In English
Rationale behind sacrifices
The ancients started performing and (sacrifices) to propitiate the Divine in the form of Fire. The sacrifices were performed not to secure personal benefits or to get desires fulfilled, or to get over difficulties. They embarked on sacrifices only to secure (Bliss of the Spirit). Once, Emperor performed a big Yajna. Many scholars participated in the sacrifice, including scholarly women. Among such women were , and others. At that Yajna a called started putting questions to the sage . "How many deities are there?" he asked. , being a very shrewd person, took the cue from the word "here." He answered, "There are 3306." The entire assembly was taken by surprise at this figure. They wondered whether there could be 3306 deities present at the Yajna. What lay behind 's reply? He considered everyone present at the Yajna as divine. "God appears in human form." Hence, in those days, men were not regarded as mere human beings at and . Every individual was considered as a manifestation of the Divine. then posed another question to . He asked: “Is it possible to reduce this number of deities?" "Yes, it is possible," said . There was no mention of "here" in the second question. answered: “Thirty three deities." Asked whether he could state who these deities were, said: “There are eight , eleven , twelve , and . All these together make 33."