Why Purohit or Priest is not required to perform a Yadnya?

The Vedas have always been presenting a deeper meaning to every term or action and mostly people fail to understand deeper meaning of the Vedas. We have been regularly understanding deeper meaning of many such terms through our blog and books. I could not author a post for a while due to focus on Untold Nakshathta Jyotish. All the while I have been thinking about various fundamental concepts from the Vedas. Untold Nakshathta Jyotish has many such concepts.

    Today I plan to explain the concept of Yadnya. Traditionally when we refer to Yadnya we think of a Yadnya Kunda or a holy pit with fire and Purohits offering some grains in the holy fire. This is a perfect practice and can be performed occasionally.

    The Vedas also suggest Pancha-Maha-Yadnya or 5 key sacrifices and this practice is supposed to be performed every day.

The practice is as below. Everyone shall perform following Yadnyas every day.

1.Brahma Yadnya

Brahma means the universal energy. This Practice is to be performed to understand Brahma and our relation to the Brahma.

This practice includes studying scriptures for the purpose of understanding Brahma. This may include studying Vedas and other scriptures, meditation and other practices.

2.Deva Yadnya

As you might know, Div means light as Deva means the one with light. Deva Yadnya means offerings to the light. This daily practice is called Agnihotra. Light and fire has immense importance in Vedic culture. I shall author a separate post on fire and light to explain the focus of Vedas on fire and light.

3.Pitru Yadnya

Pitara means ancestors. Paying homage to ancestors for their contribution in our life and the ecosystem is the purpose of Pitru Yadnya.

Pitru Yadnya is performed in many different ways. The simplest way is to offer rice to a crow and sugar to ants because they are messengers of the ancestors.

Performing Yearly Shraddhas and occasional Tarpan are also ways of Pitru Yadnya.

4.Bhoota Yadnya

This is also called Vaishwadeva. This is an offering to universal god in the form of living beings. To perform this Yadnya, food is offered to animals.

Some people offer food to cows as we take cow milk. Some people also offer food to dogs.

Interestingly, Vaishwadeva combines 3 Yadnyas. During Vaishwadeva rice is offered to a crow as a part of Pitru Yadnya, rice is also offered to fire as a part of deva Yadnya and rice is even offered to a cow as a part of Bhoota Yadnya.

   5.Atithi Yadnya

Atithi means uninvited guest who joins for very less time. Atithi Yadnya is performed by offering food to the guest.

People who follow Agnihotra and Vaishwadeva complete 4 out of 5 Panchamahayadnyas every day as a practice.

I explained Panchamahayadnyas for a different reason. I want to tell you that all the 5 Maha Yadnyas don’t need any Brahmin or Priest because they are simple daily procedures. If you follow these 5 Maha Yadnyas every day you don’t need a Brahmin for Yadnya.

  This covers another aspect of Vedic culture. Even though Vedic culture has procedural aspect, it even has stronger social and environmental aspect. And even though it suggests rituals it strongly suggests actions for the benefit of society and environment.