Essential nature of Agni in the Rig Veda

The general notion among most people who have heard of the Rig Veda, whether Hindu or non-Hindu, whether layperson or specialist, regarding the contents of the Rig Veda is that it is a collection of stutis, or "praises" of personified forces of nature. So, for example, Agni is the god of fire, Vāyu is the god of wind, Sūrya is the god of Sun, and so on.

While these descriptions of the gods are correct, it is a hundredfold more clear that that is not the end view of the hymns. The tangible forces of nature are seen as manifestations of the gods, so that the gods in and of themselves are something much more. Yāska, the author of the Nirukta the oldest commentary on the Rig Veda outside of the Brāhmaṇas, has it right when he explains the mantras at three levels: adhibhūtam, adhidaivatam, and adhyātmam. The first level is the physical phenomenon; the second level is the anthropomorphic theism; the third level is what I like to call the level of Existence. The conventional translation of "adhyātmam" is "spiritual". But what does it really mean to be spiritual or to talk of spirituality? Pure and absolute Existence or Being is meant. The Universal Spirit is the principle of pure Being and at the root of the mystery of creation. The usual descriptions of all-pervasiveness, absolute singularity and the principle of pure consciousness are remembered.

Agni in the Rig Veda is a symbol par excellence for this Universal Spirit. The use of a divine fire as a symbol for the Supreme One is well-known in many cultures, for example, in Greek philosophy (particularly Heracleitus) and Christian theology. Here, I intend to quote specific verses from the Rig Veda which plainly show what the sages envisioned as Agni.

1. Viśvāmitra Gāthina, RV 3.26.7

  अग्निरस्मि जन्मना जातवेदाः घृतं मे चक्षुरमृतं म आसन् ।

  अर्कस्त्रिधातू रजसो विमानो अजस्रो घर्मो हविरस्मि नाम ॥

agnirasmi janmanā jātavēdāḥ ghṛtaṁ me cakṣuramṛtaṁ ma āsan|  arkastridhātū rajaso vimāno ajasro gharmo havirasmi nāma||

 "I am Agni, by birth omniscient; the light is (or, emanates from) my eye and immortality is (or, originates from) my mouth. I am the three-fold light measuring the universe, I am inexhaustible heat, sacred offering is my name."

The very first phrase "I am Agni" says it all - the great sage Viśvāmitra is here expressing his realization of absolute unity with Agni, the realization that there is only one consciousness that is the essence of the individual and the universe. This is an exact paraphrase of "अहं ब्रह्मास्मि - aham brahmāsmi", "I am Brahman" of Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

2. Bharadvāja Bārhaspatya, RV 6.9

   अयं होता प्रथमः पश्यतेममिदं ज्योतिरमृतं मर्त्येषु । 4a

ayaṁ hōtā prathamaḥ paśyatemamidaṁ jyotiramṛtaṁ martyeṣu 

"He is the first invoker. Look at him - this light immortal within mortals."

The Sanskrit words used here are significant. In the same breath Agni is called "इमम् - imam", "him" (male) and "इदम् - idam", "it" (neuter).  So Agni is at the same time, a god to be worshiped, and the One Existence to be internally realized.

  ध्रुवं ज्योतिर्निहितं दृशये कं मनो जविष्ठं पतयत्स्वन्तः । 5a

dhruvaṁ jyotirnihitaṁ dṛśaye kaṁ mano javiṣṭhaṁ patayatsvantaḥ

"The firm light, which is blissful and subtler than the mind, is hidden within the senses."

This compares with the "आत्माऽस्य जन्तोर्निहितो गुहायाम् - ātmā asya jantoh nihito guhāyām", "The Spirit is hidden within the creatures" of Kaṭha Upaniṣad.

  वि मे कर्णा पतयतो वि चक्षुर्वीदं ज्योतिर्ह्ृदय आहितं यत् ।

  वि मे मनश्चरति दूरआधीः किं स्विद् वक्ष्यामि किमु नू मनिष्ये ॥ 6

vi me karṇā patayato vi cakṣurvīdaṁ jyotirhṛdaya āhitaṁ yat  |

vi me manaścarati dūraādhīḥ kim svid vakṣyāmi kimu nū maniṣye ||

"My ears and my eye fly forth striving to see the light that is spread wide within the heart. My mind wanders far away - what can I speak of, and what can I think?"

