Varaha Purana 13.12: Adhyaya 13, Shloka 12
The Genealogy of the Pitṛs and the Determination of Śrāddha Times
Pūrva Bhāga · Cosmogonic Narratives (Vedic allusion: self-sacrifice of the cosmic person)
मां यजस्वेति तेनोक्तास्तदा ते परमेष्ठिना । आत्मनात्मानमेवाग्रे अयजन्त इति श्रुतिः ॥ १३.१२ ॥
māṁ yajasveti tenoktās tadā te parameṣṭhinā | ātmanātmānam evāgre ayajanta iti śrutiḥ || 13.12 ||
mAM yajasveti tenoktAstadA te parameShThinA | AtmanAtmAnamevAgre ayajanta iti shrutiH || 13.12 ||
তখন পরমেষ্ঠী তাঁদের বললেন—“আমার যজন করো।” আর শ্রুতি বলে, আদিতে তাঁরা আত্মা দ্বারা আত্মাকেই যজ্ঞে অর্পণ করেছিলেন।
Sandhi Notes
- यजस्वेति = यजस्व + इति
- तेनोक्ताः = तेन + उक्ताः
- आत्मनात्मानम् = आत्मना + आत्मानम्
- एवाग्रे = एव + अग्रे
Varāha
Yajña is ultimately grounded in the Self/Supreme: agency, offering, and recipient converge at the origin.
Perform ritual with inner consecration (bhāva): see offering and doer as instruments of the divine; cultivate self-surrender as the essence of sacrifice.
The primordial yajña is self-referential: the Absolute (Self) is both sacrificer and oblation; this underwrites Yajña-Varāha theology where creation is sustained by sacrificial order rooted in the Supreme.
The key image is ‘ātmanā ātmanam’—Self offering Self—anticipating the Purāṇic idea that the Lord embodies yajña and its instruments.
Advaitic/Upaniṣadic resonance: the Self as ultimate reality and agent; also Vaiṣṇava reading: Parameṣṭhin/Nārāyaṇa as the inner Self who empowers all yajñas, making sacrifice a participation in the divine.
Connects backward to Nārāyaṇa primacy (13.13.11) and forward to ritual/pitṛ discussions by grounding them in śruti
FAQs
It preserves a Purāṇic paraphrase of a Vedic-style formulation (śruti), showing how later Sanskrit narrative literature integrates and re-frames Vedic ritual language to explain origins and cosmic order.
No geographic location is named in this verse; the focus is cosmogonic and ritual-philosophical rather than topographical.
The verse foregrounds a philosophical model of offering and self-discipline: the act of yajña is framed as an inward, self-referential sacrifice (the Self offered by the Self), emphasizing interiorized responsibility rather than external compulsion.
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