Do Rituals Work?
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Prashant Parikh
Oct 9, 2025, 9:52:27 AMOct 9
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I will state a lesser known incident from the early life of Pujya Swami Dayananda ji (Arsha Vidya Gurukulam).
Pujya Swamiji, as a youngster in the 1940s, had a sharp, philosophically astute mind, but was not fully convinced about the efficacy of Karma Kāṇḍa due to the Adraśṭā (‘hidden’ cause-effect relationship that cannot be readily established). Nonetheless, he kept an open mind.
Swāmiji disclosed these doubts to a Pandit ji in a local mandir in his village. To put Swāmiji’s apprehensions to rest, the Pandit enlisted his help to collect 500 Rupees to conduct a specific Yajña. In those days, 500 rupees was a large sum. Therefore Swāmiji had to stitch what he could pull together from different sources/contacts etc. Finally he had the right amount ready and presented it to the Pandit ji. The date and time fo the ritual were set after consulting the panchāng and determining an appropriate tithi.
On the day of the Yajña, the sky was clear without a trace of clouds, and the sun was blazing. The oblation to be performed was the Kārirī Yajña - a rain-inducing ritual used in olden days to herald showers onto dry, parched lands, to facilitate the uninterrupted yield of agricultural produce.
The Yajña- a most elaborate one- required great expertise on part of the Panditas assembled, and involved a profusion of dravya/sāmagri (material to offer unto the sacred fire).
Finally, even before the Pūrnāhutī (the final offering) was fully consumed by Agni Deva (the fire deity), a cloudburst doused out the flames. It would seem that Indra Deva, for whose sake the Kārirī was performed, gave his fullest blessings.
Not only did this validate the intent behind the Yajña, but even in general, rain water putting out the Pūrnāhutī is by itself considered most auspicious.
To Swamiji’s greater surprise, the cloud emptied its contents only within that narrowly defined region; in and around the village chowk where the Yajña was being conducted, leaving most other places bone dry as they were.
On that day, all doubts pertaining to the efficacy of Yajñas were quelled in the mind of the young Brahmacāri, Pujya Swāmi Dayānanda ji, who eventually went on to become among the foremost teachers of Sanātana Dharma.
Now some musings of my own:
The reason most people studying Sanātana Dharma in modern times- especially in the West, but also in India- gravitate more toward the philosophical/metaphysical aspects and less toward the ritualistic side of it is because they are unable to see the causal links between the performance of a Yajña and its result. This has much to do with being entrenched in a mechanistic view of the world with switches, pulleys, levers and billiard balls, where there is complete transparency between actions and their consequences. But this is not always the case- there are many events that befall us- both pleasant and painful- whose causal pathways cannot be traced.
The Vedas reveal two categories of results- draśya phalam- seen results, and adraśya phalam- unseen results.
The draśya phalams have a clear causal link; often immediate. An example of this would be throwing a ball in the air and catching it again. Or performing poorly at work over a period of time and getting an expectedly poor appraisal. The adraśya phalams are results that don’t have a traceable causal link (to be clear, though they have a cause, it is ‘unknown’ to us). An example of this would be winning a lottery or getting nearly struck by lightning but happening to bend down to pick your earphones at the right moment, and escaping only with a ruptured eardrum than instant death.
The results derived from Yajñas are adraśya- we have no visibility into the bells and whistles of the machine for us to discover its inner workings. Performing one is a matter of choice and based entirely upon one’s shraddhā (trust pending understanding).
Anyhow, it is worth noting that the Vedas come as a whole- Karma Kāṇḍa AND Jñāna Kāṇḍa. As a Sanātana Dharmi, it would be wrong to accept one portion while rejecting another :)
Om Vaṣaṭkārāya Namah!
(Salutations to the one unto whom ALL oblations ultimately reach)
Pujya Swamiji, as a youngster in the 1940s, had a sharp, philosophically astute mind, but was not fully convinced about the efficacy of Karma Kāṇḍa due to the Adraśṭā (‘hidden’ cause-effect relationship that cannot be readily established). Nonetheless, he kept an open mind.
Swāmiji disclosed these doubts to a Pandit ji in a local mandir in his village. To put Swāmiji’s apprehensions to rest, the Pandit enlisted his help to collect 500 Rupees to conduct a specific Yajña. In those days, 500 rupees was a large sum. Therefore Swāmiji had to stitch what he could pull together from different sources/contacts etc. Finally he had the right amount ready and presented it to the Pandit ji. The date and time fo the ritual were set after consulting the panchāng and determining an appropriate tithi.
On the day of the Yajña, the sky was clear without a trace of clouds, and the sun was blazing. The oblation to be performed was the Kārirī Yajña - a rain-inducing ritual used in olden days to herald showers onto dry, parched lands, to facilitate the uninterrupted yield of agricultural produce.
The Yajña- a most elaborate one- required great expertise on part of the Panditas assembled, and involved a profusion of dravya/sāmagri (material to offer unto the sacred fire).
Finally, even before the Pūrnāhutī (the final offering) was fully consumed by Agni Deva (the fire deity), a cloudburst doused out the flames. It would seem that Indra Deva, for whose sake the Kārirī was performed, gave his fullest blessings.
Not only did this validate the intent behind the Yajña, but even in general, rain water putting out the Pūrnāhutī is by itself considered most auspicious.
To Swamiji’s greater surprise, the cloud emptied its contents only within that narrowly defined region; in and around the village chowk where the Yajña was being conducted, leaving most other places bone dry as they were.
On that day, all doubts pertaining to the efficacy of Yajñas were quelled in the mind of the young Brahmacāri, Pujya Swāmi Dayānanda ji, who eventually went on to become among the foremost teachers of Sanātana Dharma.
Now some musings of my own:
The reason most people studying Sanātana Dharma in modern times- especially in the West, but also in India- gravitate more toward the philosophical/metaphysical aspects and less toward the ritualistic side of it is because they are unable to see the causal links between the performance of a Yajña and its result. This has much to do with being entrenched in a mechanistic view of the world with switches, pulleys, levers and billiard balls, where there is complete transparency between actions and their consequences. But this is not always the case- there are many events that befall us- both pleasant and painful- whose causal pathways cannot be traced.
The Vedas reveal two categories of results- draśya phalam- seen results, and adraśya phalam- unseen results.
The draśya phalams have a clear causal link; often immediate. An example of this would be throwing a ball in the air and catching it again. Or performing poorly at work over a period of time and getting an expectedly poor appraisal. The adraśya phalams are results that don’t have a traceable causal link (to be clear, though they have a cause, it is ‘unknown’ to us). An example of this would be winning a lottery or getting nearly struck by lightning but happening to bend down to pick your earphones at the right moment, and escaping only with a ruptured eardrum than instant death.
The results derived from Yajñas are adraśya- we have no visibility into the bells and whistles of the machine for us to discover its inner workings. Performing one is a matter of choice and based entirely upon one’s shraddhā (trust pending understanding).
Anyhow, it is worth noting that the Vedas come as a whole- Karma Kāṇḍa AND Jñāna Kāṇḍa. As a Sanātana Dharmi, it would be wrong to accept one portion while rejecting another :)
Om Vaṣaṭkārāya Namah!
(Salutations to the one unto whom ALL oblations ultimately reach)
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