Posted on: 08 Feb 2005
The first Veda (Rig Veda) starts with the word Agni i.e., the Holy Fire. The Mantra says that Agni means Purohita, Ritvik and Hota. These three words mean the preacher of the Veda. Therefore the Vedic scholar who is like fire is called Agni. The word Agni comes from the word Agri, which means that He [the preacher of the Veda or Sadguru] should be worshipped first. The Veda also says that such a Vedic scholar, who can be only the actual incarnation of the Lord, should be your guest to offer food and Guru Dakshina (Vaishwanaro Brahmanah Pravihsatyatithih Grihaan). Such a Sadguru, who will give the divine knowledge of the Lord, is called as Brahmana. Brahmana means he who knows Brahman and not a person who is born in the caste called Brahmins. The word Brahman means the Lord as well as the Veda. Therefore a Brahmana is the Vedic Scholar who preaches the divine knowledge of the Lord according to the Veda. Such a Brahmana is also called as ‘Vaishwanara’. The Gita says that Vaishwanara is the fire of hunger (Aham Vaishwanaro Bhutva). Therefore, ‘Yajna’ is offering ghee and food to such a Sadguru.
As per the Veda, there are three forms of fire:
1. Loukikaagni or Bhowtikaagni, or the physical form of fire which is used to cook the food
2. Vaidyutaagni or the electric form of fire
3. Vaishwanaraagni or the fire of hunger in the stomach of Sadguru.
Vaishwanaraagni is better than Vaidyutaagni. Vaidyutaagni is better than Bhowtikaagni. Therefore Yajna means to feed and give Guru Dakshina to a deserving Vedic scholar who preaches the true meaning of the Vedas. Such a Sadguru is the abode of all the angels (Yavateervai Devataah). When the Sadguru is satisfied with your offered food, the rains will come. Without knowing this inner meaning, if you simply burn ghee and food in the physical fire, the rains will stop due to environmental pollution. Lord Krishna stopped such sacrifice by asking the sages to give Him food and satisfy His hunger. Kapila, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, condemned the burning of ghee and food in the physical fire and stated that he who does such Yajna is the biggest fool.
Of course the physical fire or Agni stands as a model or representative (Prateeka) for the Lord. As the fire removes darkness, the Lord removes ignorance. As the fire burns everything, the Lord can burn all your sins. Thus you can meditate upon the fire, as a model of the Lord. But you need not burn wood constantly to meditate upon the fire to receive this knowledge. You can light the fire once in your life and learn that the Lord is like the fire. A model experiment is done only once to learn the knowledge. In olden days, the population was less and there were no plastics and automobiles. Forests were many in number. There was no alternative like electricity. Therefore it was necessary to light an oil lamp and pollution due to the oil lamp was negligible in view of the less number of factors of pollution. Fire was inevitable for cooking food. The presence of fire threatened wild animals and the smoke from the fire scared away mosquitoes. It was very difficult to light a fire by rubbing two sticks against each other. Therefore a fire was constantly kept burning. Shirdi Sai Baba also lit a fire (Dhuni) in the old Masjid, so that snakes etc. would not come. But today in every temple of Sai, people burn wood, which is a waste. This also causes the environmental pollution. You can supply all that wood to poor people, who will use it for cooking their food. Thus, the physical form of the fire should be taken as the real representative model of the Lord. The Vaishwanara Agni is also called as Devataagni. This means the hunger-fire that is present in the stomach of the human form of the Lord, is the real deity of the fire i.e., Devataagni. The actual inner meaning of the Agni, as introduced by the Veda, is forgotten. Ignorant people are in fact playing with fire [figuratively], who is the Holy Lord, by not following the Vedic truth. In this true sense Yajna is essential and must be performed.