This verse almost appears modern in its candid description of the internal processes when the sage is in rapture of his vision of the Light, when he has lost himself in the One Consciousness, such that he is beyond speech and thought. The last phrase "किं स्विद् वक्ष्यामि किमु नू मनिष्ये - kim svid vakṣyāmi kimu nū maniṣye" is an exact paraphrase of "यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते अप्राप्य मनसा सह - yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha", "From which speech and mind turn back, not having reached" of Taittirīya Upaniṣad.

  विश्वे देवा अनमस्यन् भियानाः त्वामग्ने तमसि तस्थिवांसम् ।

  वैश्वानरोऽवतूतये नोऽमर्त्योऽवतूतये नः ॥ 7

viśve devā anamasyan bhiyānāḥ tvāmagne tamasi tasthivāmsam |  vaiśvānaro'vatūtaye no'martyo'vatūtaye naḥ ||

"All the gods bowed down to you in fear, O Agni, when you were dwelling in the darkness. May the Universal Man protect us, may the Immortal protect us for well-being."

Now, the curious part here is that Agni was dwelling in darkness. How can the paragon of light be in darkness? This opens up a whole discussion on the deeper Vedic metaphysics that Ananda K. Coomaraswamy has propounded. We shall see more on that in a future post. "Vaiśvānara", Universal Man, is a famous name of Agni. Yāska's Nirukta gives the etymology as "viśvebhyo narebhyaḥ jāyate, viśveṣu nareṣu vidyate iti va", "he is born from all men, or that he is within all men."

3. Trita Āptya, RV 10.5

   एकः समुद्रो धरुणो रयीणामस्मद्ध्ृदो भूरिजन्मा वि चष्टे ।

   सिषक्त्यूधर्निण्योरुपस्थे उत्सस्य मध्ये निहितं पदं वेः ॥

ekaḥ samudro dharuṇo rayīṇāmasmaddhṛdo bhūrijanmā vi caṣṭe |   siṣaktyūdharniṇyorupasthe utsasya madhye nihitaṁ padaṁ veḥ ||

"He is the One Ocean, container of all matter, having many births he sees inside our hearts. He suckles in the lap of the secret couple, the dwelling place of the Bird is within the fountain."

This one is very cryptic in its symbols. The four feet of the verse all seem disjointed. Ocean is a very common symbol in the Rig Veda for the all-encompassing and infinite Supreme Unity, and here it is enhanced by the word "Eka", one, which fortifies the concept. The meaning of "bird dwelling in the midst of a fountain" eludes me.

This entire hymn is full of intricate symbolism, most of which is at present beyond my understanding. But it only goes to prove that Agni (and other gods) are complex concepts with an advanced metaphysics behind them. I shall present a few fragments, and one or two full verses from this hymn.

  ऋतस्य पदं कवयो नि पान्ति गुहा नामानि दधिरे पराणि । 2b

ṛtasya padaṁ kavayo ni pānti guhā nāmāni dadhire parāṇi

"The sages protect the dwelling place of the Cosmic Order (or Motion), and take on higher secret names."

  ऋतायिनी मायिनी सं दधाते मित्वा शिशुं जज्ञतुर्वर्धयन्ती ।

  विश्वस्य नाभिं चरतो ध्रुवस्य कवेश्चित्तन्तुं मनसा वियन्तः ॥

ṛtāyinī māyinī saṁ dadhāte mitvā śiśum jajñaturvardhayantī |  viśvasya nābhim carato dhruvasya kaveścittantum manasā viyantaḥ ||

    

"The Cosmic moving pair, endowed with powers copulate and create the Baby, themselves growing. The Baby is the center of all that moves and moves not. They weave the thread of the Sage with deep insight."

Obviously the Baby is Agni as Kumǟra, the ever-newly born. That he is described as the center (hub or navel) of the universe (i.e., all that is stationary or moving) is significant as he is also described elsewhere as the First Manifested Principle. So he is the unaffected effector of all creation, the state of convergence of opposites.

