Agni

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A Hindu fire god having the following attributes:

(a)

Agni is the sacrificial flame, the sacrificer and the sacrificed

CW5 ¶ 246
(b)

Just as Christ left behind his redeeming blood, a truepharmakon athanasias [drink of immortality], in the wine, so Agni is the soma, the holy drink of inspiration, the mead of immortality

CW5 ¶ 246

AGNI AS SYMBOL OF FIRE,

AND EMANATION OF INNER FIRE

(c)

Soma and fire are identical in Vedic literature. The ancient Hindus saw fire both as a symbol of Agni and as an emanation of the inner libido-fire, and for them the same psychic dynamism was at work in the intoxicating drink (“fire-water,” Soma-Agni as rain and fire). The Vedic definition of soma as “seminal fluid” confirms this view

CW5 ¶ 246

`SOMATIC' SIGNIFICANCE

AND EUCHARISTIC BLOOD

(d)

The “somatic” significance of Agni has its parallel in the Christian interpretation of the Eucharistic Blood as the body of Christ

CW5 ¶ 246

DRINK OF IMMORTALITY

STIRRED BY HINDU GODS

(e)

Soma is also the “nourishing drink.” Its mythological characteristics coincide with those of fire, and so both are united in Agni. The drink of immortality, Amrita, was stirred by the Hindu gods like the fire (fig. 258.15)

CW5 ¶ 247
(e)

4 CW5 Ser: 6 Par 247 (e) FigNo 258.15

AGNI AS

DIVINE MEDIATOR

(f)

The Sanskrit word for fire is agnis (Lat. ignis), personified as Agni, the god of fire, a divine mediator (fig. 258.13b) whose symbolism has certain affinities with Christian ideas

CW5 ¶ 239
(f)

5 CW5 Ser: 9 Par239 (f) FigNo 258.13b

(g)

An Iranian name for fire is Nairyosagha, `masculine word.' (Cf. the Indian Narasamsa, `wish of men.') Max Müller says of Agni:

CW5 ¶ 240
(h)

It was a familiar idea with the Brahmans to look upon the fire both as the subject and the object of a sacrifice. The fire embraced the offering, and was a kind of priest carrying it to the godsa sort of mediator between gods and men

(i)

Fire represented something divine, a god to whom honor was due and thus became both the subject and the object of the sacrificehence the idea that Agni sacrifices himself, offers a sacrifice to himself, and offers himself as a sacrifice ( Max Müller, Introduction to the Science of Religion, pp. 164-65 n. )

(j)

Agni, fire, was worshipped as a golden-winged bird

CW5 ¶ 271
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