Unraveling the secret of Yagna

(WORK IN PROGRESS!)

I was looking for the key to open the chamber of the secrets on the 'Yagna' - and I found the key!

On the treasure chamber door is written "So Hum". 

I unlock the door and walk in. There is a curtain on which is written:
"To Those Who Enter: The chamber exists only for 360 days and 360 nights! Reach the top or be consumed by fire! Many will come and Read, Few will Hear, and Only those pure of Heart shall ever reach the top!" 
I am determined and move on. This chamber is vertical with stairs going up Seven levels. The chamber is suspended in void and the walls are made of earth, wind, fire and water. I see how a white light on the top breaks through the crystal floor of the 7th level into blue, green and red, illuminating the lower levels. I find knowledge written on ancient leaves.  

On the first leaf I find inside is written:

       "You can purify your body by following a proper diet.

        Money is purified through charity.

        Actions are purified through seva.
        Mind is purified through pranayama and Sudarshan Kriya.
        Emotions are purified through bhajans.

        Intellect is purified through knowledge." - GuruDev

Thus Guruji gives the essence of the yagnas.

And awareness of the present moment purifies the memory Guruji? Unconditional, divine love purifies the ego?

I find another leaf on the secret of the 12 types of Yagnas which explains the essence given by Guruji, it's an oceanic depth of knowledge! (Gita Ch 4 V 23-33)

So many dusty leaves of sacred knowledge:
     "BRAHMAN is the oblation; BRAHMAN is the offerings; by BRAHMAN is the oblation poured into the fire of BRAHMAN; BRAHMAN verily shall be reached by him who always sees BRAHMAN in all actions." 

     "See creation as fire of Yagna, so too the rain, the earth, man, and woman. The Vedas declare that man should also do Yagna for Brahman with Vedic knowledge, for devas with homa, for ancestors with shraddha, for humans with food, and for creation with bali."
     "May my body, breath, and mind be fit for Yagna. May the Kundalini fire purify and transform."

Embedded in secret of Yagna is the secret of the Mantra. The continuous up and down of the sounds "Sa" and "Ha" is making this chamber vibrate, it almost seems alive like a Being!
As I brush the dust off another leaf, a voice inside me whispers a sacred secret, the knowledge of the yagnas for the finite vs infinite, internal vs external, microcosm vs macrocosm, Apara (lower) vs Para (higher)!

As I pick up the next leaf the letters start burning, they pierce through my body, then my mind and reach the core of my heart. A voice in my heart reveals the secret of the levels of yagnas and the progression from the first to the final one! I see Nachiketa's footsteps here and follow...

As I climb to the next level I hear a voice, "The finite purifies, transforms, merges, unites into the infinite." A scribe on the wall reads, "Asatoma Sat Gamaya - Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya - Mrtyorma Amritam Gamaya."

Level after level, layer after layer I am unraveling the secret knowledge of the Yagnas! 

I keep climbing, still looking for the knowledge on the Yagnas for Karmas and Vasanas to do the Yagna for my Jiva. 
The 6th level has mirrors, in one I see my body in flames, in another I see myself inhaling and exhaling fire, and so on.

"I" can enter the 7th level through a burning door that opens only for a flash of a moment so "I" need to be aware! 

Behind the last leaf, up on the top 7th level in this secret treasure chamber I see a brilliant light - that of a thousand suns! The ancients wore this Sahasra crown on the top of their head - the Mayans wore it, the Egyptians wore it, the Zorastrians wore it, and the Vedics cognized it.

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Websites on Yagna: http://www.hinduwebsite.com/yagna.asp 
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/yajna.asp
Lecture 15, from 25th minute http://chinmayasaaket.org/resources/audio/ 

Viveka Vairagya simultaneous

"I see my son, Viraj, has left his lunch plate in the bonus room, AGAIN!  I go to his room and there are clothes on his bed! He is playing Xbox but he needs to finish his homework and study! I go and ask him if he's finished studying his Math and Bio, and he says No! I'm so upset! HHMMMMM!!!" I jolt and wake up...I was dreaming. Thank God! :) It seemed so real! Totally immersed in it, no clue that I was dreaming, while I was dreaming, no awaress of the waking state. When I die, the shastras say, this life will be exactly like a dream. Even the visions of the past in my mind are like a dream. So what is Real? That's Janak's question to Ashtavakra, that Viveka, being aware of the Real vs Unreal.
When I am aware, in the present moment, when I witness, observe, there is a separation between the witnessing and what I am observing. That difference the separation is Vairagya. It happens simultaneously with Viveka. More Viveka more Vairagya. Both cups fill simultaneously. When I repose in that pure sweet awareness, in deep meditation, it is so blissful, peaceful, totally content, happy....unending. That feeling is Vairagya, no desire to look for peace, bliss, happiness, love, contentment, from someone, something, or some situation. Maya, ignorance and illusion is like a demon who has used his magic or magic potion and possessed my mind and made me live in an illusionary world, like a dream, made me forget my Self. Matrix! the movie Matrix shows that. The moment my awareness wakes up I realize I am that!

