Honoring Life’s Five Great Guides

Practical ways to express dharmic gratitude to God & Gods, to ancestors, humanity, nature and our sacred texts and teachers

By Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami 

In our january 2025 issue, jayendrapuri Mahaswamiji wrote about the Vedic call to five great duties (Pancha Maha Yajnas): Deva Yajna, Pitru Yajna, Bhuta Yajna, Manushya Yajna and Brahma Yajna. As Swamiji pointed out, the common translation of Pancha Maha Yajnas is “five great sacrifices.” Pancha Maha Yajnas is an important concept, but unfortunately this common description of them simply as five daily sacrificial duties brings to mind an image of an orthodox Hindu performing an ancient ritual in his home shrine.  This approach makes the concept difficult for Hindu youth and children to relate to. As a result, the true significance of the yajnas is easily overlooked.

A YouTube video on this topic offers a description that is much easier to relate to: The practice honors five great guides that contribute to making a person’s life what it is, and therefore the person has an obligation to joyously give back to them as an expression of appreciation. 

A charming story about my paramaguru, Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, illustrates this idea. Yogaswami arranged for a grand festival meal to be served at his ashram. Devotees came early in the morning to start cooking. Others came to sit with Swami and sing with him. Lunchtime came, and he was still heartily singing, so deeply absorbed that no one wanted to disturb him. They all patiently sang. Hours after lunch should have been served, Yogaswami stopped singing and fell quiet for awhile. Next he asked them to chant from the Upanishads. In the mid afternoon he asked eleven strong men to dig a deep, square hole in the ground. They stepped forward and he indicated the spot where they should dig. Finally, just before dusk, the pit was completed, and the great saint indicated that it was time to serve the food. “Come, children, surround this pit,” he said and  asked that the rice and the curries be neatly placed in the hole. 

He then asked the devotees to “Pick up the eleven shovels, shovel some dirt over this delicious meal and then pass your shovel on to the next person. We have fed our Mother Earth, who has given so generously of her abundance all these many years to this large Saivite community. Now we are sacrificing our prasada as a precious, heartfelt gift. Mother Earth is hungry. She gets little back; we take all. Let this be a symbol to the world and to each of us that we must sacrifice what we want most.” Yogaswami had created a lesson in the importance of joyously giving back in appreciation for what has been given to us, a lesson that the devotees present would never forget.

The modern secular concern shared by many youth—of protecting the environment to ensure future generations have access to a healthy, sustainable world and natural resources—fits well into the Bhuta Yajna. 

This yajna emphasizes respect towards and protection of nature in the form of other living beings, vegetation and other natural resources and all manifestation, animate or inanimate, as a repayment of the debt we owe by making use of these resources for our benefit. 

Family involvement in such efforts is ideal, providing an opportunity to highlight Bhuta Yajna and its reflection of Hinduism’s commitment to protecting the environment. At home, Bhuta Yajna can be practiced by caring for animals, recycling waste and tending a garden—each act reinforcing the importance of giving back to nature and honoring the interconnectedness of all life.  

Next, here is a story which relates to the Manushya Yajna. While attending a kumbhabhishekam for a temple in Illinois, I was hosted by a young man who taught yoga classes at the temple. He had been studying the writings of my guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, and had come across my guru’s statement “We must perform our duty to our community.” He asked me what the statement meant, as he actually had no idea to what it referred. I explained that the community in which we live is like a distant part of our family, and as such we have a duty to it just like to any other relative. We need to devote part of our time and financial resources to addressing community issues, such as providing food and clothing to the poor, organizing volunteers for after-school programs and so on. I added that he could encourage the temple itself to establish social outreach programs for this same purpose.  

What that encounter showed me was that even a young Hindu adult who was serious in his scriptural studies could lack a practical understanding of the traditional Hindu concepts of duty. The yajna that relates to duty to community is Manushya Yajna, which includes acts of hospitality, charity and service to others. Inviting guests, feeding the hungry and aiding those in need are all ways to express this yajna, reinforcing the idea of social responsibility and compassion toward fellow humans.

Parents naturally focus on making sure their children are as successful in life as possible, which is good. Unfortunately, some Hindu parents feel it is a waste of time, a distraction, for their children to help out occasionally in volunteer work. This, of course, ignores the concept of fulfilling our obligation to community. Therefore, parents need to teach the importance of Manushya Yajna, encouraging children to spend time regularly helping others. 

What better way than having the entire family spend time together on weekends in karma yoga at a local temple. Of course, such family community efforts should always be done in a high-minded spirit, with no sense of punishment or compulsion. If temple activities are not convenient,  then alternatives can be found, such as participating in food or clothing drives. 

The understanding and practice of the three remaining Pancha Maha Yajnas is well established in many Hindu families. Deva Yajna is observed by family members at least offering a daily prayer, arati or puja in the home shrine to a Deity of their lineage. This can also be expanded to attending a local temple once a week, attending the major festivals and undertaking a pilgrimage to a distant temple once a year. Deva Yajna is an expression of appreciation  for the Deity’s abundant blessings. 

Brahma Yajna is showing appreciation for the spiritual knowledge given to us by the authors of our scriptures and by the teachers of those scriptures. In addition to daily scriptural readings, we can share these wisdom-filled texts, at the very least, with our own children, if not more broadly. My guru often stressed the importance of teaching the children: “We have one duty to perform, which is to pass our religion on to the next generation, the next and the next. And how do we do this? How is this done? It is done by causing the children to memorize the precepts of our scriptures.”

Pitru Yajna is offering appreciation to our ancestors for the family traditions they have passed down to us. This is generally observed through tarpana offerings and shraddha rituals according to the customs that the family follows. Tarpana is a sacred ritual of offering water mixed with sesame seeds, barley or other substances to honor ancestors. It is performed with the intention of expressing gratitude, seeking their blessings, and ensuring the spiritual well-being of departed souls. 

A broader approach to Pitru Yajna is to regularly share stories of the family’s ancestors with the children, to give them a better sense of the family history. Additionally, feedings of groups, anna dana, can be done in the ancestors’ names. Paramaguru Yogaswami gave this insight about such actions: “All the good done by charity and alms-giving in the name of the dead will reach them. And they will also help you. They will come and help you in dreams.” 

The Pancha Maha Yajnas are deeply rooted in Vedic and Smriti literature, forming a framework for ethical living and spiritual progress. They embody Hinduism’s holistic worldview, connecting individuals with the Deities, scriptural knowledge, ancestors, nature and society. What is needed is to explain these five duties in ways that enable Hindu youth and children to understand how they can meaningfully integrate the Pancha Maha Yajnas into their lives.