#Ancient Culture ( Samskaram ) of Bharatham-4.11. : Swami Krishnananda.
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# OPINION : Monday, November 09, 2020. 7:34. AM. - 2299..
#Chapter- 4.The Fourfold Aim of Existence and How to Achieve It-11.
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You have also to pay your gratitude to the rishis who handed over through a succession of Gurus and disciples the knowledge which you have gained. The study of the Veda, the study of the Upanishads or any scripture has been made possible to us because of the hierarchy of the knowledge that has come down to us through a lineage of Guru and disciple from rishis who are the originators of these scriptures. Therefore, the study of the scriptures is a daily ritual of the grihastha, by which he discharges the debt to the rishis. It is called brahma yajna.
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The ancestors who are no more here, who have gone to the other world, also expect a recompense from us for all the good they have done to us. The libation shraddha and other ceremonies connected to this ritual is also one of the five great sacrifices, called pitri yajna.
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There is the serving of the guests; at least one guest must be served or fed every day. The rule is that when your worship and your rituals of the day are over, and you are sitting for your midday meal, you have to open the front door and see if anybody is standing in front. If anybody is standing there, he must be fed first. The uninvited person that is standing there is called atithi. Atithi is considered as God Himself. A person who suddenly presents himself without your having invited him is God coming. This is what our tradition believes. That person has to be fed first, and you take your meal afterwards. So open your door and see if anyone is standing in front without food. Give him the food, and then take your meal. Every day this has to be done. This is manushya yajna – feeding, entertaining the guests. Then you have to feed the animals; there are so many dogs, birds, crows, etc., wandering about. Give them their due. That is bhuta yajna. So deva yajna, brahma yajna, rudra yajna, manusha yajna and bhuta yajna are the sacrifices which a householder has to perform every day.
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To do this, he has to earn his livelihood. That is again a very difficult thing, which the brahmacharin has not to do. So all these make you feel that grihastha dharma is more difficult. It is a tremendous discipline through which one has to pass in order that one may gradually free oneself from the clutches of the laws of nature, the laws of society, and the laws of the physical world. Freedom from the laws of nature or any kind of law is possible only by obeying that law. You cannot bypass a law. When a law is obeyed, it also frees you at the same time; but if you violate the law, it catches hold of you.
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So through these stages, the ashrama dharmas, you obey the law of nature, society, and your physical body also. By discharging the obligation and the debt that you have to pay to them, you free yourself from them gradually. After the maturity that you gained by the living of a disciplined life of a householder, you are now given the permit to free yourself from all the obligations of a householder. You can become a free man to a large extent – a recluse, a vanaprastha.
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