Yajno Hi Shreshtatamam Karma

You must have definitely heard in Vedadhara audios, towards the end, as part of the theme music:

Yajno hi shreshtatamam karma.

It means yajna is definitely the noblest karma.

Yajno hi… is from the Veda.

In Krishna Yajurveda, it is Yajno hi shreshtatamam karma.
And in Shukla Yajurveda, it is Yajno vai.

How is karma classified as per shastra?

There are four kinds of karma:
Aprashastam, prashastam, shreshtam, shreshtatama.

The first one, aprashastam – which is forbidden both in regular conduct and also by shastra, such as killing, incarceration, restricting somebody’s free movement, theft. Even by present-day laws, they are all forbidden — crimes.

The second kind, prashastam.
Those which the world says are great — taking care of your relatives, your parents, children, helping others, feeding the poor.
For doing these, you need not be a believer in any religion.
No matter what religion you belong to, you are supposed to do these.
When you do these, it is appreciated.

The third — shreshtam karma — what the scriptures such as Smritis say are great.
Digging wells, lakes, water bodies.
The difference between the earlier one, prashastam, and this is that in prashastam, there is a relation between you and the beneficiary.
Here, there is no such relation.
You may not even know who the beneficiaries are going to be.
To do such a thing, where you have zero expectation from the beneficiary, is greater than prashastam karma.

When you are taking care of your child, you will have an expectation — when I become old, he will take care of me.
Or when you do a charitable act, you expect appreciation by the society.
There are people who contribute towards the construction of a temple and write their name all over the place.
You have an expectation.
You are doing anna danam.
You see the satisfaction on the faces of the beneficiaries and like it.
That may be your motivation.
Or when you walk by, someone should say — such a great soul.
Or newspaper should write about you.
See these people — they go around in the night with food packets looking for hungry people.
I am not saying there is anything wrong in this.
But this is only prashastam karma.

In shreshta karma, you don’t even know whom you are feeding.
You don’t want any appreciation.

The fourth kind of karma is shreshtatamam karma — the noblest among noble deeds.
Karma prescribed by the Vedas — moola Veda.

Which is the noblest among noble karma?
Which is yajna.

Why? Because in shreshtam karma, when you dig a well, still it is localised.
The beneficiaries are limited to a region.
But yajna —
is for the entire universe.

That is why yajna is the noblest among noble karmas.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi