SB 1.12.34
tena sambhrta-sambharo
dharma-putro yudhisthirah
vajimedhais tribhir bhito
yajñaih samayajad dharim
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
By those riches, the King could procure the ingredients for three horse sacrifices. Thus the pious King Yudhisthira, who was very fearful after the Battle of Kuruksetra, pleased Lord Hari, the Personality of Godhead.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Maharaja Yudhisthira was the ideal and celebrated pious King of the world, and still he was greatly afraid after the execution of the Battle of Kuruksetra because of the mass killing in the fight, all of which was done only to install him on the throne. He therefore took all the responsibility for sins committed in the warfare, and to get rid of all these sins, he wanted to perform three sacrifices in which horses are offered at the altar. Such a sacrifice is very costly. Even Maharaja Yudhisthira had to collect the necessary heaps of gold left by Maharaja Marutta and the brahmanas who were given gold in charity by King Marutta. The learned brahmanas could not take away all the loads of gold given by Maharaja Marutta, and therefore they left behind the major portion of the gift. And Maharaja Marutta also did not again collect such heaps of gold given away in charity. Besides that, all the golden plates and utensils which were used in the sacrifice were also thrown in the dustbins, and all such heaps of gold remained unclaimed property for a long time, till Maharaja Yudhisthira collected them for his own purposes. Lord Sri Krsna advised the brothers of Maharaja Yudhisthira to collect the unclaimed property because it belonged to the King. The more astonishing thing is that no subject of the state also collected such unclaimed gold for industrial enterprise or anything like that. This means that the state citizens were completely satisfied with all necessities of life and therefore not inclined to accept unnecessary productive enterprises for sense gratification. Maharaja Yudhisthira also requisitioned the heaps of gold for performing sacrifices and for pleasing the Supreme, Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Otherwise he had no desire to collect them for the state treasury.
One should take lessons from the acts of Maharaja Yudhisthira. He was afraid of sins committed on the battlefield, and therefore he wanted to satisfy the supreme authority. This indicates that unintentional sins are also committed in our daily occupational discharge of duties, and to counteract even such unintentional crimes, one must perform sacrifices as they are recommended in the revealed scriptures. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (yajñarthat karmano ’nyatra loko ’yam karma-bandhanah) that one must perform sacrifices recommended in the scriptures in order to get rid of commitments of all unauthorized work, or even unintentional crimes which we are apt to commit. By doing so, one shall be freed from all kinds of sins. And those who do not do so but work for self-interest or sense gratification have to undergo all tribulations accrued from committed sins. Therefore, the main purpose of performing sacrifices is to satisfy the Supreme Personality Hari. The process of performing sacrifices may be different in terms of different times, places and persons, but the aim of such sacrifices is one and the same at all times and in all circumstances, viz., satisfaction of the Supreme Lord Hari. That is the way of pious life, and that is the way of peace and prosperity in the world at large. Maharaja Yudhisthira did all these as the ideal pious king in the world.
If Maharaja Yudhisthira is a sinner in his daily discharge of duties in royal administration of state affairs, wherein killing of man and animals is a recognized art, then we can just imagine the amount of sins committed consciously or unconsciously by the untrained population of the Kali-yuga who have no way to perform sacrifice to please the Supreme Lord. The Bhagavatam says, therefore, that the prime duty of the human being is to satisfy the Supreme Lord by the performance of one’s occupational duty (Bhag. 1.2.13).
Let any man of any place or community, caste or creed be engaged in any sort of occupational duty, but he must agree to perform sacrifices as it is recommended in the scriptures for the particular place, time and person. In the Vedic literatures it is recommended that in Kali-yuga people engage in glorifying the Lord by chanting the holy name of Krsna (kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet) without offense. By doing so one can be freed from all sins and thus can attain the highest perfection of life by returning home, back to Godhead. We have already discussed this more than once in this great literature in different places, especially in the introductory portion by sketching the life of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and still we are repeating the same with a view to bring about peace and prosperity in society.
The Lord has declared openly in Bhagavad-gita how He becomes pleased with us, and the same process is practically demonstrated in the life and preaching work of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The perfect process of performing yajñas, or sacrifice, to please the Supreme Lord Hari (the Personality of Godhead, who gets us free from all miseries of existence) is to follow the ways of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in this dark age of quarrel and dissension.
Maharaja Yudhisthira had to collect heaps of gold to secure the paraphernalia for the horse sacrifice yajñas in days of sufficiency, so we can hardly think of such performance of yajñas in these days of insufficiency and complete scarcity of gold. At the present moment we have heaps of papers and promises of their being converted into gold by economic development of modern civilization, and still there is no possibility of spending riches like Maharaja Yudhisthira, either individually or collectively or by state patronization. Just suitable, therefore, for the age is the method recommended by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in terms of the sastra. Such a method requires no expenditure at all and yet can award more benefit than other expensive methods of yajña performances.
The horse sacrifice yajña or cow sacrifice yajña performed by the Vedic regulations shouldn’t be misunderstood as a process of killing animals. On the contrary, animals offered for the yajña were rejuvenated to a new span of life by the transcendental power of chanting the Vedic hymns, which, if properly chanted, are different from what is understood by the common layman. The Veda-mantras are all practical, and the proof is rejuvenation of the sacrificed animal.
There is no possibility of such methodical chanting of the Vedic hymns by the so-called brahmanas or priests of the present age. The untrained descendants of the twice-born families are no more like their forefathers, and thus they are counted amongst the sudras, or once-born men. The once-born man is unfit to chant the Vedic hymns, and therefore there is no practical utility of chanting the original hymns.
And to save them all, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu propounded the sankirtana movement or yajña for all practical purposes, and the people of the present age are strongly recommended to follow this sure and recognized path.