It is clear, then, that in respect of every feature - temples, platforms for offerings, even the offerings made to the gods - there are basic differences between the Vedic Yajna and the puranic puja. How, then, are the two linked? The linkage is by virtue of a few misapplied Vedic "mantras". A look at the text of the Purohit Darpan, (Mirror for Priests) and Nityakarma Paddhati (Manual for Pujas) and at the 'mantras' included there will reveal the basic differences between the Yajna and the prayer. The mantras used / intoned in the Yajna were looked upon as potent as magic, and for that reason, were deliberately brought over and made use of in the Pujas as well, though in the intervening millennia, both the worshipper and the worshipped had changed beyond recognition.

Many of the mantras used in the Hindu Pujas were taken from the Puranas and these are primarily in praise of the gods and the goddesses. Therefore, Vedic study as is now being advocated will not necessarily lend itself to a re-awakening of the Hindutva. Then why this insistence? Is it from a desire to revive the religious practices described in the Vedas, admitted by the Sanghis themselves from time to time? If this indeed be the aim, it merits a closer study.

Let us examine to what extent the Vedas - the part dealing with duty (Samhita - Brahmana) and the part dealing with knowledge (Aranyak - Upanishad) is relevant today. We may, first, look at the part dealing with knowledge, the Upanishad. What is the essence of upanishadic teaching? It is the realisation that the soul lodged in every human being is part of the Immanent Brahman. Today except for a handful, the millions of our countrymen desperately struggling for a livelihood and almost broken in the struggle, have little time, far less preparation for the rigorous of this spiritual exercise for self-realisation. For these multitudes of Indians a bare subsistence is their only and ultimate concern. The anxiety over how to get his daily bread subsumes all his other anxieties (Annachinta Chamatkara). One of Upanishad's teachings has summed it up well for them : One's daily ration is one's God. Life here and now is so full of problems that ordinary people have little leisure or space to think of the life beyond, or of moksha (redemption) in after-life.

The Sanghis, incidentally, started performing Yajnas of sorts in some parts of India. Their avowed programme is not only to acquire knowledge of what the Yajna is all about but also to familiarise themselves with the elaborate rituals connected with it. The Yajnas are of 3 types: Pasu (or Animal yajna) Isti and Soma. In the Soma Yajnas, a variety of animals in large numbers, which included bulls, goats and sheep use to be sacrificed. Similar, sacrifices were also made in Pasu yajnas. Only the Isti Yajnas was primarily meatless. No wonder the Sanghis have of late been raising have of late been raising the bogey of cowslaughter and demanding a ban on it, the end game being to deprive the poor Muslim segments of the society of a relatively cheap source of protein, and at the same time discourage other meat-eating communities from beef. Cow-meat is usually avoided in preference to beef from buffaloes and bulls. Meat from the sacrificed animal is the main offering in a Yajna and the anti-cow-slaughter bogey flies directly in the face of it. If the Sanghis want to re-instate the gods of the |Yajnas of Vedic times, where will the Hindu gods worshipped today be consigned? Will the Pujas as we know and perform today be dispensed with in favour of yajnas, or will both be performed side by side, or again, the yajnas will wait, and the pujas continue as of now? The Sanghis shy away from any firm stand on any of these questions.

The Yajnas were expensive : first, the very large number of items required, a minimum of seventeen priests, related costs, not to speak of the gifts and offerings. For some Yajnas the list of items required would include pregnant, or childless women or virgins, along with slaves as offerings. From where will such a large number of men and women are found today and who will bear the costs? And how will the low against sale of men and women be tackled? In any case, what was to remember is that those instructions were valid and, perhaps, essential for a society that existed three thousand years ago. Sea changes have taken place since, and the modern society can hardly be expected to subscribe to those moral prescriptions of yesteryears. A few examples will suffice.

The Vedas advise : "Having completed dinner, leave the half-eaten left-overs for your wife." Which women in modern times will accept such "conditions" of a married life? The Vedas instruct that old clothes, shoes or umbrellas which can no longer be used, can be gifted to one's servants. No one can hope to employ a servant on such terms now. In Vedic times, one of the practices followed upon a death in the family was to slaughter a buffalo and place the carcass upside down atop the dead body. Two hands of the dead man would be stuffed full with the entrails of the carcass, the idea being that when in the other world Yama's two beastly followers - Shyama and Sabala would come to feast upon the dead man, the buffalos' entrails would entice them away from the dead body. Today, will members of any family accept such a horrendous crematory practice for any of their departed loved ones? The Vedas are full of references that a man needs at least two wives for himself, but for a woman a single man as husband should suffice. A woman, says the Atharvaveda, can marry twice but on some definite conditions. It has also been prescribed that a woman can marry as many as ten times but shall be obliged to accept as husband only him who is a Brahmin. Since in our Constitution polygamy is forbidden, such selective marital licenses, particularly in favour of the male, are no longer permissible. Therefore, for moral guidance, it is no longer possible to go by Vedic instructions. True the Vedas, too, like all other religious texts, do contain quite a few moral lessons, whose high value cannot be gainsaid. Some of these lessons are indeed very progressive and liberal by modern standards. At the same time, in many of the Vedic Suktas (poems) we find gods depicted as no better than humans, with human follies and foibles. There are references to forbidden couplings between man and woman and to their lust for each other, between father and daughter, (Nabhanedistha and his daughter, Prajapati and his daughter), and brother and sister. A devotee appeals to Rudra the god : Pray do not hurl your weapons upon our children and no our cattle. Destory instead those of our enemies alone." Then, again, we find this in the Vedas. "Tonight I go forth to steal the daughter from so and so's household. Let the night be thick and dark, but let not her brothers awaken or the dogs bark in warning." The Vedas are replete with such sayings none of which, let us admit, is a lesson in morals! Also, the Vedas include in large number verses describing the physical beauty of the gods, their dresses and ornaments, chariots, weapons and instances of copious charities to their devotees. A good many verses are on various offerings at Yajnas. And there are prayers: for health, for long life, for victory at war with enemies, for gifts of cattle and a good harvest, for wealth and for recovery from ailments etc. All of these together make Vedic literature the great literature that it is. At the same time, not every precept of this great corpus can, without thought, apply to the demands of modern times.