Fire
Is fire a solid, a liquid, or a gas?
By Sarah Jensen
Classical Western philosophers divided
the world into four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Early Babylonian
astrologers thought so highly of their classification that they assigned one of
the elements to each house of the zodiac, designating Aries, Leo, and
Sagittarius as fire signs whose members — like their ruling element — were
prone to the occasional flare-up.
Though we now recognize not four but
118 elements, the ancients were onto something. “Their system corresponds more
or less to our modern concepts of matter: solids, liquids, and gases,” says
Jiahao Chen, a postdoctoral associate in chemistry at MIT. “But fire is
something else altogether. It is a chemical reaction that happens in a mixture
of gases.”
Simply defined, fire is a chemical
reaction in a mixture of incandescent gases, typically luminous with intense
heat. But candle flames, wood fires, and propane fires aren’t created equal.
“What constitutes fire depends on the fuel being burned,” says Chen. “The
chemistry of each type of fire is different.” They’re similar to the extent
that all fires release energy stored in fuels, and if supplied with enough
oxygen and enough time, eventually produce carbon dioxide and water. “That’s
the end game,” says Chen. “You can’t get more energy out of it without putting
more energy in. All fires eventually burn themselves out, unlike solids,
liquids, and gases, which can exist indefinitely in the same state.”
And
continuous to say….
Science has come a long way since the
early metaphysicists’ attempts to define matter, but the exact nature of fire
is not yet completely understood. The unknowns provide atmospheric chemists and
engineers research opportunities to isolate the precise chemical processes
involved in combustion — and the prospect of impacting the economy and the
environment.
FIRE AS A SYMBOL OF EVERYTHING SACRED
According to
some records, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism are the two oldest religions of our
modern humanity. The Iranians, in their first migration into Iran, were led by
the great teacher Zoroaster, who belonged to the same mighty Brotherhood as
Manu of the Indic tradition and was a high Initiate of the same Great Lodge,
taught by the same primordial Teachers, called the Sons of the Fire.
In ancient
times, when Zoroastrians built no temples, possessed no religious imagery and
had no books on the teachings of the faith, light served as the focus of their
religious practices. Fire (athra / atarsh /atash) was a means of producing
light.
Agni Deva
The five main
Vedic deities who are mainly Nature gods and who have touched the cycle of life
of man are:
- · Surya- Sun God
- · Indra- King of Gods
- · Agni- God of fire
- · Vayu- God of Winds
- · Varuna- God of water
God is
conceivably one, but its dimensions are numerous. The various Vedic gods(
Deities or Deva) are nothing but the different manifestation of the same
reality; of the five Vedic deities, namely Agni Deva is the fire on earth,
representing the material or mortal plane. As fire, he is the mouth of the gods
and lord of the home (grhapati). It is Agni Deva that is the giver of life,
wealth, energy, light warmth and wisdom. In recognition of its role, the Vedas
has given Agni the status of a Deva or God, worthy of worship. The Hindu lamp
also represents Agni Deva as the prime source of light attached to its use as
the premier energy supply for creation. Deya is just an honest representation
of Agni Deva.
Logically concluding that Agni became the prime deity and one
would find the first shloka of the Rig Vedas dedicated to Agni.
