Fire element. (Glossary for the Vahinis)

Also - God of Fire; name for Fire when it is out of sight range. (Glossary for the Vahinis)

Krishna was also called Bharata because of His all-pervading nature. The meaning of this is that the aspect of Bharata is connected with Aditya and Aditya is in turn connected with ‘Agni’ and therefore if you want to control Agni, you have to put only in another place where there is Agni. (SSB 1974, p. 186)

When the assembly was plunged in silence, Aswala got up and asked Yajnavalkya: ‘What is the way to conquer death?’ Yajnavalkya replied: ‘Vak (Speech). Vak is Agni (the fire God). With the help of this fire, death can be conquered.’ He also said that this is Mukti (liberation), Athimukti (supreme liberation). Aswala asked him to explain his answer. Yajnavalkya replied: ‘When a person is born, his mother’s womb is an Agni-Kunda (fire-place). All his limbs are formed within the womb. This is the Garbha-Agni (Womb of Fire). When he dies, his body is cremated in the Chitagni (funeral pyre) and is reduced to ashes. Fire is the cause of the body and fire is the destroyer of the body. There is no greater power in the world than Agni.’ (SSS Vol.22, p. 236)

There are three fires, lit in correctly prepared sacrificial pits—the Dakshina Agni, Garhapatya Agni and Aahavaniya Agni. The question may arise, what need is there to distinguish three types of fire, when fire is only one in reality. But, consider this illustration. We light a fire to cook the meal. The fire softens and makes the food palatable and digestible. The fire that reduces the human corpse on the pyre into ashes is another. Though it is as much fire as the fire in the kitchen, no one bakes a roti over it in order to make it eatable. It is treated as profane and unholy. As distinct from these two, consider this ritual fire. This fire is venerated as central deity of the Vedic Yajna, as Vishnu Himself, the sustenance and support of the world. We prostrate before this fire, an act of adoration, which we refuse to the fire that cooks or the fire that consumes the body; neither do we offer oblations in the kitchen fire nor we utter invocatory hymns and formulae. We do that only for this ritual Fire.

This fire is like the post box of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. When you drop your letter, duly stamped and addressed, into that box, the department ensures that it will be carried over to the person whose address it bears. You cannot accomplish the same assignment – communicating with the addressee- if you drop the letter into identical box hung on your own wall, on your own initiative, to fulfill your will.

That box cannot serve the purpose. The purpose of contacting the Supreme Consciousness in its various manifestations named deities, can be realised only when the altar is laid down as prescribed, when the fire is evoked as recommended and when oblations are offered with the correct recitation of propitiatory formulae.

The Garhapatya fire is the fire in the household – lit in the oven for cooking or boiling, in the fireplace for warming or in lamps for providing light or on sticks of incense. Aahavaniya fire is the ritual fire kept alive in the household of the higher castes wherein is invoked the guardian deities of health, harmony and prosperity, with preliminary recitals of Pranava (Om). Then, there is the Dakshina Agni, the Southern Fire, lit ceremonially on occasions of need for use in rites for the dead. Since the God of Death, Yama is the Deity of the Southern Region, this fire is called Dakshina or Southern. This is the reason why people are warned not to sleep with their heads towards the South, the direction of decay and disintegration. Of these three, the Aahavaniya is, as can be seen, holy and adorable.

The Yajur Veda deals with Yajna or Ritual Adoration of fire, as the medium of communication with the Gods. It has two recessions – Shukla (Bright) and Krishna (Dark), associated with Adiya (Sun) and Brahma (the Creator). Yajur Veda has as subsidiary many complementary bodies of lessons on special skills. Archery (Dhanur Vidya ) is one such, with its four compartments: Release, Retraction, Replacement and Ritualistic Potency (Mukthaka, Amukthaka, Muktha – Amukthaka and Mantra Mukthaka). Arrows, on which Brahma, Agni, Vishnu and other Gods with their Divine Energies were invoked, were used against the foes. These subsidiary sections of the Veda have mostly been lost and so knowledge of such skills has become inaccessible. (SSS Vol. 15, pp. 281-283)

Agni, the Fire God, is born when hardwood (Arani) is churned. Agni has parents, but, as soon as He is born, He eats up His father and mother, that is to say, the pieces of wood whose friction produces the spark. Agni is described as having ten maids. They are the ten fingers that hold the arani and operate it. Since He is born every time the arani is ritually operated, Agni is named the Bahujanma, the Multiborn. The column of smoke (dhooma) indicates His presence, it is His Flag (Kethu) so to say. Therefore, He has another name, Dhooma Kethu, by which He is invited.

Agni is named Yajna-Sarathi, (the Charioteer for the sacrifice), for He brings in this chariot to the place of sacrifice the Gods to whom offerings are made in the ceremonial flames. He conveys the offerings to the Gods to whom they are dedicated. In every Yajna (Sacrificial rite).

Agni is the most important participant. So He is praised as officiating in all the four roles: Rthwic (priest), Hotha (reciter of prayers), Purohitha (performer of rites) and Brahma (supervisor of ritual). Agni is the closest friend of man, for without fire he can scarce hold onto life. The principle of Fire is at the basis of human activity—both inside the body and outside. So, Agni is addressed as Grhapathi (the master of the home). Agni has no preferences and no prejudices. Agni treats all living beings, all races and castes equally with no distinction. Therefore, He is addressed as Samamitra (Same Friend). (LKV, pp. 13-14)

Several types of Agni or fire are : Kaala Agni, Fire of time; Kshudha Agni, the fire of hunger; Sita Agni ,the cold fire; Kopa Agni, the fire of anger; and Jnana-agni, the fire of Knowledge). They reside in the feet, the navel, the stomach, the eye and the heart. (PraV, p. 10)