Ashtottaram 10

 

 

10) OṀ SVAKARMĀNUSHṬĀNA BHŨMYAINAMAH:

      OṀ (AUM) - SWA - KAR -MA-  ANU- ṢHTAA-NA - BHOO- MYAI- NA--MA- HA

 

             (Svakarmānushṭāna: means “one’s own duty, yajnam, svadharma)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vedas are filled with karma Kānda with fire rituals and sacrificial rituals. In Bhagavadgīta, Lord Sri Krishna explained about Yajna chakras in the Karma yoga chapter. From the beginning of creation, God advised people to offer oblations to fire God during yajnās and to the devatās in order to please them so that rains will fall at proper times and cattle will give milk abundantly. He also explained vividly how each one is interdependent on the other. He said, life is born from food, we get food from rains and rains depend on our svakarmānushṭāna. These yajnās are based on Vedas and the mantras in the Vedas help the priests to perform these rituals. Vedas are from Bhagavān and God is Vedas. This wheel of Yajnās is also the wheel of the universe (Jagat).

 

These offerings to the deities are also called ‘Havyam’ in Sanskrit. The offerings are called ‘Havis’. There are four kinds of priests perform the fire ritual called Hotra, Atharvu, Udgāta, and Brāhmaṇa. Those four kinds of priests are also called ‘Rutvikkās’. The rules and procedure manuals can be found in Munḑaka Upanishad and other Upanishads.

 

However in Bhagavadgḑīta, Bhagavān Sri Krishna emphasizes that mental worship with concentration and with purity of the mind is superior to the elaborate rituals and external worships. Egoless and dispassionate surrender to God and realizing that ‘everything is Parabrahman’ and seeing God in everything is the ultimate realization.

 

No matter of what, we perform fire rituals as enjoined by the Vedas for the welfare of humanity at large and our land is deserved to be called "Svakarmānushṭānabhūmi."