Agni is the element fire, more precisely the god of fire. In Rigveda, Agni is the second most important deity on the basis of his influence and magnitude. Around 200 hymns are addressed to him in the Rigveda. Agni is considered as the mediator between the deities and the devotees or sages.
Agni is the first of the powers, the unspoiled and foremost. Agni is the form, the fire, the forceful heat and flaming will of conscious force of Divinity. As a flaming Force of knowledge, he descends to build up the worlds and seated within them, a secret deity, initiates movement and action. Agni is a truth-consciousness soul, a seer, a priest and a worker, - the immortal worker in man. His mission is to purify all that he works upon and to rise up the soul struggling in Nature from obscurity to the light. The other gods awake with the Dawn, but Agni wakes also in the night; he keeps divine vision in the Darkness. No sacrifice is possible without Agni. He is at once the flame on the alter and the priest of the oblation. Agni destroys and purifies. His very hunger and desire, infinite in its scope, prepares the establishment of a higher universal order. He attains the immortality and maintains unhurt its law of truth and joy in the human creature. In the end we overpass all crookedness of falsehood and error. The duality of truth and falsehood, light and light and darkness, conceptional right and wrong are the confusions of knowledge born of egoistic divisions; the dualities of egoistic love and hatred, joy and grief, pleasure and pain are the confusions of Love, perversities of Ananda; the dualities of strength and weakness, sin and virtue, action and inaction, are the confusions of will, dissipaters of the divine force. Agni is the Divine Will which enlightens us. Forms of Agni: Agni is light as well as force. He is also the fire that assimilates and the heat energy that forms. He is the heat of life and creates the sap, the rasa in the things. Agni is said to have ten forms. They are lightning, fire, sun, absorbing fire, destructive fire, fire yielded through sticks used for sacrifices and rituals, fire given to a student during his Upanayana ceremony, domestic fire used for household uses, southern fire of ancestors used for some types of rituals and funeral fire in cremation rituals. The ancient seers divided Agni into three parts, Garhapatya (for general domestic use), Aahavaniya (for inviting and welcoming a deity or personage) and Dakshinagni (for fighting against all evil). Birth & Appearance of Agni: The birth of Agni is associated with the manifestation or vision of luminous herds. God Agni is the flame, the power and priest of the sacrifice; - by the word, and Brihaspati is the father of the Word. Agni is said to be the eldest son of Brahma. In another version, he is said to be the son of Dharma (eternal law) and Vasubhaarya (wife of light). In later writings, Agni is said to be the son of Sage Angiras who discovered fire and its uses. Agni is represented by two heads, one head marking immortality and the other marking an unknown symbol of life. He is said to have two or seven hands, four horns and three legs. His seven hands represent the seven flames or Swastika 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. Agni is the lord of household activities. No religious activity is possible without Agni. Agni lavishes wealth and dispels the darkness. His vehicle is said to be the ram which is a sacrificial animal and connected with rituals. His descriptions are varied. He carries a flaming javelin in one of his hands. Divine Potentialities of Agni: Externally, offerings (oblations) are done in Vedic sacrifice (also called Yajna) along with Vedic mantras to please the Vedic gods and to get material prosperity. The oblation signifies always action (Karma) and each action of mind or body is regarded as a giving of our plenty into the cosmic being and the cosmic intention. In the conscient offering, he comes in front; he is the priest set in front (Purohit), guides the oblation and determines the effectiveness. Agni manifests divine potentialities in a death-besieged body; Agni brings them to effective actuality and perfection. He creates in us the luminous forms of the immortals. Internally, the flame of Agni is the divine Will. The divine Will-Force is that of which all the other godheads are forms and he manifests all these powers of supreme truth as he grows in us. Hymns of Agni gives the purity, the power, the knowledge, the increasing riches, the faculty of new formation and spiritual productiveness by which the mortal