Lexicon

of Rig Veda

yajiṣṭha, most strong for sacrifice

The epithet of Agni, expressing that without Agni conveying our offering from Earth to Heaven, without the participation of the divine Will-Knowledge in human activity, this activity will not be able to pass beyond ordinary human scope. This is a very important concept, since the mechanistic performance of ritual, rite, etc., is not a condition for spiritual achievement. Nevertheless religious prescriptions or views and even our most usual movements too often are based on such mechanistic action of man and of God; but as Sri Aurobindo wrote, the Deity is not a machine, into the slot of which it is enough to put the coin-prayer, and the god-machine must begin to work. It is needed a living mutual connection, created on the part of a man by his intimate, sincere, innermost movements, leading to the spontaneous and complete self-surrender of the whole being to God, which is a true offering.