Agni

God of Fire

Agni Purana

Deva

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Agni

Source: https://occult-world.com/agni/ 

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Agni literally means “fire”: the name is etymologically related to ignite. Because Agni is fire, he is a deity with whom people have daily contact. He is fire and he is the spirit of fire. When you gaze at a flame, you gaze at Agni. Agni is an equal-opportunity spirit. He loves all people, regardless of wealth, power, influence, or lack thereof. He lives in any home with a hearth, no matter how humble or poor. Light a candle and there he is! He is everyone’s friend.

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Agni is the fire that cooks food and provides warmth and safety. He was at one time a critically important deity. Over two hundred hymns in the Rig Veda are dedicated to him. Eight of its ten books start with praise for Agni as Vedic Lord of Fire. Agni serves as mediator between people and other spirits, accepting and delegating burned offerings. An offering that fails to ignite has been rejected by Agni. He protects people both before and after life:

• An incantation in the Rig Veda requests that he protect fetuses from physical and magical danger.

• Agni has the power to grant immortality or cleanse one’s sins at the moment of death.

• He is a psychopomp guiding souls to other realms.

Souls of the deceased are believed to ascend with smoke from funeral pyres, hence the ancient preference of many Indo-European peoples for cremation as opposed to burial or other methods of disposing of cadavers.

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Agni is the spirit of unquenchable erotic fire. He may be invoked by lovers seeking flames of passion and by men seeking to invigorate or enhance their virility: to burn all night like a constant fire.

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Agni

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Agni/?fbclid=IwAR1eFf4F_HM8CRWNq3ZwrUjSTRXfynO_jqXujDGtXCd-LZC4OtDsY8FHOLs 

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Agni is the Hindu god of fire. He is regarded as the friend and protector of humanity, in particular, he safeguards the home. Various forms of fire are associated with Agni and include the sun, lightning, comets, sacrificial fire, domestic fires, the fire of the funeral pyre, and the digestive fire which is within all humans. Agni was especially important in the Vedic period (1500-500 BCE), and the Vedas contains more hymns to him than to any other deity.

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He is still considered today omnipresent though not directly worshipped. Agni knows the thoughts of all people and is a witness to all important actions, hence the use of fire in many important Hindu ceremonies such as marriages. He is also referred to in sacred texts such as the Mahabharata as the 'Oblation-devourer' and the 'Purifier'. With flaming hair and riding a goat, he is easily identified in Hindu art.

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Agni's wife is the daughter of King Nila who impressed the fire god by being the only woman in the kingdom who managed to kindle a flame in the royal palace. In some myths, Karttikeya (Skanda), the Hindu god of war, is Agni's son and the result of Agni's conquest of the Pleiades, the wives of the Seven Sages.

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Agni is the son of the Celestial Waters, and that element is closely connected with fire which is thought to be carried down to earth within rain. From there fire is drawn up by vegetation and so when two sticks are rubbed together fire appears. Agni is also responsible for lightning which is born from the god's union with the cloud goddess. Another fire Agni is associated with is the funeral pyre; in this role, he leads the dead to their final judgement by Yama, Ruler of the Underworld.

Read More Yama God of Death Naraka Underworld click

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Agni is perhaps most closely associated with sacrificial fires where he is thought to carry the offerings of humans to the gods. According to various myths, Agni was at first afraid to take on this duty as his three brothers had been killed already whilst performing the task. Consequently, Agni hid in the subterranean waters but, unfortunately, fish revealed his hiding place to the gods. As a result, Agni cursed them so that fish would become the easy prey of men.

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In another version it’s frogs, then elephants, and then parrots which reveal Agni's attempts at hiding and the god punished them all by distorting their speech ever after. The final hiding place of Agni in this version was inside a sami tree and so it is considered the sacred abode of fire in Hindu rituals and its sticks are used to make fires. Reluctantly taking up his duty again Agni did negotiate by way of compensation to always receive a share of the sacrifice he carried to the gods and he was given the boon of ever-lasting life.

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Over time Agni's importance as a god diminishes, a fact explained in the Mahabharata as due to his overindulgence in consuming one too many offerings. In the Visnu Purana he is described as the eldest son of Brahma and Svaha is his wife. Together they had three sons, Pavaka, Pavamana, and Suchi, who in turn had 45 sons, which, including their fathers and grandmother, totals 49, the number of sacred fires in the Vayu Purana.

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Agni, according to one Rigveda hymn attributed to the sage Vasistha, also has a darker side. Similar in nature to the 'flesh-eater' demons, the raksasa, he has two wickedly sharp iron tusks and he devours his victims without mercy. However, when called upon by the gods, Agni destroys the raksasa with his flaming spears. This episode, when Agni becomes a servant of the gods, is illustrative of his fall from the pinnacle of the pantheon.

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In art, Agni is often depicted with black skin, two heads, four arms, and riding either a goat (the most commonly sacrificed animal) or a chariot drawn by red horses which has seven wheels, representing the seven winds. His two heads, which spout flames, are symbolic of his association with two types of fire: the domestic hearth and the sacrificial fire. He can have seven tongues which are used to lick up the ghee butter given as offerings.

