अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञः स्वधाऽहमहमौषधम्।मंत्रोऽहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम्॥
ahaṃ kratur ahaṃ yajñaḥ svadhāham aham auṣadhammantro ’ham aham evājyam aham agnir ahaṃ hutam
Word by word
The verse says
I am the rite and I am the sacrifice. I am the offering made to the ancestors, and the healing herb. I am the sacred words, I am the butter, I am the fire, and I am the offering itself.
In plain words
Every role in the ceremony, claimed at once.
The one who offers. The thing offered. The fire it goes into. The words said over it.
There is nobody left standing outside the ritual to receive it.
Where you've felt this · in family life
Your mother's birthday comes round and she is the one who cooks the meal. She buys the ingredients, cooks all afternoon, lays the table, and does the washing up afterwards. Everybody is there for her. She is also the reason there is anything on the table at all.
Going deeper
Occupying every position in a transaction at once sounds like a puzzle, and it is actually a claim about who is doing anything at all.
A ritual normally has four separate parts: a person, an offering, a means, and a recipient. Here all four are said to be the same. Nothing is being handed from one party to another, because there are not two parties.
That reframes every act of worship described in this chapter. When you offer something, what is happening is not a transfer to somebody at a distance who may or may not accept it.
And it removes a particular anxiety. If the offering, the offerer and the one receiving are not separate, then worship cannot fail to arrive. The question of whether it was accepted turns out to be badly formed.