My Gita

by Devdutt Pattanaik

But the Puranas show yagna in a very different light. In the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, kings perform yagna to get children. Mantras chanted yield instant results: a god is obliged to give a woman a child, or turn an ordinary arrow into a deadly missile. Yagna thus assumes expectation and obligation, giving in order to get. Yagna is clearly an exchange. The word ‘exchange’ is rarely used to explain yagna. It is problematic. It lacks nobility. We have learned to valourize sacrifice, where there is giving without getting. We even celebrate worship, where getting is a surprise, a bonus, not the outcome of any expectation. This, despite the fact that the last hymn of every yagna and puja is always the chant of expected outcomes (phala-stuti). Perhaps we have been conditioned to be ashamed of human yearnings, maybe by mendicants of the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu orders who chose to renounce the world.