Om Agni Namaha

They had been married for over twenty years and in all these years, Mr and Mrs Sharma visited the temple as a daily ritual and lit an oil diya (lamp with a wick) to invoke light into darkness. As a symbol of the advent of wisdom, temples usually have diyas lit in them. Mr Sharma believed there was a certain mystical quality to the light of the flame of a diya that cannot be substituted by electrical lights. The light of the flame he believed, has a certain degree of aliveness to it, which is absent in the electrical lights trapped in a glass dome or tube. Perhaps, the freedom of the flame and its direct facade of the Fire element (Agni) in a well-behaved manner made it so unique for this couple. They even took their wedding vows with the sacred fire as a witness, which is a common custom in India, and he worshiped Agni ever since then.

His neighbour, Daya who lived in the house next to theirs, was not a ritualistic person, but somehow was enchanted whenever he saw Mr Sharma perform the Agni yagya, (a worship of the sacred Fire). Seeing his interest and eagerness to know more about this ritual, Mr Sharma invited him over when he performed the yagya. Daya looked on curiously through the whole process; the setting up of the vedi (the base of bricks and sand), and decorating it with turmeric, vermilion, and wheat flour to make a symbol of the planets and the sun and moon. Mr Sharma explained that this was an invocation to these heavenly bodies to seek their blessings and propitiate them for peace of all.

Then Mr Sharma set up the dry mango-twigs for the fire, preparing the offerings that would go into it. The offerings were mainly ghee, milk, honey, sesame seeds, and a herbal mixture, with nuts and coconut. Camphor was used as a fire-starter and some mango leaves tied to a twig were used as a spoon to pour ghee into the sacred fire along with the chanting of Vedic mantras. Some home-made sweets, fruits and flowers were also offered. Agni the sacred Fire, was the deity of the yagya and was propitiated by this ritual and blessed by the sun, moon, and planets for the well-being of all.

When the yagya was accomplished, Daya asked Mr Sharma, what did all this signify? This seemed to be so symbolic, and if it were really relevant in today’s modern day life-style?

Mr Sharma, who was ardent devotee of Agni, told Daya that this was indeed symbolic. He further explained that Fire element, which is a tremendous phenomenon of Nature, represented the digestive fire here. This fire is lit up first and then the offering is placed into it. The nature of offerings determined the aroma emitted, as Agni/Fire has no odour of its own. So whatever we consume through our digestive fire also determines the odours that we emit, even to the extent the thoughts that we generate have a subtle odour. So just like we light the fire before placing the offering, we should awaken the digestive fire before placing the offering of foods into it. By this he meant to awaken hunger and then eat, or eat only when hungry.

He then mentioned that the funeral pyre too has Agni, but that is much different, as in that case, the offering is placed first and then the fire is lit. So if you are eating first and awakening the fire afterwards, it results in degradation of the body material. This was also essential for the cleansing of the body tissues where wastes accumulated over long periods of time can be burnt and got rid off.

He further explained that we all need a balance of these two types of yagyas, one for creative or constructional purposes, and the degradation one for cleansing purposes.

Daya then inquired about the flame of the diyas and candles in sacred places. Mr Sharma got up from his seat and came nearer to Daya; he touched the sides of his forehead and said, “You call these as temples in English. It is very rightly so, as these are the gateways to the seat of the soul, that is the so called third eye; in the middle of the eyebrows. When we visit the temple outside we are actually looking for a gateway, a passage to the soul. Lighting of the lamp in the temples is symbolic of lighting the diya of knowledge, to ultimately come to the knowledge of our own soul, which is the inherent, pure knowledge from within, which is commonly referred to as atma-gyaan among Indians.

Thus fire is a source of light and light brings knowledge, which makes everything visible in the outer world, is an inspiration for us to plunge into the unknown realm of darkness or ignorance (gross material existence) to find our way back from where we originated.

Agni is associated with light as it is a unique element it always raises itself up by a natural inborn tendency to raise upwards, it is also an equaliser in its own right as fire doesn't know what you think of as precious or trash, it burns whatever is offered into it. It makes you aware of the nature of things. It burns your beliefs and ideas about things and uncovers the true nature of a substance by the odours they emit. For example some chemicals would give out smoke and fumes, but incense lets out fragrance. It is so much like suffering that does not distinguish between the status and substance of man, it invariably inflicts, but what type of emission happens in that state is a matter of one's substance and constitution.”

As Daya listened with interest to Mr Sharma’s explanation, he thought of the sacred fire of wedding ceremonies and asked about the significance of that Agni.

“As marriage is the union of two souls, and you know nothing unites better than fire. Just as elements come together and unite in the heat of the sun to produce plants where none of the elements is seen as separate, so a marital union is symbolically blessed by the fire of desire that unites two souls together in a mutually beneficial association.

Like water and rice coming together to be cooked over the fire to unite and give a palatable meal!  So we are cooked in this fire of wedding and sometimes feel the heat positively at other times negatively, but cooking happens for sure. Well here the kids eat the meal, ha-ha...” Mr Sharma laughed as he said.

~Om Agni Namah~