Sandhya Vandanam and Agnihotra
An overview of two important daily Vedic ritual traditions and their relevance in modern times
Sandhya
Sandhya Vandanam or Sandhya is Vedic way of purifying your mind and worshipping the cosmic energy around you. It is performed three times a day hence called Trikal Sandhya. The original format of Sunrise and Sunset rituals involved taking a bath and performing agnihotra ahuti along with Sandhya chanting. Later as the popularity of fire rituals faded, it got replaced with Sandhya vidhi with achaman, pranayam, gayatri mantra and other mantras. The madhyanha sandhya (sandhya performed at noon) involves bath and pitru tarpanam (ancestral worship).
Trikaal Sandhya is to be performed by every man and woman after upanayan sanskar (initiation of right of Vedic education) until the end of life. As the right of Vedic education was discontinued for women during the dark ages of invasions, social instability and also patriarchy, the upanayan sanskar was deemed unnecessary for women and hence the sandhya was not necessary as well. The three baths per day also reduced with time to one bath every morning and washing hands and feet for the rest two.
Sandhya is still a very common ritual performed by priests and purohits to keep their mind and body pure and worthy to worship the temple Gods and to perform shanti rituals for the hosts.
Rigveda Sandhya Vandanam ritual if you want to learn: https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/rgsandhya.html
Agnihotra
Agnihotra is a tiny fire ritual that combines mantras with fire and cow produces and is performed at exact time of sunrise and sunset. In this 5 min long ritual, a fire is set up with cow dung cakes and/or pure camphor in a pyramidal shaped copper vessel (agni patra) with specific dimensions enforced by scriptures. 2 ahuti (offerings) are offered to the fire in the presence of mantras.
Two more elaborate versions of Agnihotra also exist: 1. First with several vedic chants ( about 15–20 min long ritual — still quite popular in Nepal) and 2. Another one that is rarely seen these days— Akhand Agnihotra (ongoing eternal fire).
Agnihotra has several environmental and psychological benefits. Vedic scriptures consider it as a payback to the nature and to the soul. Modern scientific research is also finding evidences that align with this philosophy. (referenced at the end of this article)
Benefits
Sandhya and Agnihotra are the atma (spiritual) sadhana that help you discipline your adhyatmik practices. There are subtle psychological and environmental benefits of sunrise and sunset that also accelerate this spiritual progress. Sandhya elevates one’s sattva guna and thirst for this progress making him mumukshu (the one who strives for moksha).
Having said that, it is not the only form of ritual to achieve that. There are several ways of worship in Vedic Dharma (such as Japa, Tapa, Puja, Homa, Vrata and many others) and each can lead to the same satya — the eternal truth. Eventually on this path of spiritual progress, one realises that all the paths of worship are interlinked to each other and are woven as a deep complex but satisfying fabric of the ultimate reality.
Relevance in modern times
Vedic education agnostic to caste and gender
In modern times, many Hindu scholars believe that the inhibitions of caste and gender divisions were merely a byproduct of historical events and there is no reason to adhere to them anymore. Everyone is entitled for the upanayan sanskar, sandhya and right to formal Vedic education, if they choose to accept the Vedic lifestyle. Upanayan sanskar of girls is not an unknown scene in thought-leader cities such as Kashi and Pune. There are now many Vedic schools for girls all over the world.
Almost dying agnihotra tradition becomes a global movement
Agnihotra tradition is one of the oldest Vedic traditions surviving for more than 5 millennia, but on a constant decline over the centuries due to cost, complexity and ignorance. The overall decline of fire rituals and development of alternative worship paths also contributed to it. It mostly survived through royal patronage from kings and aristocrats in recent centuries and went on a rapid decline in Islamic and British rule in India. By early 20th century, this devine research was almost on the brink of death.
Fortunately, this almost dying agnihotra tradition was revived in mid 20th century by Shivpuri’s Paramsadguru Shree Gajanan Maharaj from Datta Sampradaya at Shivpuri near Akkalkot (Maharashtra, India) After a lot of meditation, brainstorming and debates with several Vedic scholars, he filtered out the accessory and unnecessary complex procedures from agnihotra and revived the core of the agnihotra ritual.
Since then it has spread to more than 50 countries all over the world and is performed at every sunrise and sunset by millions at the moment. It is much simpler and satisfying daily ritual one can perform at home.
Scientific studies are performed on Agnihotra / Yajna / Homa (Fire Rituals)
A comparative study of antimicrobial activity of smoke extract of Yagya and non-Yagya has revealed that the ‘smoke-extract’ obtained from Yagya (fire with mantra chanting) had higher zone of inhibition values compared to that of same experiment conditions except presence of mantra chanting, suggesting an important role of the mantra chanting in Yagya for medicinal applications.
German Association of Homa Therapy has published extensive research on environmental and health benefits of Agnihotra.
NOx and SOx — Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are a common produce of burning natural elements such as wood. Plants have an ability to clear those. On the other hand, Sulfur oxides (SOx) pollutants, created by combustible gases and modern fuels are quite harmful and create respiratory problems and can cause acid rains. Yajna have shown slight increase in Nitrogen oxides but considerable reduction of Sulfur oxides levels in surrounding air.
Agnihotra resulted in reduction in microbial load. There was significant increase in seed germination and plant growth as well as genotoxicity was neutralized due to Agnihotra ash. It can be seen that Agnihotra is beneficial for environment and agriculture.
Recent study showed measurable reduction in viral load in HIV positive students after two years of Agnihotra. These preliminary results show good potential of Agnihotra for HIV/AIDS patients and a randomized controlled trial is suggested.
References:
[1] “Gayatri Mantra Chanting Helps Generate Higher Antimicrobial Activity of Yagya’s Smoke.” (2018). Singh, Ruchi and Sunil Kumar Singh.
[2] 2016 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Homa-Therapie (German Association of Homa Therapy) Haldenhof, D-78357 Mühlingen, Germany ISBN 978–3–940676–15–3. Suggested Experiments with Agnihotra and Homa Therapy. What has been done and what can be done. Dr. Ulrich Berk
[3] “Beneficial Effects of Agnihotra on Environment and Agriculture.” International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research 5 (2015): 111–119. Abhang, Pranay, Patil Manasi and M. Pramod.
[4] Integrative Medicine Case Reports, Volume 2, Issue 1 (January), 2021. Agnihotra as an inexpensive method to treat HIV/AIDS — A pilot study. S. A. Ramadass1, Lancy D’souza2, Karthik Pandit3, Madhu Karnat S.4, Ulrich Berk5*
[5] https://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/IND/hdsanskrit/2019_varanasi.php
[6]Panini Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Varanasi
[7] Some instances of upanayan of girls in Kashi and Pune
[8] Sandhya Vandanam from Rigveda & Yajurveda sandhyavandanam per Apasthsmba sutra
[9] Sandhya vandanam by P Seshadri
