In the Hindu tradition these books are regarded as the source of all wisdom, interpreted in a broad sense. These books contain the seed of the doctrine or the philosophical thought which blossomed into the teaching of the Upanishads and Vedanta; they also contain the seed of the later practices and procedures for self- realisation and actualisation and the disciplines of Yoga with its numerous branches. This view of the content of the Veda mantrās is not merely our opinion; it is stated in several mantrās of the Veda. For instance Shukla Yajur Veda (36.1) states:

ŗcham vācham prapadye

mano yajuĥ prapadye

sāma prāņam prapadye

chakşhuĥ shrotram prapadye

The Rig Veda mantrās propound all the speech or all the ideas and thoughts leading to all-sided perfection; the Yajur Veda develops the mind which is the source of all actions; the Sāma Veda makes us fully develop our life energies or prāņa for completely developing our potential. The Atharva Veda gives the methods of perfection of our body and senses like eyes (chakşhu) or hearing.

Yajur Veda has two major recensions namely the Krişhņa (mixed) Yajur Veda (KYV) and the Shukla (pure) Yajur Veda (SYV). Taittirīya Samhitā is one of the recensions of KYV with many adherents in South India and Southern Mahārāşhţra.

The focus of this book is to translate the mantrās of Krişhņa Yajur Veda (KYV) Taittirīya Samhitā (TS). Our aim is to understand and to unravel the multitude of spiritual and psychological insights in it. In this task we view all Veda as one book; we want to understand KYV TS in the light of the spiritual insights of the Rig Veda Samhitā unravelled by Sri Aurobindo and Sri Kapāli Sāstry. In turn, we want to explore the light KYV TS throws on the Rig Veda Samhitā.

Thus the starting point for us are the writings on the Veda by Sri Aurobindo entitled “Secret of the Veda'' and his translations of Rig Vedic hymns entitled “Hymns to the Mystic Fire''. His disciple Sri Kapāli Sāstry's Samskŗt commentary (bhāshya) on the Rig Veda and his writings and translations in English on the Veda are also very important for our study. It is appropriate to remember that the first person in the last two thousand years to focus on the Veda as a spiritual document is Sri Madhvāchārya known also as Sri Ānandatīrtha. An excellent introduction to the spiritual interpretation of the Veda is the essay by Professor S.K. Ramachandra Rao [R8].

It is undoubtedly true that the Veda deals with yajňa or sacrifice, but with the inner yajňa (antar yajňa); the outer rite is only a physical framework for those who cannot do the inner yajňa. To quote Sri Aurobindo “The elements of the outer sacrifice in the Veda are used as symbols of the inner sacrifice and self-offering; we give what we are and what we have in order that the riches of the Divine Truth and Light may descend into our life and become the elements of our inner birth into the Truth,--a right thinking, a right understanding, a right action must develop in us which is the thinking, impulsion and action of that higher Truth, ŗtasya preşha, ŗtasya dhitiĥ (RV 1.68.3) and by this we must build up ourselves in that Truth. Our sacrifice is a journey, a pilgrimage and a battle, a travel towards the Gods and we also make that journey with Agni, the inner Flame as our path finder (pathikŗt, RV 2.23.6 and others) and leader.'' [HMF, p. 18]. Note that a common word for yajňa is adhvara, whose two components adhva (path) and ra (movement) indicate that its meaning is journey.

Sri Aurobindo adds, “as the doctrine of the Rig Veda is the seed of the teaching of the Vedānta, so is its inner practice and discipline is a seed of the later practice and discipline of Yoga'' (ibid). KYV TS gives ample clues to the control of prāņa called later as the science of prāņāyāma. For instance consider the mantra in TS (1.7.9):

āyur yajňena kalpatām

prāņo yajňena kalpatām

apāno yajňena kalpatām

vyāno yajňena kalpatām

...

...

mano yajňena kalpatām

yajňo yajňena kalpatām

At this point we have to face certain realities. Almost all orthodox pundits and the lay persons associated with KYV TS are admirers and staunch followers of the great teacher Sāyaņa and his ritualistic commentary (bhāshya) on KYV TS. The commentary of Sāyaņa is magnificent and voluminous; it gives the minute details for the performance of the rites. Sāyaņa declares in his introduction that the aim of the Veda, specifically KYV TS, is to help a person realise his material desires and ward off unwelcome things (işhţa prāpti anişhţa parihāra) by means of rituals. Sāyaņa's commentary views KYV TS as a book of elaborate outward rites, yajňa, performed with extensive recitation of mantrās and the offering into the fire in the fire-altar of soma juice, ghee, rice etc; sometimes the organs of an animal killed nearby are also offered.

The compartmentalisation in the Hindu tradition is so strong that the orthodox adherents of the two Vedas, Rig Veda Samhitā and Yajur Veda Samhitā, firmly believe that there is very little overlap between these two books. TS has both ŗk and yajur mantrās. Most (not all) ŗk mantrās are in the Rig Veda Samhitā. Roughly one third of all lines of mantrās in KYV TS are from RVS. This is one well-kept secret in vedic books not mentioned by anyone.

KYV deals primarily with Agni; many of the Agni mantrās in KYV which are also in Rig Veda Samhitā have been translated into English by Sri Aurobindo.

Thus a significant component of the mantrās of KYV have already been translated or commented either by Sri Aurobindo or Kapāli Sāstry making their spiritual and psychological insights of the Veda valid for KYV also.

The part I of the book has several essays detailing the Inner Yajňa and the questions raised by critics or others. The first question raised by ritualists is, “Is there support for the thesis of Inner Yajňa from the Brāhmaņa books which are the authorities for the ritualists?'' The answer is yes, and the relevant quotes are given in the chapter 9 of part I.

Next for the followers of Vedānta, Upanishads are the authorities. We give the quotations from Chhāndogya Upanishad (the entire adhyāya 17 of chap. 3), the entire anuvāka 80 of the Mahānārāyaņa Upanishad which is the last chapter of Taittirīya Āraņyaka, and the Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad. We also give a detailed table of concordance between the outer yajňa and inner yajňa.

We also discuss the question of animal sacrifice and the legend of the bifurcation of Yajur Veda into Shukla Yajur Veda (SYV) and Krişhņa Yajur Veda (KYV). Every anuvāka of KYV TS is given a ritualistic title; animal sacrifice is indicated by the titles assigned to some anuvākās of TS (1.3) (kāņda 1, prapāţhaka 3) such as “animal killing'', “offering of vapa or diaphragm into the fire'', “offering of intestines into the fire''.

The examination of every word in this prapāţhaka TS (1.3) indicates that the text has nothing to do with immolation. The commentator Sāyaņa assigns arbitrary meanings to the words and phrases and creates the impression that the text of KYV itself supports the animal immolation. In the inner yajňa, these mantrās have a straight forward explanation. The performer focuses his attention on every one of his organs, like the diaphragm (vapa) or heart separately, and symbolically presents them to the cosmic powers in a meditative mood and prays that they may be purified and perfected. Such practices are done routinely in modern day sports-medicine clinics where healing is done by non-invasive meditative methods. The text itself mentions the role of prāņa, life-energy, repeatedly; this knowledge is prior to the information in ancient haţha yoga books like Gherānda Samhitā by a thousand years at least. Still both the ritualists and Vedāntins have ignored the wealth of knowledge here.

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