Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

PERCEPTIONS

AGNI (THE PRIMEVAL FIRE)

Agni, god of Fire, promi- nent deity of the Vedas. Shown as a red man, having 2 heads, 3 legs

In Yasna 34:4, Zarathushtra says, ‘Thine Inner Fire Ahura, to see

‘We yearn, - He blazes mightily through truth; ‘He has thy strength, our hope and Goal is He, ‘He lights the faithful clearly through life; ‘But O Mazda, in the hearts of the unfaithful; ‘He sees the evil at a glance.’

and 7 arms, dark eyes, eyebrows and hair. He rides on a ram, wears a Brah- manical thread, and a garland of fruit. Flames of fire issue from his mouth and seven streams of glory radiate from the body. The very first word of the very first verse of the very first hymn in the very first Mandala of the Rig Veda invokes Agni. And who or what is Agni? O Agni, warm coldest dust of the gods, Life and Light of Existence; Infinite energy of consciousness, destroyer and preserver! Agni is “the divine force which builds the cosmos, the destructive energy which shat- ters unwanted forms, ...also the great puri- fying agency hidden in all things and the 'sacrificial priest' and 'invoker', the 'guest' in the human tabernacle, the 'immortal in mor- tals' which makes the gods manifest” Jeanine Miller Agni is behind and beyond, at once centre and circumference, charging, enveloping and sustaining everything. There are so many transactions, so many variations of stasis and flux, but Agni is the root and sap of all, the alpha and the omega: and from the Mys- tic Fire, the fundamental Agni, issue Jada- Agni (ordinary fire), Vaidyuta-Agni (elec- tric fire) and Saura-Agni (solar or nuclear fire), the great God Agni who is the Divine Master of things : 'Agni (as Daksha ) entered into Aditi (the Sun) to produce the Aditya ...and they gave LIGHT to the world'. "All things on earth and in heaven are, therefore, the handiwork of Agni, and the climax of them all is reached in LIFE'. 'The manifested World of Sound is noth- ing but Agni'. 'Agni is Shakthi -Power too, deus ex machina in the Universe, life-giver, life- sustainer, and life-destroyer'.

The physical fire is merely an out- ward symbol of this Inner fire. God is formless in Essence, and so is fire. When a Zarathushti worships fire, he is worshipping this Inner Fire contained within the symbolic outer physical fire. In Zoroastrian temples sacred fire is kept constantly burning. The highest of these is the Atash-Behram, where the fire is tended by an ordained priest, who has undergone certain disciplines and has at- tained such competence in his work, as to be able to perform all the higher religious cere- monies. He alone can enter the inner sanc- tum sanctorum in which the fire is installed. The sources from which the fire is col- lected, range in variety from fire produced by lightning, fire from a cremation pyre, fire from a priest’s hearth, to other fires ob- tained from ovens and furnaces. The holiest Shrine of the Fire of Iran, is situated at Udvada, about 100 miles from Bombay. It was established in A.D. 721 and has been blazing ever since. At that time Dastur Nariosang Dhaval, invoked and created lightning for the consecration of the fire. The external physical fire in the temple is fed with sandalwood. The vegetable king- dom is considered a fit offering for the Con- secrated Fire. Similarly the body is the temple of the sitting friend, and it should also be fed with pure sathwic food, and not animal matter. If it is imperative that the Consecrated Fire is to be fed with sathwic offerings, then it stands to reason that it is equally important for the body to consume only pure sathwic food. Animal food is tinged with rajas, and it arouses passionate rajasic qualities in the mind, which are not very conducive to spiritual progress or ac- quiring peace. The sacred fire is to be utilised for puri- fying the body, mind and soul, through vari- ous rituals and practices, so that the Son of God, ATAR, may be installed on His throne, the pure heart. (Eruch B. Fanibunda) “Vision of the Divine”

The Universe without (the macrocosm) and the Universe within (the microcosm) are alike peopled with Powers and Personali- ties, perils and possibilities, purposings and perversions, but Agni is the womb of all, the home of all, the tomb of all - and the seed- cell of resurrection as well. Sacred Fire : In the Atarsh Niyaesh, the symbol of Fire is personified as the son of Ahura Mazda, and in Yasna Haptanghaiti 36:6 as the most beautiful Body of God. These references are not to the actual physical Fire, but the Divine Spark or the Inner Fire in man, and therefore the Fire is our inner teacher or Guru. ‘Gu’ means dark- ness and ‘Ru’ means remover or destroyer. The word means, He who destroys the Darkness of Ignorance. The fire or Agni, de- stroys, and burns agnyana or ignorance through its self-effulgent illumination, within the heart. Fire in its latent aspect is contained within all forms manifest in the universe. It is the Divine energy, the Shakthi aspect which lies at the root of all creation, and is derived from Mazda. Therefore, in Yasna 62, Fire is called ‘Atar’, the Son of Ahura Mazda and throughout the Avesta texts, he is always conceived as the Inner Spark. The vital fire of the sun and that which perme- ates all creation is called USHATANA. When the manifest form is destroyed and returned to its elements the Ushatana re- turns to the Sun. The Fire, present in the vegetable king- dom is described as URVAZISHTA and the one in the animal kingdom as ATAR SPEN- ISHTA. Here, they are equated with the life force contained in the seed and the sperm.