by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 10
 April 2001

CHAPTER ELEVEN – TRANSFORMING OURSELVES

"Based on lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

   It is the Time that changes everything all the time. It is the Great Time or Mahakala who is the purohit or Hotru the performer of this cosmic all-transformimg Yajna. Mahakala is presiding and performing this Maha Yajna, to which you, me and everything else is offered as the Ahuti or Ajya (offering) driven towards a transformation.

I am not what I was a moment before, nor shall I be same tomorrow morning, a year after or ages after. I am lost at this very moment and shall never be again the same in my physical form—whether outwardly it is noticeable or not. So is everything else. So is every body else. The Mahakala has already given us away as ahuti, the offering into this Mahayajnya – this sacrificial fire.

Every moment everything changes. I shall change and so shall you. Navo navo bhavati – a new being is coming to exist all the time.

The only question remains is what can we do to change towards better- to change towards brighter. To change towards better and brighter is the change towards Satchidananda –the truth, its realization and the ensuing bliss, - our ultimate goal.

When I offer myself as the Ahuti into this transforming Yajnya, how have I prepared myself.? Have I removed my impurities, my samskaras(the worldly affectations) that have seeped into me like the moisture in the wood. If I have not, then I shall not produce brightness and light and shall remain engulfed in the smoke of ignorance. If I have dipped myself in the purity of ghee I shall shine with effulgence. If fragrance I have acquired, the fragrance shall spread.

The reference to the Time – The Mahakala – and the Mahayajnya (the ever continuous cosmic activity in which everything is offered as ahuti) is really not so important here from the ‘spiritual approach to life’ view point. But the two things which are most important in this context, are that every thing changes every moment. Time waits for none. The moment gone is gone for ever, never to return. And secondly, each of us should catch every moment and work to improve ourselves. An improved me now, is a more improved me next moment. By doing this I proceed so much nearer to my goal.

That should be the prakriya of sadhana for every sadhaka. A continuous endeavor to improve and excel. The better ahuti you make of yourself the next stage will be even better.

The symbolic explanation of the yajna or sacrificial fire is in true line with our best vedic tradition of teaching, where everything has two meanings – one obvious and another esoteric. Let me quote here a few words from Sri Aurobindo from the Foreword to his brilliant essays – Hymns of the Mystic Fire. These words may help our understanding. I quote -

The elements of the outer sacrifice in the Veda are used as symbols of the inner sacrifice and self-offering; we give what we are and what we have in order that the riches of the divine Truth and Light may descend into our life and become the elements of our inner birth into the Truth, -- a right thinking, a right understanding, a right action must develop in us which is the thinking, impulsion and action of that higher Truth, rtasya presa, rtasya dhrtih, and by this we must build up ourselves in that Truth. Our sacrifice is a journey, a pilgrimage and a battle, -- a travel towards the Gods and we also make that journey with Agni, the inner Flame, as our path-finder and leader. Our human things are raised up by the mystic Fire into the immortal being, into the Great Heaven, and the things divine come down into us. – unquote.

The path of Dharmacaran or righteous living , constantly following the qualities of Dharma prepares the beings for a higher existence and continuous development towards The Satchidananda. Walk the path of Dharma – declares every faith and every religion. Now perhaps we know the answer why?

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