The mantra recitations of the priests at the nearby sacred fire sifted in and out of an interesting talk by Dr. Sanjay Shastri (Sanjay Kumar) on the meaning of havan, yajna and ritual. Sanjay is a Sanskrit scholar who was trained in the noted Prabhat Ashram, received a doctorate from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and has also served Swami Veda both at Sadhana Mandir and currently at SRSG, where he is assisting with the editing of Swami Veda’s Yoga Sutras and commentaries.

“You cannot worship a God without first becoming a god,” he said.

The words deva and devi, god and goddess, come from the Sanskrit verb root div, which means to shine. I once heard Swami Rama say that div refers to that most ancient light.

Sanjay cleared up many misconceptions about Hindu deities. Later, I asked him about Brahman, and Sanjay said that Brahman is not part of the Hindu pantheon, of the many gods described in Hinduism. “Brahman,” he said, “is the indescribable, absolute, ultimate reality.”

Sanjay pointed out that the many gods do not live forever. They die and are replaced by others. They are more forces of nature and positions filled that change. He likened this idea to the office of the president of the United States. Obama is the president now, but not forever. In fact, once, the story goes, when the god Indra got too arrogant he was removed from his post.

Sanjay explained that the many gods of the Hindu Pantheon are not the same concept as the God of the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic traditions. He used the analogy of the billions of cells in our body, each one having a soul. This universe is the body of God. We are living interdependently just as our cells in our body live interdependently. In pujas and in prayers, we often invoke the shakti of a particular deity.

Early on, he asked the audience what the Law of Gravity was and some of us called out Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Gravity. Then Sanjay said “The Indian law of gravity is ‘everything returns to its source’.”
Sanjay explained that the world is a result of the marriage of Purusha (pure consciousness) and Prakriti (matter). “The source of all things –of both Purusha and Prakriti–is always inherent. Nothing exists without its source.” I found this a compelling reason to master Sankhya-Yoga. Swami Veda has asked us many times to acquire a firm foundation in Sankhya. Chapter 5 of his book God and many audio files and other books can help.

“Why do we do rituals?” Sanjay asked.

He reminded us of Swami Veda’s guidance in his book Philosophy of Hatha Yoga. “Before you do any gesture, you do it first with the mind, you prepare the mind. It’s the same with rituals,” said Sanjay.
Sanjay also referred to a lecture by Swami Veda in which he pointed out that even if you are in silence, even if you say nothing, you are in communication with those around you. Sanjay tied this to the fact that everything we do in the world has an effect. “Everything we do in the world is a give and take relationship,” he said. He spoke of the three debts we have in the world, to our parents, to the guru…. and to the deities and this is why we do rituals.”

He went on to discuss individualism, the idea that each person is autonomous and only answerable to him/herself. But he challenged this world view. “We are all interconnected…we live in the material and conscious forces in the world because we are all connected. Everything we do affects all other beings in the world and everything all others do in the world affects us.”

As far back as I remember I have always believed this. Anything I do affects the whole just as something someone does on the other side of the planet touches me, whether I know this person or am conscious of that person or not. Rituals, like meditation, seem like a refinement, a training of the mind and of our whole being as vortices in the whirlpool of energies in the universe.

Sanjay explained that in any offering, first there is the physical bath. Then at the very outset of any ritual or yajña, you prepare by purifying yourself on another level. When you purify the eyes, you are not only purifying the physical eyes but also the power of seeing. You invite the divine forces to sanctify the powers of seeing, hearing, smelling,–all senses and all limbs. This helps to make us fully present to the ritual.

“We are actually making ourselves divine, we are inviting the divine into us,” Sanjay said. When you bless the eyes, for example, “you are becoming present to and awakening the power to see, making connections with the rest of the universe, becoming one with the world and the divine,” he continued.

Sanjay went on to say that Panchatvam gatah is the Sanskrit word for death. When someone dies they say “he has returned to the Fiveness,” referring to the five elements. Earth, water, fire, air and space, the last of which elements derive from, are all present in any ritual and are present in us and the world we live in at all times whether we are conscious of this or not. In rituals, we offer everything to the divine forces abiding within us and through all of life.

Sanjay noted briefly that there is a scientific basis for the fire ritual and that research has been done on this in Germany, the US, the UK and other places. Swami Veda has a folder on this research.

Editor’s Note:

Sanjay Shastri’s talk was given on 28th February at the 2013 Sangha Gathering.