The first
sloka of rig veda:
अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवं रत्वीजम |
होतारं रत्नधातमम ||
अग्निः पूर्वेभिर्र्षिभिरीड्यो नूतनैरुत |
अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवं रत्वीजम |
होतारं रत्नधातमम ||
अग्निः पूर्वेभिर्र्षिभिरीड्यो नूतनैरुत |
स देवानेह वक्षति ||
अग्निना रयिमश्नवत पोषमेव दिवे-दिवे |
यशसं वीरवत्तमम ||
अग्ने यं यज्ञमध्वरं विश्वतः परिभूरसि |
स इद्देवेषु गछति ||
अग्निर्होता कविक्रतुः सत्यश्चित्रश्रवस्तमः |
देवो देवेभिरा गमत ||
यदङग दाशुषे तवमग्ने भद्रं करिष्यसि |
तवेत तत सत्यमङगिरः ||
उप तवाग्ने दिवे-दिवे दोषावस्तर्धिया वयम |
नमो भरन्त एमसि ||
राजन्तमध्वराणां गोपां रतस्य दीदिविम |
वर्धमानंस्वे दमे ||
स नः पितेव सूनवे.अग्ने सूपायनो भव |
सचस्वा नः सवस्तये ||
अग्निना रयिमश्नवत पोषमेव दिवे-दिवे |
यशसं वीरवत्तमम ||
अग्ने यं यज्ञमध्वरं विश्वतः परिभूरसि |
स इद्देवेषु गछति ||
अग्निर्होता कविक्रतुः सत्यश्चित्रश्रवस्तमः |
देवो देवेभिरा गमत ||
यदङग दाशुषे तवमग्ने भद्रं करिष्यसि |
तवेत तत सत्यमङगिरः ||
उप तवाग्ने दिवे-दिवे दोषावस्तर्धिया वयम |
नमो भरन्त एमसि ||
राजन्तमध्वराणां गोपां रतस्य दीदिविम |
वर्धमानंस्वे दमे ||
स नः पितेव सूनवे.अग्ने सूपायनो भव |
सचस्वा नः सवस्तये ||
Religious
expansion:
1 I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice,
The hotar, lavishest of wealth.
2 Worthy is Agni to be praised by living as by ancient seers.
He shall bring hitherward the Gods.
3 Through Agni man obtaineth wealth, yea, plenty waxing day by day,
Most rich in heroes, glorious.
4 Agni, the perfect sacrifice which thou encompassest about
Verily goeth to the Gods.
5 May Agni, sapient-minded Priest, truthful, most gloriously great,
The God, come hither with the Gods.
6 Whatever blessing, Agni, thou wilt grant unto thy worshipper,
That, Aṅgiras, is indeed thy truth.
7 To thee, dispeller of the night, O Agni, day by day with prayer
Bringing thee reverence, we come
8 Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal, radiant One,
Increasing in thine own abode.
9 Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son: Agni, be with us for our weal.
The hotar, lavishest of wealth.
2 Worthy is Agni to be praised by living as by ancient seers.
He shall bring hitherward the Gods.
3 Through Agni man obtaineth wealth, yea, plenty waxing day by day,
Most rich in heroes, glorious.
4 Agni, the perfect sacrifice which thou encompassest about
Verily goeth to the Gods.
5 May Agni, sapient-minded Priest, truthful, most gloriously great,
The God, come hither with the Gods.
6 Whatever blessing, Agni, thou wilt grant unto thy worshipper,
That, Aṅgiras, is indeed thy truth.
7 To thee, dispeller of the night, O Agni, day by day with prayer
Bringing thee reverence, we come
8 Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal, radiant One,
Increasing in thine own abode.
9 Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son: Agni, be with us for our weal.
The element
of nature- worship is a marked feature in most of the hymns in the Vedas, which
are invocations of different deities. Indra was the favourite god of the Vedic
Aryans; almost one fourth of all the hymns in the Rig-Veda are addressed to him
and they are among the best in the collection. Next to Indra stands Agni.
The Vedic
sages created the institution of sacrificial fires (yadnya) as the point of
union of God and man, on the earth. Later that very institution became the central
focus of the spread of Vedic culture (sanskruti). A sacrificial fire is the
very core of social life and the formation of social organisations. According
to the Vedic sages The Supreme God exists in the form of a sacrificial fire.
Performing sacrificial fires was their sole code of Righteousness. Somyâg is a
sacrifice which is accorded the central focus in the Rugveda. Som represents
vision and fire symbolises light. It is because of the sun and the rain that
all living beings survive. Food too is generated from them. This being the
attitude of Vedic sages towards sacrificial fires .They linked every important
action of life to them.
Why we continue
lighting a Deya or a candle.
These powers up the final frontier of our creation,
preservation and termination on the earthly planet,
·
In the mortal plane, we depend upon matter,
intelligence and energy.
·
In the absence of matter, there exists immortality or
the astral plane and
·
In the absence of energy and matter its divinity or
the divine plane.
It is another
form of energy that takes us closer to our creator. Fire or Agni Deva is one
that represents the energy of the finest order for mankind. Shakti is also the
manifestation of energy in the female form. The lamp in its optimum brilliance
represents Agni Deva as a meaningful entity of worship
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