Dry coconuts are used as an offering to deities and especially during the final oblation (purna-ahuti) of any homa/yagna. It is filled with sugar and ghee and is then closed with a sacred thread, before offering to the homa fire.

We remove the fibre that covers it and offer the fruit that is free from all the external fibre. Only then is it possible to break the coconut. By breaking the coconut, the water in it flows out. The heart is the coconut and it is covered by the fibre of desire. The water that flows out is the ‘Samskara’ or purification. The fibres on the surface are the desires. We must strip the heart of all desires and offer the core without the fibre. It then becomes an offering to God. If we plant a coconut as it is, in course of time and by watering it, another plant will grow out of it.

At the time of germination, there is water in it. At that time, the kernel will be clinging to the sides of the fruit. The water in due time gets dried up and the kernel shrivels and begins to drift away from the external surface of the coconut. If we try to get the kernel out, plant it and water it, nothing will happen. Our body may be compared to the shell and our life to the kernel. Our Samskaras are the waters inside the coconut. As long as there are Samskaras within us, the heart will cling to the body consciousness just as the kernel clings to the fruit.