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Typically he carries a fan (which he uses to build up fires), a sacrificial ladle, an axe, and a flaming torch or javelin. Agni may also be represented as the Garuda bird which carries the seed of life, the fire-bird which carries ambrosia to the gods, and the goat-headed merchant who represents the sacrifice made to the gods. In later Hindu art, Agni is also represented as one of the Dikpalas who were the eight guardians of the directions of space. Agni protects the south-east quarter, Purajyotisa.

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Agni – The Significance and Story of The Fire God in Hinduism

Source: https://www.templepurohit.com/agni-the-fire-god-of-hindus/?fbclid=IwAR2msV-Sfj1ljGoHuVlYWdIT03dEO6_5mrueBHunZMdaQVGJXNISrRQLVA4 

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Agni is present in everyone’s hearth. He is supposed to be the vital spark of life, and the food in people’s stomach is burned by Agni. Agni is also the fire of the Sun, and gives it brilliance and heat that the Sun is known for. Agni is very essential for the survival and development of humans, which is why people have been praying to him since ancient times.

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Agni is sometimes said to be the twin brother of Lord Indra, the ruler of the heavens, and is often closely associated with him. In Vedic times, he occupied the most important position after Indra. Along with Indra and Surya, he makes up the holy triad of Vedic gods.

Read More Indra God of Heaven Thunder and Rain click

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He is depicted as having two heads. One head signifies immortality, and the other is a symbol of life. He was one of the Supreme gods of the early Vedic period, along with Indra and Varuna. He is often said to be the link between the heaven and earth, and humans and deities. He is associated with Vedic sacrifice, and takes sacrifices of the devotees to their beloved and much respected and adored gods in his fire.

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Once Agni had offended sage Bhrigu, who cursed him to become the devourer of everything in this world. Terrified of this curse, Agni went to Brahma and requested him to do something about it, otherwise Agni would have been responsible for the destruction of the entire world. So, Brahma modified the curse in such a way that Agni became the purifier of all the things he touched.

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The origin of his birth is a mystery. Different people have different ideas about it. Some say his parents were sage Kashyapa and Aditi, some say he was born of Dyaus Pita and Prithvi, and some say he was the son of a queen who kept his birth a secret from her husband, the king. Agni is sometimes said to be the son of ten mothers, who were all sisters, depicting the ten fingers of a man. His sisters are the personification of night and dawn, and his wife is Svaha. He is the father of Pavak, Pavman, and Suchi. He has been given various names over the years, like Jivalana, Dhananjaya, and Vahni.

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When Agni is represented in a humanoid form, he is shown to have two faces, which are smeared with butter, to provide fuel to the flame. He has seven fiery tongues and sharp golden teeth. He has black, long hair, and is red in colour. Seven rays of light come out of his body, and he has seven hands and three legs. He is often shown to be riding a chariot either pulled by rams or goats, or sometimes he rides parrots.

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Agni does not differentiate between his devotees, and visits everyone’s hearth irrespective of their financial status. For him, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, a Brahmin and a Kshatriya, everyone is equal. He is often thought to be a mediator between the heaven and earth, which is why all yajnas take place with Agni being present.

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It is said, that when people use fire, they should use it in different directions. For using fire to offer sacrifices to the gods, the fire should be in the direction facing east. When facing south, the fire should be used to offer sacrifices to the dead. When using fire for cooking food, the direction should be in the direction of west. Agni also has the power to reduce a person’s sins after his death, or grant him immortality.

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In the later Vedic period, his prominence reduced considerably. He was shown as an incarnation of either Shiva or Brahma, and eventually was called on by men who wanted to increase their virility. Agnicayana and Agnihotra are the Vedic rituals used with Agni. Agni is also one of the guardians of directions. He is said to be the guardian of the south east direction. He gives out the light of knowledge and leads us to the path of truth. He is the mouth of the gods, as he’s the divine personification of the sacrificial fire.

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In the Vedas, it is written that Agni, Vayu and Soma are the representation of Fire, Water and Air. These are three of the five tanmantras born from the three heated worlds. They were the principal deities in the Vedic times. Agni used to bring the subject and the object together and establish a relationship between them, known as sambandha. Vayu helped in the progress and development of that relationship, known as abhidheya. Soma used to convert forms into pleasure felt in the consciousness, known as prayojna.

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The Agni Purana, which is eight among the eighteen Puranas, states that one cannot approach any god without using Agni as a medium. No divinity can come without the presence of Agni. It is also written that Agni was the son of Agniras, who discovered fire and its uses. His most destructive form is the Kravyad form. Agni has had three births. His first birth was in the heavens, when he appeared as a bolt of lightning. He took his second birth among humans as Jataveda, and his third birth took place in water.

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Jataveda is the form used to carry the offerings to gods by people performing yajnas. It is identified with everything pious and knowledgeable. Kravyad is the form used to burn the corpses of humans or animals after their death in the Pitri-yajna, and Agni is obtained from the rays of the sun for this purpose. Being one of the most important gods right since the Vedic times, Agni is ever important for humans even now, and it would be very difficult for life on earth to sustain and develop without the blessings of Lord Agni, the God of Fire.