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yajna

Yajna is from the SANSKRIT root yaj, “to honor a

god with oblations.” A yajna is a ritual involving

oblations in the Vedic tradition. It may be simply

an offering of clarified butter into a fire, or it may

involve 17 priests in an elaborate 12-day ritual

including the building of a large fire altar as in

the AGNICHAYANA. The ritual of the yajna always

includes a fire, Sanskrit MANTRAS, and some sort

of offering. In the larger public rituals a sacrifice

of some animal or animals has been common.

The word yajna is frequently translated roughly

as “sacrifice.”

Further reading: Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature (Samhitas

and Brahmanas): A History of Indian Literature, Vol. 1,

no. 1 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975); Thomas

Hopkins, The Hindu Religious Tradition (Encino, Calif.:

Dickenson, 1971); Frits Staal, AGNI: The Altar of Fire, 2

vols. (Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1983).

Yajnavalkya (c. 700 B.C.E.)

Yajnavalkya was the most prominent sage named

in the UPANISHADS. He was a student of Aruni.

His teachings are recorded in dialogues in the

BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD and the CHANDOGYA

UPANISHAD. In one teaching he is asked how many

gods there are and he answers: “Three hundred

and three and three thousand and three.” Pressed

to be clearer he says there are 33. He is questioned

again and again and eventually arrives at the state-

ment that there is only one “God,” the BRAHMAN,

or all. In another dialogue one of his wives asks

him whether wealth could make her immortal and

he propounds a notion that everything that exists

is underlain by one reality, which is what is to be

held dear, not wealth.

Yajnavalkya was said to have been the source

for the White YAJUR VEDA. The Yajnavalkya whose

name is attached to an important text of DHARMA-

SHASTRA is unlikely to be the same individual.

Further reading: Swami Brahmananda, The Philosophy

of Sage Yajnavalkya: A Free Rendering of the Yajnavalkya

Kanda of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as Expounded

in the Atma Purana (Shivanandanagar: Divine Life

Society, 1981); Shoun Hino and K. P. Jog, eds. and

trans., Suresvara’s Vartika on Yajnavalkya’s Dialogue

with Artabhaga and Others (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,

1999); Swami Satchidanandendra Sarasvati, The Vision

of Atman: Yajnavalkya’s Initiation of Maitreyi into the

Intuition of Reality (Holenarsipur: Adhyatma Prakasha

Karyalaya, 1970).

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