for some other being. This symbiotic relationship is particularly apparent in the fire, which grows immediately when fed with fuel and dies as soon as the fuel is consumed. All aspects of combustion or digestion are subtle forms of fire (vaishvanara agni). We make our offerings to the fire-pit in our bellies; these offerings are transformed into the nutrients that fuel the organs, enabling them to serve the body so that it may carry on with the activities of life and honour the soul within. So life is a process of yajna - service and sacrifice, to achieve the ultimate yoga - union with the supreme consciousness.