[Advaita-l] vedic yajna

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Anand Hubliji,

You said
Quote
Obviously, this ritual is different from the one described in the BrihadAraNyaka upaniShad.

Unquote

You are right in your guess. The ritual in the Brihadaranyaka upanishad  is not exactly the same.  The ritual of sacrificing a calf or bull would not be there in that. As you can also see in the verses from the Brihadaranyaka that for having a child to be well-versed in three Vedas no meat is required. The three Vedas Rig, Yajur and Sama (ie. the Vedatrayee) are concerned with Yajna. Here I am taking the commonly taken meaning of Yajna, which includes fire-rituals. (It is another matter that Tapa is also a Yajna ans Pranayama is also a Tapa). Bhishma was very clear in the Mahabharata that the sacrificing of animals in a Yajna was introduced only by the dhoortas. 

It is only when the child is required to be proficient in the fourth Veda (ie. the Atharva Veda) that there is the additional requirement. Of course the words used for that purpose may mean meat as well as herbs, as the Sushruta and the  Charaka Samhita point out, although to my knowledge the Sushruta samhita extols the usefulness of the specific meat to have an exceptionally capable child.

Regards,

Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: Anand Hudli <anandhudli at hotmail.com>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org 
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2011 3:30 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] vedic yajna
 
Rajaram Venkataramani wrote:

>This discussion has gone off in multiple directions responding to all
>which will further defeat the purpose of my starting it to find out
>the specific ritual referred to in Br Up verses. I'm planning to ask a
>learned sastrigal or srautigal. But if anyone knows, please share the
>name of the ritual. It does not seem to be putra kameshti.

As part of the saprayoga shAnti chandrikA, a manual of shAnti karmas,
there is a putra-kAmeShTi ritual described for R^ig Vedins. The
pradhAna deities of this homa are agni,varuNa, Vishnu, soma, and
sUrya. The dravya or material used for the offerings is pAyasa-charu.
There are 15 offerings in all to the various deities and the
hutasheSha (remnants of the offerings) is consumed by the couple
desiring a child.

Obviously, this ritual is different from the one described in the
BrihadAraNyaka upaniShad.


Anand
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