Swaha......burn bad keep good....bit lengthy but interesting

Swaha......burn bad keep good....bit lengthy but interesting

The fire in a Hearth, that cackles and burns,
Is a remnant of Life, of Ashes and Urns,
Stored in trees, by breaths of the Sun,
Life giving Life, the Wood bakes the Bun..

Fire, one of the FIVE essential elements or the Panch-Mahabhoot of Hinduism; the element that brings fold images of immense energy; the element that gave humanity the chance to survive; the element that would ultimately destroy everything at the end of Time.
Even though it may appear predominantly Destructive, Fire is a Constructive force which has quite literally ignited the development and growth of Human species. Almost single-handedly, the taming of this devastating force of Nature, led Humanity away from its dark origins and helped in the development of Culture and Civilization.

Worshiping the Fire-God

The Sanskrit word for Fire is Agni and this consequently, is the name of the Fire-god as well.
Most of you would be aware that fire-lamps forms an integral part of Hindu rituals. We see fire being offered to the deity at prayer time; oblations being put in the sacrificial fire of a Yagnya; the seven promises of a marriage ceremony being made circum-ambulating the witness fire; diyas being lit for Diwali and so on...
Rig-Veda, places Agni second only to Indra in importance and we find 1/5th of Rig Vedic Hymns dedicated to the Fire-god! In fact, the very 1st verse of the Rig-veda is dedicated to Agni:

अग्नि॒म् ई॑ळे पुरो॒हि॑तं यज्ञ॒स्य॑ देव॒म् ऋत्वि॒ज॑म्। होता॑रं रत्नधा॒त॑मम्॥

Agni I laud, the High-priest, Invoker, Minister of Sacrifice, Deva and Bestower of Wealth
Agni is represented with TWO faces, suggesting his destructive as well as beneficent qualities. He has THREE legs which represent the three worlds that it is present in and SEVEN arms that represent the seven directions that he covers.

He rides a ram, or a chariot pulled by goats which probably is a reference to the use of these animals for sacrifice.

Agni, the First god worshiped in Rig Veda

Agni is described as the son of Dyaus Pita and Prithvi Mata and hence Indra's twin, both of them performing complimentary functions. While INDRA transmits energy to the Earth in the form of his thunderbolt, AGNI takes energy from the Earth to the Heavens in its swirling smoke.

Rigveda surprisingly, also mentions that 'Agni dwells in the waters' and may even be born from it! This may appear confounding till we think of fire arising from lightening-strikes, natural gas surfacing through water, or even the under-water volcanic eruptions! Because of the same reason, the Persians therefore referred to him as Apam-Napat.

Accordingly, there are said to be Ten different forms of Agni :
Regular Fire,
Sacrificial Fire produced by rubbing the fire-sticks (Arani or Idhma),
Initiation Fire at Upanayana ceremony of a child coming of age,
Fire kept in the house for Domestic rituals,
Fire spread by Lightening,
Fire in the Sun,
Southern Fire for ancestors,
Funeral Fire used for cremation,
Digestive Fire (Jatharagni), and the last but most potent of all,
Destructive Fire or Davagani that initiates the process of Maha-pralaya.

In Ayurveda, Agni is the first guardian of health and manifests through “Jatharagni”, the digestive fire. Each time we eat, we are in a sense making an offering to the digestive fire and these offerings are transformed into nutrition or Prana for the body.
Agni is also appointed as one of the Ashta-digpals and is the guardian of the South-East direction. His wife is Svaha and his sons are Pavak, Pavaman, and Shuchi, who according to the Vayu Puraan, stand for Electric fire, the fire produced by Friction, and the Solar fire respectively.

Svaha's name is mentioned each time an offering is poured into the sacrificial-fire. This suggests that the husband-wife duo is to be appeased together and reflects a rarely researched proximity between the two..

The legends talk about a messenger of Surya, Matarishwan (identified in the Upanishads as Vayu) who brought the secret of controlling Fire down from the Heavens and gave it to the ancient Bhrigus for safe-keeping. .

Agni, the First Priest

Agni, is called the First and Foremost of the Priests. He is a friend of the humans and always within reach.

In Hinduism, Fire-sacrifices hold a very important place. The Bhagavat Puraan declares Yagneshwara (Lord of yagya) to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and Dakshina (donation), the embodiment of Goddess Lakshmi as his consort. Thus, performing a Yagnya is equivalent to appeasing Lord Vishnu.


Agni is worshiped in Rig Vedic verse 5.3.1-2 as the embodiment of all gods. He is the priest who prays to other demigods on behalf of humans; he is the officiating priest of a Yagnya; and lastly, he is the bestower of the gifts of gods to us humans.
Accordingly, the human priests are also classified into three categories based on the roles they play in a Yagnya - Hotri, Adhvaryu and Udgatri. The Sacrifices performed could be of various types depending on the intended beneficiary.
For example, a Brahma-yagnya is performed to please the Supreme Brahman, while a Dev-yagnya aims to appease the Devas. A Pitri-yagnya is performed for the benefit of the Ancestors, Manushya-yagnya for that of men and a Bhuta-yagnya for the benefit of all life forms.