  असच्च सच्च परमे व्योमन् दक्षस्य जन्मन्नदितेरुपस्थे ।

  अग्निर्ह नः प्रथमजा ऋतस्य पूर्व आयुनि वृषभश्च धेनुः ॥ 7

asacca sacca parame vyoman dakṣasya janmannaditerupasthe |  agnirha naḥ prathamajā ṛtasya pūrva āyuni vṛṣabhaśca dhenuḥ ||

"He is both non-existence and existence in the highest sphere ("parame vyoman"), Dakṣa's birth from Aditi's womb! Agni is surely our first-born of Cosmic Order, in the primeval state he is both the Bull and the Cow."

"Parame vyoman" is difficult to translate - another translation is "highest heaven or Empyrean, etc. But essentially the idea is that of a non-physical state, prior to creation and prior to space and time cognition. So, it is a state of unity, absence of opposites or multiplicity, but a state of potentiality from which all opposites come out. "Pūrve āyuni" is not a specific point in time, rather it is the cyclical state of undifferentiated existence before creation. Similarly, when Agni is called "first-born", it is in regard to his first manifestation after a new creation has emanated. "Both bull and cow" shows that Agni is the source of the principles of creation.

        Aditi is in mythology Dakṣa's daughter - Aditi Dākṣāyaṇī, and Dakṣa is the foremost progenitor (Prajāpati). However in this verse, the relations are reversed. When a duality emerges from an original singular unity, the two parts of the duality can only be seen as creating one another. In terms of metaphysics, the idea of a 'second' has meaning only in context of a pre-existing counterpart, the latter in turn presupposing the existence of the former. Yāska describes the gods as "itaretarajanmānaḥ", born from one another.

In this verse, we clearly see that Vedic Agni is identical to Brahman of the Upaniṣads, described in terms of opposites, and the ultimate state of unity from which come all opposites.

4. Vasuśruta  Ᾱtreya, RV 5.3.1

   त्वमग्ने वरुणो जायसे यत्त्वं मित्रो भवसि यत्समिद्धः ।

   त्वे विश्वे सहसस्पुत्र देवास्त्वमिन्द्रो दाशुषे मर्त्याय ॥

tvamagne varuṇo jāyase yattvaṁ mitro bhavasi yatsamiddhaḥ |

tve viśve sahasasputra devāstvamindro dāśuṣe martyāya ||

"You, Agni, are Varuṇa when born, and you are Mitra when kindled. O Son of Strength, in you are all the gods, and you are Indra to the mortal worshiper."

In this verse, it is clear that Agni is identified with all the other gods, and in fact is said to envelop all gods. The verses following this one elaborate on Agni's identity with other named gods. A similar theme is found in Gṛtsamada Bhārgava's hymn RV 2.1 where Agni is literally identified with nearly all the named gods of the Vedic pantheon. No other god is accorded this kind of universal description. 

An observation is that the concept of Agni preceded the use of fire as his symbol, rather than the other way around. Most modern scholars start with the physical fire and then attribute a "development" to an abstract god. However, the few verses quoted here show that fire is just one aspect of Agni even in the oldest hymns. In other words, physical fire and the act of offering in yajña were implemented as being the most excellent form of Agni, the Universal Spirit.

5. A few more verses:

    अग्ने कदा त आनुषग्भुवद्देवस्य चेतनम्  ।  RV 4.7.2a  Vāmadeva Gautama  

"O Agni, when shall I have a flash of insight (consciousness - cetanam) of you, God?

   मा निन्दत य इमां मह्यं रातिं देवो ददौ मर्त्याय स्वधावान् ।

  पाकाय गृत्सो अमृतो विचेता वैश्वानरो नृतमो यह्वो अग्निः ॥  RV 4.5.2  Vāmadeva Gautama

mā nindata ya imām mahyaṁ rātim devo dadau martyāya svadhāvān |

pākāya gṛtso amṛto vicetā vaiśvānaro nṛtamo yahvo agniḥ ||

"Don't criticize that the omnipotent God has given me, a mortal, this Bliss - to me, immature, Agni the Blissful, the Immortal, the Wisest, the Universal, the manliest, the youthful."

