Yagna is an excellent practice that addresses many needs in our lives. It is a practice that can be easily integrated into our lives and for many curative and preventive benefits.
Many of us want to live healthy and sustainable lives. Many of us are also aware that our environment is crucial to our health.
And we can ask ourselves, what can I do for the environment?
Because we realize the influence of our environment on our health and well-being.
How can I protect myself and my family from pollution and its harmful effects on our health?
What can I change or bring to my lifestyle to be in harmony with nature?
Yagna’s philosophy
Yagna is done to impregnate oneself with good qualities
Find the inner union between the body and mind and the outside world by gathering around the Yagna.
Using our resources for the needy (money, time, knowledge, special skills)
Nature follows the principles of Yagna. No one keeps anything for himself.
In the Indian tradition, the environment is seen as an extension of our body and each has an impact on the other.
It is through our environment that we can feed, breathe, drink, take energy, and all this forms our body, our processes and our health.
Look at the water cycle, everything is transformed and then redistributed, so it is with our body and its environment.
Same with our body. The food produced by our environment is ingested by the mouth, arrives in the stomach, redistributes after transformation in the blood then the blood, the organs and our excretions return to the environment. And the environment produces new crops to continue the cycle.
We understand that the healthier and purer our environment is the more it nourishes us.
Our emotions and thoughts are also influenced by our environment.
Ayurveda has already defined the impact of the environment on our Vata, Pitta, Kapha doshas, as well as our thoughts, emotions and feelings.
What are the origins of Yagna
All Indian scripture describes importance of Yagya or Yagna. The Vedas describe in detail the benefits of yagna in curing various diseases and fulfilling one’s needs.
- Aranyak
- Ramayana
- Mahabharat
- Bagwat Geeta
- Purana
- Sikh, and other religions
- Upanishad Brahmana
Different applications of Yagna
We can perform Yagna for different purposes
- For generation of Subtle energy,
- Spiritual purposes
- Material purposes
- Mass consciousness purification
- Environment balance and purification
- Improvement of ailments and diseases
Yagna therapy is also mentioned in Atharvaveda:
- For long healthy life and cure of diseases (3/11/1-8)
- For worm infections (1/8; 5/29/4; 5/29/6,7,8,9)
- For fever (1/12/2,3; 5/22/1,2; 5/22/10/13)
- For mania (6/111/2)
- For goiter (6/83/1-4; 7/78/4
Yagna Therapy involved many important components which provide healthy state which are discussed later in this article.
Medicines and herbs are vaporized by offering them into the sacrificial fire and they come in the body by inhalation, by gaseous form, through the nose, then the lungs and the pores of the skin.
Yagna is largely uses in Ayurveda like dhoomapana treatment
The inhalation of specific herbal medicinal-smoke (Dhoomapana) are done for various ailments:
- fever,
- pregnancy,
- poisonous animals’ bites, etc.
- and for diseases: mania, epilepsy, worm infections, syphilis, etc.
The inhalation of medicinal-smoke of a specific herbal-powder combination of neem leaves, Vacha (Acorus calamus), kushta (Saussurea costus ), haritaki, sassam (mustard), and gulgulu (Commiphora mukul-Engl.), destroys extreme fever in patients.
Etudes and proprieties of used plants
During Vedic time, yagna therapy was largely used for health benefits, improvements and treatments of ailments and diseases.
It is a very sophisticated therapeutic system
It exists 30 formulations of herbal mixtures for all diseases.
Mental health: insomnia, OCD, depression, mental retardation, mental-illness, epilepsy, schizophrenia, …
Reproductive conditions: dysmenorrhea, for pregnant women, impotency, infertility
General: fever, air-purifying (anti-Viral), obesity
Diseases and Organ: cancer, diabetes, thyroid, high blood pressure, asthma, tuberculosis, kidney diseases, liver diseases, H.I.V., skin diseases, eye diseases, neurological diseases, paralysis, piles, arthritis.
Here some of the studies of therapeutical properties of plants
Acorus calamus Linn.: phytoconstituents and bactericidal property – PubMed (nih.gov)
How Yagna works
What are the causes of diseases?
Health is prime most need of everyone.
Science indicates two reasons for unhealthy state
External factors : pollution in air, water and food due to chemicals, pesticides, radiation, plastics, quality of breathing air…
All of this contribute to various diseases: cancer, skin diseases, lung diseases, digestive allergies or ailments…
Internal factors: negative thoughts and emotions, individually and collectively. It contributes to mental and emotional diseases like depression, stress, hormone and immune dependent diseases.
