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Swamiji speaks about the yajnas and yagas which are part of the Vedic karmakanda. In order to make their life peaceful, humans evolved methods called yagas to please the natural powers which were beyond their control. Since powers couldn’t be reached with gross senses, fire was used to take the offerings to various Gods. The spiritual purpose behind the specific methods to be followed while making the offerings to fire is to develop attention. The idea is to see God in the entire universe, not just fire. Our selfishness makes us inattentive. Eventually, indicating these rituals as frail boats, the scriptures explain the logic behind which is to discipline the mind and elevate us. While we can understand gross poison, we fail to understand psychological poisons like criticizing, speaking ill of others etc. So, fear generating mythological stories were created to prevent us from doing wrong. The entire spiritual sadhana (be it worship or scriptural study) is to make the mind one-pointed. And once that is had, the practice must drop so the mind becomes the Self, the Consciousness, or the Brahman.