   त्रिरस्य ता परमा सन्ति सत्या स्पार्हा देवस्य जनिमान्यग्नेः ।

  अनन्ते अन्तः परिवीत आगाच्छुचिः शुक्रो अर्यो रोरुचानः ॥  RV 4.1.7  Vāmadeva Gautama

"There are three highest truths, the desirable births of the god Agni. He came clothed in the infinite, pure, white, benevolent, brightly shining."

          Saying that Agni is clothed in the infinite, is tantamount to saying he is infinite. The significance of the three births are explained in different ways: his 3 forms of fire, lightning and sun; the three sacrificial fires of Gārhapatya, Dakṣiṇa and Ᾱhavanīya; the Father, the Mother and the ever newly born Son. 

   

   शतधारमुत्समक्षीयमाणं विपश्चितं पितरं वक्त्वानाम्  ।

  मेळिं मदन्तं पित्रोरुपस्थे तं रोदसी पिपृतं सत्यवाचम्  ॥  RV 3.26.7  Viśvāmitra Gāthina

"The inexhaustible fount of a hundred streams, the wise, the father of all sacred speech, the sparkler, rejoicing in the parents' lap, him do you, Heaven and Earth, satiate, the speaker of truth."

  परि प्रजातः क्रत्वा बभूथ भुवो देवानां पिता पुत्रः सन्  ।   RV 1.69.2  Parāśara Śāktya

"You are born all around by your greatness, being the son of the gods, you are also their father."

This is very significant, that Agni is both the father and son of the gods. Further explanation will be needed to expand this metaphysics.

   क इमं वो निण्यमा चिकेत वत्सो मातृृर्जनयत स्वधाभिः ।

  बह्वीनां गर्भो अपसामुपस्थान्महान्कविर्निश्चरति स्वधावान् ॥   RV 1.95.4 Kutsa Ᾱṅgirasa 

"Who has seen him, the Hidden One? This child has generated his mothers by his power. The offspring of many, he the omnipotent, the great sage has come forth from the womb of the waters."

    विश्वेषामदितिर्यज्ञियानां विश्वेषामतिथिर्मानुषाणाम् ।

  अग्निर्देवानामव आवृणानः सुमृळीको भवतु जातवेदाः ॥   RV 4.1.20  Vāmadeva Gautama

   

"Aditi of all the gods, guest of all humans, Agni bringing here the protection of the gods, may he the Omniscient be benevolent to us."

         Here, Aditi in the primary sense of the word, is the mother of all the gods. Etymologically, "Aditi" means infinite. Both senses of the word are very appropriate in this verse - as seen from above, Agni has been called infinite, the father of the gods, and both male and female (Bull and Cow). It follows naturally that Aditi = Agni.

In the foregoing, some verses pertaining to Agni have been translated. These verses are in plain and simple language, without the use of intricate symbols. Although such verses form a small percentage of the hymns, they show the heart of the Rig Veda. This has also been an exercise in interpreting a coherent whole by stitching together parts taken from different verses. By ensuring to always keep the whole in view, each individual verse can be meaningfully explained. As seen above, a consistent metaphysical doctrine of Agni emerges naturally from the hymns.

Some musings on the Rig Veda

The Rig Veda is the oldest of the four Vedas, which are collections of hymns and prose written in Sanskrit and dating back to the late 3rd to the early 2nd millennium BC. They form the cornerstone of sacred literature of Hinduism. Although the Vedas are accorded much respect and sanctity by the Hindus, only a handful of people today are really well-versed with the actual text of the Vedas, much less a deep understanding of Vedic philosophy or metaphysics. Even worse, the current trend among specialists is to deny the presence of any consistent underlying philosophy in the Vedas, and specifically Rig Veda. Two main reasons for this state of affairs are:

1. Demarcation of the Vedic corpus into Karma-kāṇḍa and Jñāna-kāṇḍa by traditional scholars. The Karma-kāṇḍa, consisting of the Samhitā, Brāhmaṇa and Āraṇyaka texts, is supposed to deal only with ritual, whereas the Jñāna-kāṇḍa consisting of Upanishads is the spiritual knowledge part. In addition, medieval commentators on the Vedas like Sāyaṇācārya gave a face-value explanation of the Samhitā mantras, neglecting to see an integral metaphysical doctrine.