grows into immortality. It destroys the enemy, the assailants, the powers of evil, enriches the soul with all they try to withhold, gives the triple peace and the triple fulfilment of the mental, vital and physical being and, labouring in the light of the supramental Truth, leads beyond, creating in us the world of immortal felicity. No religious activity is possible without Agni. The Vedic sacrifice is, psychologically, a symbol of cosmic and individual activity become self-conscious, enlightened and aware of its goal. The whole process of the universe is in its very nature of sacrifice, voluntary or involuntary. Agni, the Divine Will-Force in Rigveda: A few hymns in Rigveda on Agni are illustrated as under: कथा दाशेमाग्नये कास्मै देवजुष्टोच्यते भामिने गीः | यो मर्त्येष्वम्र्त रतावा होता यजिष्ठ इत कर्णोति देवान || (Rig Veda I.77.1) English Translation - What should we give to and what speech is agreeable to enlightened persons and liked by them should be addressed to this Agni (Preacher of Truth) who has noble indignation to root out evil and injustice, who as a soul realises that he is immortal spirit among the perishable bodies, observant of truth, receiver and giver of knowledge, unifier who makes people full of divine virtues and learned. You should give him as we do. अग्निम अछा देवयताम मनांसि चक्षूंषीव सूर्ये सं चरन्ति | यद ईं सुवाते उषसा विरूपे शवेतो वाजी जायते अग्रे अह्नाम || (Rig Veda 5.1.4) The minds of men who grow in the godhead move entirely towards the flame of Will even as all their seeing converge in the Sun that illumines. When two Dawns of opposite forms (one day) are delivered of him, he is born as the White Horse in front of the days. वि जयोतिषा बर्हता भात्य अग्निर आविर विश्वानि कर्णुते महित्वा | परादेवीर मायाः सहते दुरेवाः शिशीते शर्ङगे रक्षसे विनिक्षे || (Rig Veda 5.2.9) Agni in the form of sun (sun-light or knowledge) etc. shines with great radiance. This flame of Will shines out with the vast light of Truth and makes all things manifest by the greatness of him. He overpowers the formations of knowledge that are undivine and of an evil movement; he sharpens his horns to gore the Rakshasa or germs of diseases. (In the same manner, one should dispel al un-divine deceitful intellect or ideas which lead to evil outcome from all sides.) तवम अग्ने वरुणो जायसे यत तवम मित्रो भवसि यत समिद्धः | तवे विश्वे सहसस पुत्र देवास तवम इन्द्रो दाशुषे मर्त्याय || (Rig Veda 5.3.1) O Will, you are Varuna, (who represents the ethereal purity and oceanic wideness of the infinite Truth), O Will, when you are born; you become Mitra, (the all-embracing harmony of the Truth, the Friend of all beings, therefore the Lord of Love), when all the gods entirely kindled. in you, O son of Force; you are the Indra, (Ruler of our being, Master of Swar which is the luminous world of the Divine mind) for the mortal who gives the offering. विशां कविं विश्पतिम मानुषीणां शुचिम पावकं घर्तप्र्ष्ठम अग्निम | नि होतारं विश्वविदं दधिध्वे स देवेषु वनते वार्याणि || (Rig Veda 5.4.3) Will that be the Seer and Lord of the creature in the human peoples, that is pure and purifies, with his surface of the mind’s clarities, Will omnisciently hold in you as the priest of your oblations, for this is he that wins for you your desirable boons in the godheads. स हि दयुभिर जनानां होता दक्षस्य बाह्वोः | वि हव्यम अग्निर आनुषग भगो न वारम रण्वति || (Rig Veda 5.16.2) The Will is the priest of offering of the peoples; by the illuminations of the discerning mind he is the giver of strength of the arms, the continuous order of their offerings and as the divine enjoyer (Bhaga) he moves to his good. परातर अग्निः पुरुप्रियो विश सतवेतातिथिः | विश्वानि यो अमर्त्यो हव्या मर्तेषु रण्यति || (Rig Veda 5.18.1) Let the Will be affirmed in the dawning (The dawning of the divine Dawn of the higher knowledge in the mind). guest of the creature with his many delights who, immortal in mortals, takes joy in all their offerings. यम अग्ने वाजसातम तवं चिन मन्यसे रयिम | तं नो गीर्भिः शरवाय्यं देवत्रा पनया युजम || (Rig Veda 5.20.1) – O Will, O conqueror of our plenitude, the felicity which you alone can conceive in the mind, that make full of inspiration by our words and set it to labour in the gods as our helper. देवं वो देवयज्ययाग्निम ईळीत मर्त्यः | समिद्धः शुक्र दीदिह्य रतस्य योनिम आसदः ससस्य योनिम आसदः || (Rig Veda 5.21.4) Let mortal man adore the Will, the divine, by sacrifice to the powers divine; but you, O Brightness, shine out high kindled; enter into the home of the Truth, enter into the home of the Bliss. Reference:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2024
Categories |