Yesterday evening we spoke about how great masters as Swami Rama are like a living flame of consciousness, living flame of light and love. Today is the culmination of the yajna (fire ritual) that we are offering with the akhanda-mandalakaram mantra dedicating to Gurudeva.

Let us talk more about the fire rituals that are going on at the ashram right now and contemplate upon how we can connect with it at a deeper level, when we sit for the next session together. We can think of the fire ritual as the manifestation of the living flame that is within us, the living flame of the Guru force, the living flame of the Divine, the living flame of love, the living fire of tapas, the fire that purifies, the fire that soothes, the fire that nurtures and nourishes. The external fire (agni) is the manifestation of all that.

The akhanda-mandalakaram mantra acts as the bridge for our connection with the Guru force (Swami Rama and Swami Veda Bharati). When we chant the mantra, it invokes his presence and we connect with that “living flame” within our own hearts through that vibration, through that doorway. Before we go to the yajnashala, let us sit in deep reverence, and take a few deep breaths with eyes softly closed and listen to the mantra as it is being chanted.

Now let us set our own sankalpa (intention) silently, or softly state your intention. For example, one may say:

“With a heart full of reverence, I connect to the living flame of my Guru, Swami Rama/Swami Veda/the Guru force. Through this yajna, I offer my limited self into the fire of awareness, seeking to merge with the silence of the Supreme Self, seeking to merge with the divinity/Guru.”  This where we build an invisible and intangible bridge from our heart to the ritual.

Let us start chanting the Guru Mantra softly and rhythmically…

And now let us chant aloud for a few minutes and then gradually soften your voice…

Finally, continue chanting mentally, letting the sound reverberate inside you.

Visualize a flame as you chant, visualize a brilliant, gentle, luminous flame in your heart center. This is the “living flame” of Swami Rama – his grace, his wisdom, his transformative power. Visualize that this inner flame is growing and glowing brighter with each repetition of the akhanda-mandalakaram mantra…

In your mind’s eye, see this inner flame travel from your heart, down to your arm, and into your hand. Feel your hand becoming charged with this spiritual energy. You are now ready to make offerings not just with physical samagri[i], but with the essence of the Guru’s grace. Now, the external fire in the yajna-kunda becomes the container for your internal devotion.

When we go to the yajnashala and sit facing the yajna-kunda (fire pit), as we place the offering into the fire, let us feel that we are not just offering material substances. We are offering all the 5 kleshas[ii].

And let us allow the fire to purify those aspects of emotions within ourselves. You are offering something external and it is burning. You see that that is being burned. What is it that I wish to be burned in my life through the invocation of the Guru Spirit, the ever-present Guru Spirit? So, do I want to burn my anger? Offer it. Do I want to burn my insecurities? Offer it. Do I want to burn my jealousy, greed, attachments, laziness? Offer them. Offer it to the great fire spirit and that will elevate us. It is for our elevation.

The fire looks like an upward triangle. Fire defies gravity. It is anti-gravity. It moves up. So, when we worship the fire, we are choosing to elevate ourselves from anything that pulls us downwards. We become purified and uplifted. When we do a fire offering, we connect with that. Connect with that light, we connect with that fire, that fire that burns us, that burns our lower self. Am I ready to be burned?

The entire havana then becomes a dialogue between our internal chant and the external fire. We are feeding the external flame with the samagri (matter) and it in turn is feeding our internal flame with light and clarity. With each remembrance of your mantra as an offering to the flame, the flame expands within you, covering your whole being as if you have become that living flame, the fire.

Towards the end, let us make one last, conscious offering, perhaps of a larger portion of samagri, as a symbolic offering of our entire self with a loud “namaha swaha”.

Let the mental repetition of akhanda-mandalakaram mantra become slower and slower, until it dissolves completely into the crackling sound of the fire leading to the stillness of our minds.

We can then choose to simply sit. Looking softly at the flames. Not trying to do anything, Nothing to think, nothing to do, nowhere to go… Just being a witness…

And in that profound silence, the distinction between you (the offerer), the process of offering, and the fire (the receiver) begins to dissolve. Zero and zero becomes infinite. That is yoga. Union of two zeros. That’s what yoga is. Not one and one. The Guru is already the zero. I need to become zero through burning off all my old samskaras etc.

You could choose to remain in this silence for as long as you can, absorbing the peace and purity generated by the ritual. By weaving these elements together, our yajna transforms from a simple ritual into a direct, experiential communion/connection/link with the luminous flame of consciousness of the Guru.

Then we are not just performing a fire ritual ceremony; we are participating in the eternal process of transformation that Gurudeva Swami Rama himself embodied. Am I ready? Am I willing to offer myself at the feet of the Master to be burnt and purified?

The connection with the Guru is not limited to the physical body. It is a connection within that flame of consciousness.

Editor’s Note:

This article is an excerpt from the lecture by Rabindra Sahu during the Guru-Disciple Relationship Retreat conducted at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama from 19-25 October 2025, in celebration of Gurudeva Swami Rama’s birth centenary.

[i] Samagri  in a yajna  is made of a combination of sesame seeds, barley, rice, sugar, nuts, ghee and several aromatic herbs.

[ii] The five kleshas (afflictions) are avidya (ignorance), asmita (i-am-ness), raga (attraction), dvesha (aversion) and abhinivesha (fear of death).  See the commentaries on Sutras I.5, I.8 and II.5 in Swami Veda Bharati’s Yoga-sutras of Patanjali with the Exposition of Vyasa, Volumes One and Two.