The saying modern problems require modern solutions might be true but the need of sanitizing your home is not new. It is just that suddenly the COVID-19 pandemic has made us realize the importance of cleanliness and sanitization. One might consider rinsing his home with harmful chemical disinfectants, but in reality it does more harm than good. So, what is the right way to sanitize your home?

Sanitizing the environment is something that has been an important practice in the ancient Vedic civilization. In the past, every public gathering was initiated, only after doing certain rituals to sanitize and purify, the environment and the actual void of space.

In Ayurveda viruses and bacteria are called “bhoota” which also means ghost because ghosts live in the microcosm and are not visible to the naked eye. The process of sanitizing is called bhoot shudhdhi. Here shudhdhi means “to purify”. To Sanitize your home and kill these kinds of harmful parasites, there are certain rituals which can be performed. Let us discuss about the science of these rituals and how we can all incorporate them in our day to day lives.

Let us start with the basics. In Ayurveda fire is used to dissolve elements into the atmosphere. For example if we take chilli and put it in fire everyone present in the room will feel its effect. The pungent elements of chilli will dissolve slowly into the atmosphere. In such a scenario, the atmosphere around you, depends on the kind of element that you put into the Fire. That is the reason why one should always put sattvic (pure) elements into the fire. This concept like other concepts in Hinduism transcends other dimensions also. For example, digestive fire is also considered a type of fire, that is why we should only put pure elements into our stomach so that our body is made up of pure elements only. If we put junk in our food our body will be polluted just like the environment. To sum it all, we should only put pure elements into the divine fire of “Yagya” and into the divine digestive fire of our stomach.

In recent years many Western scientists have done research on ancient Indian technique of Yagya. Let us focus on the scientific aspect of the practice that can be used to sanitize your home and not just on the spiritual aspect. What is Yagya ? Yagya is an ancient ritual in which we put fire in in a specific container and we feed the Fire certain herbs and then chant certain mantras. The fuel that is chosen for this fire has to be chosen properly. It is specifically mentioned in the Ayurveda, what fuel is to be used for a Yagya and what Herbs are to be put, once the fire is Lit. Yagyas can have different time spans, depending on the need and severity of the purification. There are Yagyas which can be performed in 10 minutes and there are Yagyas which take days to perform.

Yagya is the scientific process of sublimation and transformation of healthy constituents of plants and herbal medicines, into vapor and its expansion and dissipation in the surrounding atmosphere. It also helps in maintaining the balance of oxygen, carbon-di-oxide and other gases, along with reducing the harmful growth of poisonous, ozone layer-depleting gases and radiations into the surroundings. The term Yagya is often used for every process (e.g. cycles of Nature) and philosophy, which generates healthy and essential substances with beneficial effects and goodwill into the atmosphere. This is why Yagya has been termed as the nucleus of all the natural cycles.

It is amazing to note that the Ozone Layer has also been mentioned in the Vedas. Several hymns of Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, mention that the earth is surrounded by a membrane, which is very thick. The term used for Ozone layer is ‘mahat ulba’. Mahat in Sanskrit means very big and ulba is the membrane, which covers the embryo inside the uterus. In Atharva Veda the color of this layer has been called golden i.e. ‘hiranyaya’. Comparing the Ozone layer to a membrane covering the embryo, it is clear that the function of this layer is the protection of earth. Disturbing this layer is equivalent to disturbing the membrane that covers the embryo inside a uterus.

The chemical-X to Sanitize Homes, Cow Ghee

Generally, Yagya mango bark is used as a fuel for the fire. But the Yagya we are going to focus on, is the “Agnihotra Yagya” which is used to Sanitize your home. For this the fuel used is cow dung cakes. I must assume that when I say cow, readers understand what I mean. By cow I mean the cow that has a a hump on its back. The cow which does not have hump i.e the hump-less cow is technically not a cow, it is a western Hybrid. Thus the Western species of a cow cannot be considered for thus Yagya. Why is this hump important? The hump of an Indian cow is its Surya nadi. Generally only humans are believed to have this nadi in their body, but cow is the only animal to have this nadi. This is the reason why a Cow’s milk is considered to be as good as a mother’s milk in India. Along with cow dung cakes you will need cow ghee. It is important to know the difference between butter oil and ghee. The basic difference is that ghee is made from curd and butter oil is made from the cream that we get from milk.

Many people think that butter oil and ghee are same things but you should know that butter oil has a lot of harmful effects on the body while ghee, which is made from cow milk (A2 milk) does not harm the body in anyway. People with cholesterol problem can eat cow ghee in any quantity they want, but will never have any problem. But they cannot have butter oil as it can lead to serious health problems.

The next thing you need is rice grains. You will only need a handful of them. The container in which the Yagya has to be performed is made with many technicalities. Just like any scientific process we should consider the rituals as a scientific process. Every step we take in these rituals are scientifically designed and have a deep meaning behind them. We should not perform them only for the sake of performing them, but should actually do it with complete dedication. Each and every step should be taken consciously.

The shape of the container depends on the type of the task we want to perform in the Yagya. The metal of the container matters as well. In agnihotra yagya a container made from copper is used. Modern view of science has confirmed that copper is a good repellent of bacteria and viruses. Mind you copper is being used in this kind of Yagya since time immemorial.

The next important thing to consider for performing this Yagya to sanitize your home is the timing of the Yagya. The Yagya should only be performed during the time of sunrise or sunset. The time should be very precise. There is a scientist from Germany who has done 40 years of research on Yagyas. He has designed a software ‘Air’ which will give you the timings of sunset and sunrise, of the whole year. The timing has to be very precise for performing this Yagya. Why is the time of sunrise or sunset so important? At sunset and sunrise there is a surge in the magnetic field of the earth, thus making it an auspicious time to perform this yagya.

One important point to note here is that Yagya not only purifies the environment but also purifies the space of that area. When we say environment it means, the surrounding air and land. But when we say that it also purifiers the space of that area, we mean that it will also purify the Aura of that point of space in the entire universe. The technique of Yagya transcends multiple dimensions not only the physical one but the non-physical one as well. This Yagya to sanitize your home is only the tip of the Iceberg there are hundreds of types of Yagyas for attaining different types of goals.

Now let’s come to the scientific aspect of this ritual and leave the metaphysical aspects. You must be thinking, that how can burning a few cow dung cakes with ghee purify environment. As discussed in the beginning, everything that we burn in fire mixes in the atmosphere as nano particles. Ghee is considered to be the purest substance in Vedic science.

There is a german scientist who has done research on the science of yagya for 40 years and he has made a website on this science. Explaing it with the help of modern discipline of science. the link to the website is given below.

What is Agnihotra?

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