Agni. The God of Spiritual Fire
Agni means PURITY. Nothing can contaminate it in the Universe.
Agni in Ritual Form
Agni is an immortal who has taken up his abode with mortals as their guest. He is the domestic priest who rises before the dawn; he embodies a purified and intensified form of the sacrificial duties assigned to various human functionaries.
Agni is the most divine of the sages and is intimately acquainted with all the forms of worship. He is the wise director and the protector of all ceremonies, who enables men to serve the gods in a correct and acceptable manner.
He is a swift messenger moving between heaven and earth, commissioned both by gods and men to maintain their mutual communication. He both communicates to the immortals the hymns and offerings of earthly worshippers, and also brings the immortals down from the skies to the place of sacrifice. He accompanies the gods when they visit the earth and shares in the reverence and adoration they receive. He makes human offerings tangible; without him, the gods experience no satisfaction.
Agni is the lord, protector, and king of men. He is the lord of the house, dwelling in every abode. He is a guest in every home; he despises no man and he lives in every family. He is therefore considered as a mediator between gods and men and a witness of their actions. Agni is worshiped and his blessing sought on all solemn occasions, including birth, marriage, and death.
The worshippers of Agni will prosper, be wealthy and live long. Agni will watch with a thousand eyes over the man who brings him food and nourishes him with offerings. No mortal enemy can gain mastery over the person who sacrifices to Agni. Agni also confers immortality.
Vedic Rituals
Fire is central to all vedic rituals. In terms of importance, he is next to Indra, the Lord of the Vedic deities and Indra's heaven. All the offerings in the Vedic sacrifices are offered to Agni and through him to other gods. Agni is the primary recipient of all Vedic sacrifices. Symbolically he also represents insatiable desire and quest with Purity.
Agni is the most potent and visible form of energy, useful but destructive at the same time, he was both feared and revered by the vedic people. Almost every mandala or division of the Rigveda starts with a hymn to Agni. He is the Soul, creator of earth, air and Vajrayudham or thunder bolt of Indira, the light of Surya.
Agni is the messenger, master of all wealth, oblation-bearer, much beloved, who brings the willing Gods from the heavens and makes them sit on the grass with him near the sacrificial altar. Agni along with Indra, the lord of the heavens and Surya, the lord of the skies, constitute the first trinity of Hinduism. Their places were latter assigned to Siva, Brahma and Vishnu respectively.
Agni has ten forms, Of these the first five are his material or natural forms and the next five his ritual forms.
- The ordinary fire
- Lightning
- The sun
- The digestive fire (jatharaagni)
- Destructive Fire (forest fire, fire that is going to consume the worlds at the end of creation and so on)
- Fire produced using sticks for the purpose of sacrificial ritual.
- Fire given to a student at the time of his initiation (upanayana) ceremony
- The fire kept in the house for domestic rituals.
- The southern fire of the ancestors used in certain rituals.
- The funeral fire used in the cremation rituals.
Agni is depicted with two heads, long flowing hair, a pot belly, six eyes, seven hands, four horns and three legs. His seven hands represent the seven flames and the three legs represent the three worlds which he reigns. His pot belly denotes his love for rich oily food. His consorts are svaha and svadha. Being a dhoomaketu, smoke is his banner. The Ram is his vehicle, and the ram being a typical sacrificial animal, his association with it denotes his connection with sacrificial rituals.
The Layers of Agni.
The root of all creations is AGNI. The fire makes things come into existence by undergoing various changes. Where does Agni gets this energy to create? Agni is considered as Mouth of God and Goddesses.
The Cosmic Conscience is divided into many layers. For creations, the ingredients and the fire is drawn from different layers of this Conscience to create. Sun is the best example. Every second it draws the energy from cosmic layers, converts into fire to sustain and transforms this energy into benign one for earth. If sun transmits all the energy it received, the o zone layer of earth can’t be sustained.
The Agni is broadly classified into 3 categories. The Cosmic Chasm, Macro Chasm and Micro Chasm. In each, the Agni has different properties and purpose.
Cosmic Chasm: Agni at the higher cosmic realms such as Brahmma Lokam represents the fire that is needed to sustain the consciousness. Every god and goddess must posses this internal fire to keep their conscience at the cosmic level.
Macro Chasm: All the celestial objects that we see in this universe belongs to this chasm. According to Vedas, Earth is AGNI. Without fire nothing can be done on earth and in space. That is why it is said Agni connects space and space connects to Indra or Swarga Lokam.
On earth trees, plants , small insects etc have less fire in them, that is why they have no intuition. The Animals are at higher level. The Agni they posses with instinctive skills, they have more power to run, kill, eat etc. The man is the highest form of Agni in them. With this, intuition, intellect and straight spine, man is the best creature to seek Eternal knowledge and salvation.
The Micro Chasm: This is what all religions talks about. The internal fire or Agni. In meditation the mooladhara chakra is the source of fire. The body at right meditative state draws the energy from cosmic layers, converts that energy into bliss. When bliss intensifies, Indra sends the lightning bolt using vajrayudham. This energy in Unconscience meditative state starts the Conscience to raise like a red ball of fire, then yellowish and then into brightest Sun.
Agni in vedas, scriptures, mantras, poojas, bhakthi etc all is an effort to start the Internal Agni to seek ADITI the ultimate conscience with Help fo Vishnu.
Hymns to the Mystic Fire -- by Sri Aurobindo
Agni in Materialism
Typically, fire comes from a chemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and some sort of fuel (wood or gas for example). Of course, wood and gasoline don't spontaneously catch on fire just because they're surrounded by oxygen. For the combustion reaction to happen, you have to heat the fuel to its ignition temperature. The heat can come from lots of different things -- a match, focused light, friction, lightning, something else that is already burning...
A side effect of chemical reactions is a lot of heat. The fact that the chemical reactions in a fire generate a lot of new heat is what sustains the fire. Many fuels burn in one step. Gasoline is a good example. Heat vaporizes gasoline and it all burns as a volatile gas. Humans have also learned how to meter out the fuel and control a fire. A candle is a tool for slowly vaporizing and burning wax.
The fire we always think about is on earth. How the fire behaves in Space?
In space, molecular diffusion draws oxygen to the flame and combustion products away from the flame at a rate 100 times slower than the buoyant flow on Earth. Space flames can also burn at a lower temperature and with less oxygen than fires on Earth. As a result, the material used to put out space fires must be more concentrated. There are invisible fires in space which drives the entire creation. Starts and Planets are made by fire and chemical process.
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