12 Types of Yagna mentioned in the Bhagavadgita

Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda:

Devamevapare yagnam yoginah paryupasate|

Brahmaagnavapare yagnam yagnenaiva upajuvhati || 4. 25||

" Some YOGIS perform sacrifice to DEVAS alone (DEVA-YAJNA) ; while others offer "sacrifice" as sacrifice by the Self, in the Fire of BRAHMAN (BRAHMA-YAJNA) ."

Shotradeen indriayanyanye samyamaagnishu juvhathi |

Shabdadeen vishayaananya indriyagnishu juvhathi || 4. 26 ||

" Some again offer hearing and other senses as sacrifice in the fires-of-restraint; others offer sound and other objects of sense as sacrifice in the fires-of-the-senses."

Sarvendriya karmaani pranikarmani chapare|

Atma samyamayogagnou juvhathi jnana deepite || 4. 27 ||

" Others again sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of the breath (vital energy) in the fire of the YOGA of self-restraint, kindled by knowledge. "

Dravya yagnaah tapoyagna yogayagnah tathaapare |

Swadhyaya jnanayagnaashcha yatamyasyamsita vrathaah || 4. 28 ||

"Others again offer wealth, austerity and YOGA as sacrifice, while the ascetics of self-restraint and rigid vows offer study of scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice. "

Apaane javhati pranam pranepanam tathaapare |

Pranapaana gathiruddhwa pranayama parayanaah || 4. 29 ||

" Others offer as sacrifice the out-going breath in the in-coming, and the in-coming in the out-going, restraining the courses of the out-going and in-coming breaths, solely absorbed in the restraint of breath. "

Apare niyata aaharah pranam praneshu juvhati |

Sarvepyate yagnavidho yagnakshapita kalmashah || 4. 30 ||

" Others, with well-regulated diet, offer vital-airs in the Vital-Air. All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by sacrifice. "

In the above stanzas, Lord Krishna is explaining the mental attitude of a Saint-at-Work. In all these Yajnas described, the metaphor is taken from the most familiar ritualism known at the time to Arjuna. Oblations were offered, in Vedic ritualism, into the sacred-fire in order to invoke the blessings of the deity. In these examples, we are shown how when some materials are offered into a sacred-fire, not only the oblations get burnt up and consumed by the fire, but also, as a result, a great blessing accrues.

1. Deva Yagna:

The word "Deva" comes from a root, meaning 'illumination.' Subjectively viewed, the greatest "Devas" are the five sense organs: eyes illumining forms and colours, ears illumining sounds, the nose illumining smells, and the tongue and the skin illumining tastes and touches. Seekers, and Perfected-Masters (Yogis) too, when they move in the world, no doubt perceive sense-objects through sense stimuli. But in their understanding and experience, perception is but "a world of sense-objects continuously offering themselves into the fires of his perception in order to invoke the Devas (Sense-perceptions)." Such seekers and masters walk out into life, and when they come across the sense world, they only recognise and experience that the world-of-objects is paying a devoted tribute to the powers of sense-perceptions! When this mental attitude is entertained constantly by a seeker he comes to feel completely detached from the sense experiences and, irrespective of the quality of experience, he is able to maintain a constant sense of inward equanimity.

2. Brahma Yagna:

As contrasted with previous method (Deva-Yajna) there are others who perform Brahma-Yajna, says Krishna, wherein they come to "OFFER THE SELF AS A SACRIFICE BY THE SELF IN THE FIRE OF THE SELF." This statement becomes perfectly clear when subjectively analysed and understood. As long as we exist in the body manifestation, we have to come across the world of sense-objects. The Perfect Masters understand that the sense-organs are only INSTRUMENTS-of-perception and that they can work only when in contact with the Supreme, the Atman. In this true understanding all Masters live, allowing the sense-organs to sacrifice themselves in the Knowledge-of-Brahman.

