There are some traditionalists wedded to outward rituals who do not want to accept the idea of inner yajňa. According to them, the traditional authority for the yajňa are the Brāhmaņa books. Some politely ask, “do the Brāhmaņa books support the idea of inner yajňa?'' The haughty ones declare that “Brāhmaņa books do not accept or endorse the idea of inner yajňa.'' Needless to say, knowledge of these haughty persons about the Brāhmaņa books is cursory and without any substance.

The composers of the prose Brāhmaņa books were aware that few persons have the mental or psychological aptitude needed for performing the inner yajňa. They felt that Veda could be preserved only by stressing the rituals which could be done or witnessed by all. They were not mistaken. So the bulk of the Brāhmaņa books deal with explanation of the rites, myths, etc. But here and there they introduced sentences clearly stating the primary importance of inner yajňa.

Aitareya Brāhmaņa

“Yajamāna is the sacrificial altar (yūpa), he is the stone or rock, Agni is the womb of the gods; born of the offerings made through agni, the womb of gods, the yajamāna with the body of gold rises upward to the world of heaven. . . . . .'' (Ai. Br. 2.6.3)

Taittirīya Samhitā

(brāhmaņa passages)

A myth repeated in many verses both in RV and YV is Indra killing the demon Vŗtra with his bolt Vajra. TS (1.6.7.4) quoted below explains this event symbolically.

“Yajňa is the thunderbolt vajra, the enemy of man is ‘want, desire or thirst for objects and passions (kşhud)'. In that he fasts and does not eat (i.e., he does not accede to the desires), he straightway smites with a bolt the enemy ‘want'.''

In TS (2.4.12) Vŗtra is hunger.

TS (1.5.2.10) states, “The sacrificial cake purodāsha is Yajamāna, offering (āhuti) is the pashu.''

TS (1.7.6) states “sacrificer is the sacrifice.''

“Yajamāna offers all he has, all he is to the gods. . . . Agni is all-gods. . . . he offers himself as the pashu of the Agni shomīya rite (discussed in TS 1.2 - 1.4), the gods perfect him.''

TS (1.8.9) refers to the svayamkŗta vedi, the altar made by oneself and svayamkŗta idhma, the fire made by oneself. These phrases refer to the inner yajňa, since the altar and fire in the outer yajňa are made by priests.

Shatapatha Brāhmaņa

The tenth kāņda is called agni rahasyam or the secret of Agni, giving the legends and mystic significance associated with the agni chayanam rite. The esoteric character of some sections of this tenth kāņda is referred to in the book Brahma-sūtrās, which is highly valued by the vedāntin, the proponent of the knowledge aspect of the Veda. This book [V7] creates a correspondence between the entire cosmos and the fire-altar, vedi.  Recall that vedi is regarded as the Yajamāna, the soul of the person performing the ritual. Thus the correspondence relates the macrocosm and the microcosm. All the five aspects of the physical fire-altar namely, the enclosing stones, the bricks, sudadohas, the earth-fillings, and finally space-filling bricks, have their correspondences in the three realms of earth bhūĥ, the mid-region or antarikşha and the heaven or dyauĥ or svar. The correspondences are listed below in tables 1 and 2. Table 1 gives the correspondence between the fire-altar and the three realms of earth, midworld and heaven. Table 2 gives the correspondence to the sun, year and human body.

Each set concludes by saying: “Thus this comes to make up the whole Agni and the whole Agni comes to be the space-filler; certainly whosoever knows this, thus comes to be that whole Agni who is the space-filler.'' [R3]

Table 1

Table 2
 

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