Yagna is the primal ritual of the Veda. Mistranslated as sacrifice, it is a ritual of exchange and reciprocity. To appreciate its philosophy, we need to hear stories. 

This story comes from the Ramayana. A monkey was flying over a body of water when a sea-monster caught him by his shadow and swallowed him whole. The monkey used his nails and ripped his way out of the sea-monster’s belly. But then the monkey’s path was blocked by another sea-monster who widened her mouth, preventing him from going further. The monkey had no choice but to enter her mouth. The monkey, however, had a trick. He grew in size, larger and larger, too big for the sea-monster to swallow. But the sea-monster did not give up. She was able to widen her jaws even more, wider and wider. The monkey then suddenly, in the flash of an eye, reduced himself into the size of a fly. He darted in and out of the sea-monster’s mouth. Before the sea-monster could snap her jaws shut, he had escaped far beyond her reach.