3. Indriya Yagna:

SOME OTHER GREAT MASTERS OFFER HEARING AND OTHER SENSES IN THE FIRES-OF-RESTRAINT --- Here, it is said that some Masters live on in life constantly offering their senses into the fire-of-self-control, so that the senses, of their own accord get burnt up, contributing a greater freedom and joy in the inner life of the man. It is also a fact, very well experienced by all of us, that the more we try to satisfy the sense-organs the more riotous they become and loot away our inner joy. By self-control alone can the sense-organs be fully controlled and mastered. This is yet another method shown to the seekers by which they can come to experience and live a more intense life of deeper meditation. In this method the "Path-of-Sense-control" is indicated.

4. Mano Yagna:

In this method the "Path-of-Mind-control" is suggested. The mind is sustained and fed by the stimuli that reach it from the outer world. The sense-objects perceived by the organs create and maintain the mind. The mind can never function in a field, which cannot be interpreted in terms of the five types of sense-objects. Therefore, to make the mind non-receptive to the perceptions of the Indriyas is a method by which one can gain a better poise in life for purposes of meditation. Such an individual who has controlled the mind completely and withdrawn it totally from the sense-centres is indicated here when the Lord says: "OTHERS OFFER SOUND AND OTHER OBJECTS IN THE FIRES OF THE SENSES."

If the third yagna is a technique of controlling the stimuli at the very gateway of the senses, this fourth yagna is a different technique of controlling the same from the inner, and therefore more subtle, level of perception, called the mind.

5. Atma-Samyama Yagna:

ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SENSE-ORGANS (JNANA-INDRIYAS), AND THE ORGANS OF ACTION (KARMA-INDIRYAS) ARE OFFERED INTO THE KNOWLEDGE KINDLED-FIRE OF RIGHT UNDERSTANDING --- Control of the ego by the better understanding of the Divine Reality is called here as the "Yoga-of-Self-restraint' (ATMA-SAMYAMA-YOGA). The "Path-of-Discrimination" (Vichara) lies through a constant attempt at distinguishing between the limited lot of the ego and the divine destinies of the Spirit. Having discriminated thus, to live more and more as the Self, and not as the ego, is to "RESTRAIN THE SELF BY THE SELF (Atma-Samyama)." By this process, it is evident how the mad ramblings of the organs of perceptions and actions can be completely restrained and entirely conquered.

6. Dravya Yagna :

OFFERING OF WEALTH (Dravya-Yajna) --- Sacrifice of wealth is to be understood in its largest connotation. Charity and distribution of honestly acquired wealth, in a sincere spirit of devotion to and in the service of the community, or of the individual who is the recipient of the benevolence, is called Dravya-Yajna. This includes more than a mere offering of money or food. The term Dravya includes everything that we possess, not only in the world outside but also in our worlds of emotions and ideas. To pursue thus a life of charity, serving the world as best as we can, with all that we possess physically, mentally and intellectually is the noble sacrifice called "Wealth sacrifice."

7. Tapo Yajna :

Some live, offering unto their Lord, a life of austerity. There is no religion in the world which does not prescribe, by some method or the other, periods of austere living. These austerities (Vratas) are invariably undertaken in the name of the Lord. It is very well-known that the Lord of Compassion, who feeds and sustains even the lowliest of the low, can gain no special joy because of a devotee's self-denial. But it is generally done in a spirit of dedication, so that the seeker might achieve some self-control. This activity, in some extreme cases very painful indeed, is undertaken in order that the devotee may learn to control himself in his sense-life.

8. Yoga Yajna :

An earnest attempt of the lesser in us to grow into a better standard of diviner living, is called Yoga. In this attempt, devoted worship of the Lord-of-the-heart, called Upasana, is a primary method. This worship and love, offered to the Lord-of-the-heart, when performed without any desire or motive, is also called Yoga, since it directly hastens the seeker's self-development.