Viveka

What is permanent? Everything...everyone is temporary and changing. This body, this world can end in a minute. My thoughts...feelings keep changing. My body was not before birth, it will not be after death, but for sometime in the middle it is. How can I call it real? How can I accept that it is me? My thoughts and ideas keep changing, when they are not permanent how can they define me? How can they be real? Something that is white today can be black tomorrow, how can I say it is real? Anything that changes is not truth, is not real.
Every object is changing. There is a silent witness to all that - to the past present and future. I can observe my body, there is observer and body. I am aware of my breath, there is awareness and breath. I can witness my thoughts and feelings, there is a witness and thoughts. From where do thoughts come from? I experience stillness, silence, peace, bliss. Beyond that there is void. That void is the substratum of all existence, from the sub-atomic to the entire universe. It always has been - it will always be - it is beyond time.
That eternal factor is permanent. That alone can be termed real, the truth.
When I am absorbed in the changing & perishable I am not aware of the permanent BUT when I am established in the permanent I can see both. When established in this conviction it is called Viveka.

Evolution

The evolution by Darwin, the 10 avatars and the evolution of the nervous system is synonymous. Manu is the first  human mind.
See the nervous system developed more and more from life forms in the oceans, to amphibians, to mammals, to a dwarf man, to the cave man, to the first full man avatar - Rama - the light of Atman/Brahman inside can be housed only when the nervous system was fully capable and Narayana can housed therein. That's why only in a human birth can we realize we are Brahman.

Ladder of Bhakti

Doing each action as an offering in a Puja-prayer to the divine is Karma Yoga. Taking what comes as Prasaad. Today Swamiji explained Karma Phal so well - he said Karma Phal is a technical term which means drop the worries and anxieties for the future. Keep your mind in the present, action is done in the present. If the mind is free from worries, anxieties then it is calmer and more focused and less dissipated to act. Worrying about the future takes away so much energy of the mind. When Vasanas are 80% then drop the worries. They become 60% then do Karma Yoga, then mind and Vasanas get more purified. Then 40% do Abyasa, practise to again and again bring back the wandering mind, I think for that Pranayama and focus on breath is good. Then when 20% Vasanas are there mind can be purified through meditation, contemplation. Then the Bhagavad Gita 12th chapter explains that knowledge is more important than abyasa, meditation more important than knowledge and renouncing the fruits of action more important than meditation. Peace immediately follows. This is the ladder of Bhakti.

Nachiket and Yama

It is absolutely amazing that the previous post I wrote, before I started listening to Katho Upanishad, was exactly the question that Nachiketa had for Yama. I was astounded to hear the 3rd question by Nachiketa to Yama, is there existence after the death of individuality.
As a meditater stands at the edge of infinity, there is a sense of the unknown infinite beyond, a fear of the unknown. The state of samadhi can't be known, therefore nothing can be recollected as to what that state was like, nor how long one was there, and if one goes into samadhi will one come back. The mind can't comprehend the concept that I can be infinite - how can I exist without a central reference point. In that existence where there is no "I", no thoughts, there is existence, intelligence, infinity, bliss.  It takes great courage to let go of the "I"ness, the reference point, the ego, and take the plunge into the unknown timeless infinite and destroy the ego. Like offering ahutis into the sacrificial fire.
In the havan, the kund is the body, the fire is consciousness. Into it are offered all the objects and mystically it is done 3 times to offer the 3 types of identity we have, perceiver, feeler, thinker, and also the physical, subtle and causal. Nachiketa is the fire into which the ego is offered and burnt up. He stands face to face with the principle of death who takes you to the other shore - the unknown shore - where Yama takes the soul. Therefore at the ledge, the gateway to infinitude, Nachiketa asks Yama what lies beyond tell me.
To be cont.

On the ledge of eternity

This is His house, He has graciously put my life in it. Through His eyes I see, through His ears I hear, through His hands I do. His rays are my thoughts, like glitter on water. He comes to life through my Prana. Every breath starts from Him, ends in Him. I see Him in the gap between the breaths. Every thought starts from Him, ends in Him, awareness of Him between the thoughts. As my eyes retrieve, my ears silence, my thoughts merge into Him. My breath seizes into where? I stand on the ledge of eternity afraid of disappearing into the unknown timeless void, I remain on the brink. Or shall I merge into Him as before, taking the leap of faith that I Am Him?