My childhood favorite movie was titled "Sri Krishnaarjuna Yudham" (1963; exchange of weapons between Krishna and Arjuna). It portrayed a fictitious event in the backdrop of Maha Bharata where Krishna and Arjuna compete for a bride: one seeking arranged marriage and the other a romantic one. As if this was not controversial enough, the director imagined Agni deva suffering from indigestion and burning Khandava forest, full of healing herbs, to relieve his symptoms.
We may dismiss the movie as made for the entertainment of the masses. Fast forward to 2025 and visit the website of University of Applied Vedic Sciences (UAVS). If you are wondering like me if there isn't a catch here, you will be proven right. The web site cuts to the chase and presents a questionnaire for prospective students. I don't see any surprises there. However, the founder has a youtube channel where he shares his vedic knowledge--truly yeoman service--with a single practical application in the form of a yagna.
When I visited SriPuram near Vellore (Tamilnadu), before entering the golden temple, I saw a yagna being performed where the ritviks were pouring ghee into the fire. We can have any opinion of Sri Puram as a money-making-machine for the trustees, but the fact remains the temple is serving the underprivileged students and the people on the lowest rung of the economic ladder by drawing devotees from all over the world. Besides, I don't know of any temple, save Zoroastrian ones, that performed yagnas 24 x 7 x 365.
I made Zoroastrian temples an exception even though there are less than a quarter million Zoroastrians in the world, mostly in Iran and India, who worship Agni deva. I surmise they perform fire rituals that aren't a world apart from vedic yagnas. There could be a common ancestor linking them with the people like UAVS founder. This is all speculation.
I can imagine the recourse to yagnas, when one is faced with an impossible situation, to appease gods so that his/her lot is saved from a calamity such as a cyclone, ash from an volcanic explosion, drought and famine, or simply prarabda karma, as there is nothing else a common man could do.
Hindus traditionally perform "agni hotra", a miniature yagna, in various ceremonies such as marriages or on a daily basis. Chandee Yagam is popular among the Indian diaspora where the goddess is prayed for bestowing wealth and health to the family performing it.
If you are wondering what's the difference between yagna and yaga, it is the intention. A yagna is performed for the larger good, community welfare and world peace. All the other fire rituals are meant for the well-being of the individual and family.
Now turning to science, can a yagna affect the environment that is plagued with pollution, green-house gases, depleting ozone layer, global warming, melting of glaciers, etc.? May be in the light of quantum physics being merged with mainstream physics by the announcement of nobel prizes this year. One can say the smoke from a yagna is made up of quanta of positive energy that spread in all directions and produce beneficial outcomes such as healing the ozone layer, cooling the atmosphere, producing rains over a region in drought, etc. The quanta emanating from yagna act as catalysts in a chemical reaction.
The obvious question is, why doesn't our government have a Ministry of Yagnas that is entrusted with the job of conducting yagnas 24 x 7 x 365? With the abandonment of Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA in USA) by the developed/developing countries, it seems like a reasonable ask. A yagna is the panacea the governments all over are seeking, in a cost effective manner. While continuing with fossil fuels and other pollution causing activities, yagnas could be conducted simultaneously. The gods will smile down on us.
As for what and how of yagnas, the faculty of UAVS could be enlisted in the selection of right herbs and coordinates on the map with the highest impact, training of hotas or priests performing yagnas, and general logistics. The seculars might object to mantras and ask if they are necessary. The mantras are like background music to the yagnas and keepers of timing. Otherwise, as shown in the aforementioned movie, the Agni deva will consume all you pour into the fire happily!
Regards
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