9. Swadhyaya Yajna :

The daily deep study of the scriptures is called Swadhyaya. Without a complete study of the scriptures we will not be in a position to know the logic of what we are doing in the name of spiritual practice, and without this knowledge our practices cannot gain the edge and the depth that are essential for sure progress. Thus, in all religions, the daily study of the scriptures is insisted upon, as an essential training during the seeker's early days. Even after Self-realisation, we find that the Sages spend all their spare-time reading and contemplating upon the inexhaustible wealth of details and suggestions in the scriptures. In its subjective implications, Swadhyaya means "self-study including the art of introspection pursued for understanding our own inner weaknesses." If, in the case of a seeker, it is a technique of estimating his own spiritual progress, in the case of a Seer, it will be for revelling in his own Self.

10. Jnana Yajna :

The "Sacrifice-of-Knowledge" is the term given to that activity in man by which he renounces all his ignorance into the fire-of-knowledge kindled BY him, IN him. This is constituted of two aspects; negation of the false, and assertion of the Real Nature of the Self. These two activities are effectively undertaken during the seeker's meditation.

11. Prana Yagna :

As a sacrifice some offer "THE OUT-GOING BREATH INTO THE IN-COMING BREATH AND OTHERS OFFER THE IN-COMING INTO THE OUT-GOING." The latter is, in the technique of Pranayama, called the Puraka, meaning the 'process of filing in'; while, the former is the 'process of blowing out,' technically called the Rechaka. These two processes are alternated with an interval, wherein the 'breath is held for sometime,' within and without, which is called the Kumbhaka. This process of Puraka-Kumbhaka-Rechaka-Kumbhaka, when practised in a prescribed ratio, becomes the technique of breath-control (Pranayama). This technique is again explained here as a Yajna by which the practitioner, in the long run, learns to offer all the subsidiary Pranas into the main Prana.

Prana is not the breath; this is a general misunderstanding. Through breath-control we come to gain a perfect mastery over the activities of the Pranas in us. When very closely observed, we find that the term Prana used in the Hindu Scriptures indicates the various "manifested activities of life in a living body." They generally enumerate five different kinds of Pranas, which, when understood correctly, are found to be nothing but the five different physiological-functions in every living body. They are: (1) the function of perception, (2) the function of excretion, (3) the function of digestion and assimilation, (4) the circulatory system, which distributes the food to all parts of the body, and lastly (5) the capacity in a living-creature to improve himself in his mental outlook and intellectual life. These activities of life within, about which an ordinary man is quite unconscious, are brought under the perfect control of the individual through the process of Pranayama, so that a seeker can, by this path, come to gain a complete capacity to withdraw all his perceptions. This is indeed a great help to a meditator.

12. Deha Yagna:

There are some who, through systematic regulation of their diet, come to gain a complete mastery over themselves and their appetites and passions. Dieting is not at all a new technique in India. The ancient Rishis not only knew the vitamin-contents and the caloric-values of the various food materials, but also prescribed very scientific combinations of the available vegetables and cereals to suit the temperament, function, and duties of persons belonging to different levels of society. Not only this; they so well perfected their knowledge that they even showed how, through regulated dieting, a man's character and behaviour, and ultimately his very cultural quality, can be purified and raised.

We often find sincere seekers getting so extremely attached to their own "path" of practice that they constantly argue about it among themselves. Therefore, Arjuna has been instructed here that all "paths," however noble and great they may be, are all but means, and not an end in themselves. All these methods of Self-development --- " sacrifice-of-wealth," "austerity," "Yoga," "study" and "knowledge" etc--- can be practised with profit only by those who are men of "rigid determination" and who can find in themselves an inexhaustible enthusiasm to apply themselves consistently to reach this great goal. It is not sufficient that we know these paths, or that we decide to gain these developments. Progress in spirituality can come only to one who is "sincere and consistent in his practices". All these "KNOWERS OF Yajna," meaning all those who know "the art of living these techniques," when they practice them in a spirit of self-dedication and selfless enthusiasm, can fully come to profit by them. The above-mentioned practices not only wipe clean the existing wrong-vasanas but cut out in their place new-channels-of-thoughts, more constructive and evolutionary in their very nature.