And both factors cause imbalance in the physical, mental and emotional well-being causing diseases.
Yagna: needs of the time
Yagna is a therapeutic system which can act on physical, mental, emotional and social level.
Indian Rishis developed Yagna Therapy which could act on all the levels simultaneously.
- Healthy Family
- Individual’s physical, mental and spiritual upliftment
- Healthy society
- Healthy environment
It may seem counterintuitive that yagna actually purifies the air but research on yagnas has shown them to reduce air pollution by reducing the concentration of particulate matter in air and the harmful gases and improving the moisture content in the atmosphere.
They have also been shown to reduce the harmful bacteria in the atmosphere significantly.
After the yagna, the environment is charged with prana and positive energy which nourishes all beings. Thus through yagna, the air around becomes purified, and as one breathes in pure air, one need not worry about pollution, smoke and indoor pollution and the related respiratory diseases common in the urban environments.
It is interesting to know that an average adult eats ~2 kg of food per day, drinks 2-3 litres of water and breathes 11,000 litres of air in a day! Thus the quality of air can have a significant impact on our health.
Similarly it has been shown that Yagna ash can be used to purify water in water bodies and made fit for drinking by increasing the dissolved oxygen content, regulating the pH and removing the harmful bacteria in it.
Yagna ash is also being used to cultivate organic food which is shown to have higher yield and higher nutritional value. With the emerging popularity of kitchen gardens and other methods of growing plants and food at homes or locally, one can explore yagna farming at home as well. There have been successful experiments around the globe on yagna farming with agnihotra by individuals.
Science of Yagna
Yagna also generates those 3 Basic types of energy
Yagna Therapy treats diseases in 3 ways:
● Breathing of herbal vapors treat disease and bring healthy state
Herbal vapors generated from specially designed herbal mixtures for different diseases conditions enter into blood circulation very fast through lung. Fire potentiates and transform the herbal-phytoconstituents into very fine herbal vapors and hence they are delivered deep into diseased organ though blood circulation.
● Yagna Therapy heals negative thoughts and emotions
● Improves prana shakti (life-force vital energy)
Life is dependent on Prana. During disease Prana (vital force) goes down. Sun is the main source of Prana. Hence to connect and charge patient’s prana Yagya Therapy is performed during sunrise and sunset because all procedure and components of Yagya Therapy are woven such a way that patient get connected with Sun energy.
Research has shown that electromagnetic radiations from devices are greatly reduced in the yagna environment. One experiences a great sense of relaxation and the mind feels fresh and free from constant engagement.
During yagna is a greatly energizing and spiritually uplifting process. Thoughts and emotions are purified. The mind calms down and a sense of serenity dawns. The atmosphere feels vibrant. One experiences positive energy during the whole day. The aroma of the yagna fumes is also quite refreshing and sometimes acts as a natural perfume
Benefits of Yagna Therapy
- Increase vitality in the air and all forms of life
- Increase anti-oxydants
- Cleaning environment
- Purify water
- Aromatherapy
- Reduction in radiation
- Purifies blood
- Helps in diabetes, high blood pressure
- Relieve stress
- Removes negatives emotions like anger, jealousy, hatred…
- Biological removal of pathogens
- Increases negative ions
- Parjanya varsha – soil nourishment
- Subtle effect – remove animal instinct and awaken divinity
- Cure different diseases especially mental diseases
Yagna and Hindu scriptures
In the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan Shree Krishna explains the philosophy and different kinds of yagna.
The vedas describe yagna as a means to fulfil one’s desires, attain happiness through health, wealth, peace, strength, fame and protection from natural calamities, diseases, and all unforeseen events. The vedas give different kinds of yagnas for fulfilling the various needs and desires of beings.
In chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan Shree Krishna says that the creation is sustained through yagna and by individuals performing their swadharma (our true nature).
He further states that it is through yagna that the divine forces and nature are pleased and nourished and they in turn nourish us and fulfil our desires. Thus by mutually serving and taking care of each other, there is prosperity and abundance everywhere and well being for all.
Through yagna, one benefits not just oneself but also the environment.
If you wish to practice, feel free to contact me and i will enjoy to share with you.
Since i practice every morning, my mind is calm, i feel more confident and rooted.