2. Starting in the late 18th century, the Rig Veda in particular captured the attention of European linguists and scholars who found a linguistic commonality between Sanskrit and Latin & Greek. This spurred on further research into finding a common source of all 3 languages, and by extension, of all languages in the newly recognized Indo-European language family. Early Oriental scholars were convinced that the homeland must have been India due to the very archaic form of Sanskrit preserved in the Vedas. However, this opinion changed starting in the mid-19th century when the theory of a Southern European "Urheimat" (German: "original homeland") were put forth. According to this theory, the people speaking the "Proto-Indo-European" language inhabited the steppes of southern Europe and Central Asia in nomadic communities, and one day decided to disperse to the east, west and south. In India, this implied that the immediate ancestors of the Vedic or "Aryan" people were intruders from outside. This theory played well into the hands of the colonialist agenda of the British ruling India, who claimed as much a right to conquer and rule the country as their Aryan cousins from 3000 years ago. But the most damaging aspect of this theory was that texts like the Rig Veda were mistranslated to serve as evidence for the movement of the so-called Aryan race into India.Today, after more than 200 years of perpetuation of the "Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory" against an increasing heap of counter-evidence from texts, archeology, paleo-anthropology and astronomy, it is still being debated. Although the problem of the linguistic affinities between the various members of the Indo-European language family is genuine, its solution cannot be through this theory of  "grand dispersal from a central point". I will stop here, as this whole subject has been, and is being, dealt with by several competent scholars elsewhere.

          In effect, the contents of the Rig Veda were shown to be mere poems, artistic creations of spur-of-the-moment aesthetic inspirations, rather than expressions of a metaphysics of universal validity. The hymns were seen as nothing more than odes to personified forces of nature in a childish attempt to pacify and curry favor. 

         

Such early translations of the Rig Veda by Max Muller and other Orientalists were helped in no small measure by the Sanskrit pandits under whom the Europeans studied. Max Muller, for example, liberally uses Sāyaṇa's 14th century commentaries. No doubt, Sāyaṇa can be defended by saying that he was only being faithful to the tradition that was prevalent during his time. 

This only shows how Vedic religion had morphed through the millennia. In the beginning, there was no attempt at systematizing. Hence, a profusion of hymns that were representative of personal realizations (sākṣātkāra) or vision (darśana) of hundreds of ṛṣis (incidentally, the Nirukta gives this definition: ṛṣih darśanāt - the vision is what makes a seer). Every one of the hymns was independently profound in the context of the individual, while revealing a common symbolism and metaphysics. Some hymns are turned out differently, while many use popular phrases. This in fact reflected precisely the central Vedic doctrine of "viśvam ekam" - multiplicity in unity, and unity of the multiplicity. This is also evident from the refrain of RV 3.55, "महद् देवानाम् असुरत्वं एकम् - mahad devānām asuratvam ekam" - great is the common Asura source of the Devas. While not denying the common cause of unity, this does not deny the multiplicity of the individual manifestations. In another sense, we could say that the ṛṣis were too full of life and joy in their constant realization that they didn't want to write a textbook, but rather compose songs, each one different from the next, but each one linked to the rest behind the notes - like various flowers strung together by the single thread.

The next stage was that of collecting and collating. This was the work of the Vyāsa, the Divider, which is actually a title and not a personal name. Once this habit of collecting and collating started, I think the Vedic people slowly began to lose the original vision of the ancient seers. Now, even in the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda, there is mention of forefathers, the ṛṣis who came before - "naḥ pitaraḥ - our fathers, the Aṅgiras and Bhṛgus, Navagvas and Daśagvas). Aṅgirā and Bhṛgu are said to be the originators of the Vedic tradition and metaphysics - almost every seer in Rig Veda can be traced back to either of these two; however, not one hymn of either of them has survived. This does not imply that the younger sages didn't respect the older ones - their reference in the hymns proves otherwise - but they hadn't lapsed into the habit of idolizing persons and their creations. The idea, the metaphysics, the tattva was what mattered, not the fixed arrangement of words by their forefathers. They learned the tattva from their forefathers, and made the realization (sākṣātkāra) their own, and composed their own songs in joy of it. In any case, we must be grateful to the later sages who preserved the earlier hymns for posterity, otherwise, we would not have had this glorious and extensive storehouse of knowledge.