There are numerous instances of special Yagnyas being performed by the Kings and Emperors of yore in order to fulfill their desires. Some examples are the Putra-kameshthi Yagnya performed by Dashrath and Yuvanashva; the Ashwamedh Yagnya performed by Lord Rama and the Rajasuya Yagnya undertaken by the Pandavs.
Rishi Kashyap obtained Garuda, a son stronger-than-Indra through a Yagnya while Draupadi, the nemesis of the Kuru family, and her twin brother Dhristadyumna also emerged from the sacrificial fires of Drupad's Yagnya.

Agni is also chronicled as the bestower of advanced weaponry and he gifted Shri Krishna and Arjuna the Sudarshan Chakra and Gandiva bow respectively after they helped Agni get back his glory. Similarly, the demon-king Bali Maharaj obtained invincible armour and chariots by means of a Yagnya and was able to defeat Indra with their help.

Agni, the Celestial Witness

Shukla Yajur Veda 21.3 refers to Agni as the 'Master of all branches of Knowledge'. He is believed to be the symbol of righteousness and truth and hence appointed the witness and the priest for all Vedic ceremonies.
This position he attains by virtue of being present in all the Three Worlds at all times, in all the dwellings of the sentient beings. Because of this unique presence in all spheres of life, Agni is the ideal witness in case of disputes.
Therefore, in ancient India, promises were made and agreements solemnized in front of a sacred fire. For the same reason, Agni is also the witness of a Hindu Marriage Ceremony.
Hindu marriage ceremony performed with Agni as the witness
Because of this omniscience, Agni was also made the arbitrator of disputes that couldn't be settled by human intellect.
Many people today criticize the incident giving it a chauvinistic tinge, but the truth is that in ancient times, Agni was the Highest Judge (somewhat like the Chief-justice of our Supreme Court today!). Those were the times when Devas and Asurs freely intermingled with humans and it was not uncommon for a human of good standing to call upon Agni as his witness.

The process is more elaborately detailed in Zoroastrian texts which describe Fire as Atar and a medium through which judgment is passed. This ordeal-by-heat is known in Avesta as Garmo-varah.

An individual who has passed the fiery test, has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity Yasna [30.7]. Atar is spoken of in the third person masculine singular: "He detects sinners by hand-grasping" Yasna [34.4] and altogether, there are said to have been 30 kinds of fiery tests in all!
Till now, we have seen the benign and beneficent properties of Agni, let us now take a look at the destructive aspect of his personality.

Fire as the Destructive Force
The most potent representation of the destructive powers of Agni is seen in the Rudra manifestation of Shiva when the Third Eye of Shiva opens to release a laser beam of destruction.
Legend has it that Parvati, the daughter of Himalayas fell in love with Shiva. She performed severe penance to obtain the Lord as her husband and was unknowingly supported by the demigods in this endeavor .
Kama, the god-of-love, and Rati tried to draw Shiva into the charm of Parvati's beauty but Shiva was in no mood to be swayed from his penance and in His anger, he opened his Third Eye and incinerated Kama to ashes!Kamadev is reduced to ashes by Shiva's glare

Therefore, one of the epithets of Kamdev is Anang or bodiless. By destroying his body but letting his soul remain, Lord Shiva highlighted the supremacy of spiritual LOVE over physical LUST. (The story later had a Happy ending when Shiva was finally united with Parvati and Kama reborn as Krishna's son Pradyumna was re-united with Rati.)

Shiv Purana [2.3.20.14-19] states that the fall off of this energy fell like lightning from Shiva’s third eye and Brahma had to take it to the ocean and keep it safe there else it would have burnt the entire creation. This mare shaped sub-marine fire at the bottom of the ocean, is known as Vadava.

Normally, the fire is kept in check with the waters of the Global Ocean. But as Mahabharat verse 12.248.13-17 state, the end of the Day of Brahma is nigh that Rudra sparks off the fire again and this explosion of fire from the mare's mouth in the Southern Ocean will begin the process of Pralaya.
Could this sub-marine fire actually refer to underwater volcanoes that keep spewing out magma from the Earth's core. Maybe the end of our days will be initiated by an under-water volcanic eruption that sets a chain of events in motion leading to the annihilation of life as we know it!

Agni, the Hindu-god of Fire
O Light of the Supreme!
Kindle the flame of Liberation within me,
Pour down the ocean of Compassion,
Into my heart,
You are my Immortality,
Accept my Darkness, Bondage, Ignorance, Death;
And release me from this Mortal frame.

https://www.facebook.com/ANCIENTINDIANTECHNOLOGY