Yajña Avatāra
Yajña Avatāra · yajña-avatāra, “the avatāra as Yajña”
Yajña has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yajña. Bhadrā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhadrā.
Yajña is the avatāra in which Bhagavān Vishṇu was born as the son of Ruci Prajāpati and Ākūti, the daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu. He stands for the yajña taught in the Veda. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa counts him as the seventh of Śrī Hari’s avatāras. Svāyambhuva Manu took him into his own house as his son; he married Dakshiṇā, the girl born with him, who came of an aṃśa (a portion) of Lakshmī Devī; and their twelve sons were the devas of the first manvantara. Yajña himself was the Indra of that manvantara. When asuras and rākshasas rushed to devour Svāyambhuva Manu as he performed tapas on the bank of the Sunandā, Yajña, surrounded by his sons, slew them and ruled svarga. Brahmā tells Nārada that he was also known as Suyajña, and that Manu named him Hari, because he took away the troubles of the three worlds.
Among the avatāras
Sūta tells the ṛshis the avatāras of Śrī Hari in order. In the seventh turn he was born as Yajña to Ruci Prajāpati in Ākūti. Together with his sons, the deva-gaṇas beginning with the Yāmas, he protected the Svāyambhuva manvantara.
Brahmā, telling Nārada the līlā-avatāras of Śrī Hari, says the same Parameśvara was born as the son of Ruci Prajāpati in Ākūti and became famous under the name Suyajña. He married Dakshiṇā and begot in her the devatās called the Suyamas. Then he himself became the adhīśvara (the master) of those devatās and removed the troubles of the three worlds. For that reason Svāyambhuva Manu gave him the name Hari, “he who takes away troubles”.
When Parīkshit asks who appoints the Manus and the devas to their work, Śuka answers that all of them are under the command of the Purushottama alone. Moved by his avatāras, Yajña and the others, the Manus and their sons carry on the order of the world.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 3; Skandha 2, Chapter 7; Skandha 8, Chapter 14
His birth and his sons
Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that Svāyambhuva Manu and Śatarūpā Devī had three daughters: Ākūti, Devahūti and Prasūti. With Śatarūpā’s consent, Manu gave Ākūti in marriage to Ruci Prajāpati on one condition: the first son born to Ākūti would be given to her father. This is the putrikā-dharma. Manu made this condition even though he already had two sons, Priyavrata and Uttānapāda.
Ruci Prajāpati shone with the radiance of brahman through his meditation on Parameśvara. To him, in Ākūti, a boy and a girl were born. The boy was Śrī Mahāvishṇu himself, who took avatāra as the child named Yajña. Lakshmī Devī never leaves Vishṇu, so by a portion of herself she was born as the girl, Dakshiṇā, who stands for the wealth the yajamāna gives to the ṛtvijas in a yajña.
Svāyambhuva Manu, greatly pleased, brought Yajña, the son of his daughter, to his own house, and the child lit up everything around him with his radiance. Ruci kept Dakshiṇā with himself. Bhagavān Vishṇu, master of the mantras and the yajñas, was in the form of Yajña; Dakshiṇā loved him, and he married her, and both rejoiced. Twelve sons were born to them, each standing, as the text explains, for a part of the yajña:
- Tosha, the joy of the yajamāna when he resolves to perform a yajña
- Pratosha, his joy while the yajña goes on without obstacle
- Santosha, his full joy when he completes it and gives the dakshiṇās
- Bhadra, for the performance of the Vedic rites is auspicious
- Śānta, the peace of mind when the yajña is completed in due order
- Iḍaspati, the king who rules the earth
- Idhma, the bundle of samidh sticks used in the yajña
- Kavi, the knowledge of yajña
- Vibhu, the capacity to perform it
- Svahna, for the days on which the yajña runs are good days
- Sudeva, for the yajamāna is himself a form of Īśvara
- Rocana, the great radiance that comes to the yajamāna from the yajña
In the Svāyambhuva manvantara these twelve were the devas called the Tushitas, “those who have joy”; Marīci and the others were the seven maharshis; and Yajña himself was Indra, the master of the deva-gaṇas.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 1
Yajña protects Svāyambhuva Manu
Śuka tells Parīkshit of the first manvantara and the teaching given by Bhagavān Yajña. Svāyambhuva Manu, detached from the pleasures of the senses, gave up his kingdom and went to the forest with his wife Śatarūpā. On the bank of the river Sunandā he stood on one foot for a hundred years in severe tapas, and every day he recited a stotra on the truth of the ātmā: that Īśvara, pure consciousness, gives being to the world and knows it as the knower of the field; that all must be known as the ātmā and no one should covet another’s wealth; that Parabrahman has no beginning, middle or end; and that those who act without desire and without the sense of doership, as Sarveśvara does, are freed from the bondage of karma. “In him I take refuge,” Manu said.
Seeing Manu absorbed, with one-pointed mind, in reciting this truth like a mantra, hungry asuras, given to enjoyment, and rākshasas of cruel deeds rushed at him to devour him. Śrī Hari, the all-pervading, in the form named Yajña, saw the rākshasas who had resolved to eat Manu. Surrounded by his own sons, the devas called the Yāmas, he slew them. Then he himself became Indra and ruled svarga.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 1
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 3; Skandha 2, Chapter 7; Skandha 4, Chapter 1; Skandha 8, Chapters 1, 14