Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 19. RITUALS, FIRE AND KNOWLEDGE
By the time of Krishna and the GEETA civilization had made great strides – thanks to fire. And so
fire became a household thing, the extraordinary be came ordinary. Now it seemed meaningless
to dance around fire and make sacrificial offerings to it. In the meantime thousands of people had
opposed it. Fire was no longer taken as the greatest blessing that it was when it was first discovered.
So Krishna grafted a new word onto the old stem of yajna and called it jnan-yajna or the ritual of
knowledge. A new word, jnan or knowledge was added to the old word, yajna or ritual.
Vinoba Bhave is now doing the same thing, he has started a bhoodan yajna, popularly known as
the Land-gift Movement. The ancient word yajna has been yoked to a socio-political concept known
as bhoodan or land-gift.
The society in which Krishna was born was a highly developed and sophisticated society. Now
dancing around fire looked so primitive and backward. So Krishna thought of igniting the fire of
knowledge, which is the last luxury of a society that comes to the pinnacle of material prosperity.
But he used an old word, because a word to be a word has to be old. Krishna said, ”If we want to
dance we will dance around the fire of knowledge. If we have to offer something to the sacrificial fire
we will offer our. selves in place of grains and wines and cows.”
Jnan-yajna or sacrificial ritual of knowledge stands for a special spiritual path, and every traveler
on this path burns his ego, his ”I-ness” in the fire of the knowledge of reality. Ordinary fire burns
everything that is gross, but it cannot burn subtler elements like thoughts of arrogance, pride and
ego. Only the fire of knowing can destroy it.
It is interesting to know that down the centuries the symbol of fire remains alive. And it is not without
reason.
The most important reason was that in the life of the primitive man there was nothing like fire which
by its nature moved upward. Water moves downward: pour it anywhere and it will find a downward
path to flow. But no matter what you do, the flame will always rise upward. Even if you turn a burning
torch upside down, its flames will keep going up. So fire became the symbol of ascension – upward
journey; its flame reflects man’s highest aspiration to reach the unknown.
Fire was the first thing in the knowledge of man that rebelled against the law of gravitation. The earth
seems to have no power over fire. So those who danced around fire and rejoiced over its blessings
also nursed a hope and prayer that a day might come in their life when they would go on the upward
journey to the highest, the ultimate in existence.
Like water, human mind as we know it is inclined to move downward. There is some similarity
between man’s mind and water. Pour a container full of water on the hilltop and it will soon find its
way down to the lowest lake in the valley. Such is man’s mind. Therefore the seers who first exalted
the fire and danced around it in joyous homage declared their aspiration to become like fire and
ascend to the heavens. Their prayer said, ”We want to turn our spirit into a flame so that even if it is
put in an abyss it will continue to move upward and reach the zenith.” So the ritual of the sacrificial
fire was symbolic and significant.
There is another attribute of fire which is still deeper and more meaningful; it is that first it burns
its fuel and then burns itself. As soon as the fuel turns into ashes the fire is extinguished. This
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 360 Osho