In the next stage, as is wont to happen, the inner vision is gradually replaced by outer ritual. As we know even today, it is harder to meditate than to worship; it is harder to philosophize than to pray. Similar transformation started taking place in Vedic society. The earlier simple outer ritual of yajña was only meant to symbolize the underlying theory and beliefs, for, the real yajña was only performed on our behalf by Agni mentally - RV 1.77.2 "स चा बोधाति मनसा यजाति - sa cā bodhāti manasā yajāti". The ritualistic school developed to such a complex level, that the entire theory of ritual needed a systematizing codification. Hence the Mīmāmsā Sūtras by Jaimini were born. 

In parallel to the development of the Pūrva Mīmāmsā school of ritualism, there were sages who were attempting to simplify the inner doctrine of the Vedas by introducing new terminology and getting rid of the intricate symbolism of the Samhitā hymns. Modern scholars tend to separate the Upaniṣads from the earlier hymns, and call them a "revolt" against the ritualism of the hymns. However, the earliest, and most authoritative, Upaniṣads - Aitareya, Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Taittirīya, Īśa - all take the ritual for granted, and express their theories through the language of yajña. What the Upaniṣads say that is differently worded than the hymns is their use of a single word - Ātman, Brahman - to denote the all-encompassing unity principle of the hymns. What was denoted by many different names in the hymns is all now a single word. The "Ekam sat" of RV 1.164 is now "Satyam jñānam anantam brahma" of Tait. Up. 2.1. The only difference is that the Rig Veda maintains the reality of two levels - multiplicity and unity. The Upaniṣad says, "yes, we know of the two levels of reality, but we don't want to distract our students with the multiplicity, lest they never reach the unity." So for all we can see, the hymns are the songs of joy of the Siddha, the Accomplished, whereas the Upaniṣad is the textbook for the Sādhaka, the Path-finder, the one who is striving to become accomplished. A final proof that the Upaniṣads are in agreement with the hymns is the fact that they quote from the hymns. I shall provide detailed references in a future post.

Once again, when the Upaniṣadic literature itself grew unwieldy, along comes Bādarāyaṇa to codify all the essential doctrines in a systematic treatise called the Vedānta Sūtras of the Uttara Mīmāmsā school of Aupaniṣada Darśana, or metaphysical insight.

Thus, from the Rig Veda to the Vedānta Sūtras, we see a condensation, compaction and simplification of the same basic metaphysics. The poetic-mystical symbolism is reduced, and a more formulaic pedagogy is used. Eventually, great Vedanta teachers like Gauḍapāda, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Madhva come along, and their emphasis on the Upaniṣads and Vedānta Sūtras distanced the folk more and more from studying the Rig Veda and other Vedas for their intrinsic and original insight. The Samhitās were now seen as the Karma-kāṇḍa, in fact, as something almost bad for the final fate of the soul. I do realize that these teachers were all working within the frame of their society, when only Brahmins were allowed to perform yajñas and, therefore, to reduce the social inequality, they preached the non-essentiality of rituals for mokṣa. 

In the modern era, several eminent persons have attempted to revive the Vedas by the Samhitā, Brāhmaṇa and Āraṇyaka texts, with partial successes. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Aurobindo and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy are three that have influenced me. The first, Dayanand Saraswati, I felt went a little too extreme in cutting out the texts other than the Samhitās. In fact, for his purpose of commenting on the Samhitā, the Brāhmaṇa texts are the most ancient and more authoritative commentary. They have preserved the original spirit of the Vedic metaphysics. Aurobindo, on the other hand, although he brought much enlightenment on the general greatness of the Vedic literature, was fond of quirky psychological interpretations of the gods in the Rig Veda. Such interpretations are a far deviation from the traditional Vedic theory. In this regard, I have found Ananda K. Coomaraswamy to be the closest to the spirit of the Vedas. His highly scholarly synthesis of various sources from the Samhitā, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka and Upaniṣad  texts, all the while providing penetrating insight into the deepest symbolism is a treat to read in his works. I shall also write more about his conclusions in future posts.