Agni

"The translations by Grassmann and Ludwig show once again quite strikingly the errors that an exegesis that wants to see in the Veda something other than a purely Indian monument and that does not take Indian views into account must lead to. ... Here, verse 1 says that the gods determined that the place where a man who makes a sacrifice is to be found is the east. Such a man, the text says directly, is the east, but verse 4 says that in the west is a miser who lets nothing come of it and a rich man who gives no gifts. ... "In the west are the ill-wishers whose horses are badly harnessed; in the east are those who are here for giving, who give a variety of gifts," i.e. the misers who have given bad horses are to be in the extreme west, the region of the sunset, thus of darkness and therefore of raksas, while the generous are to be in the east, the region of the sunrise, thus in the eternal light, which is what 10, 107,2 says. So 7,6,3 is to be translated quite literally: "He (Agni), the Eastern One, has made those who do not make sacrifices into Westerners," i.e. he, the bright one, has plunged them into deep darkness."

"It is astonishing to what a degree some remember instances from their past lives, whereas others have completely lost all memories of their former accumulations. A karmic cause does not completely explain such a marked difference in the understanding of life. Truly, the deciding factor in such understanding lies not in the circumstances of former lives, but in the acceptance of Agni. People call such wisdom a talent, but it is no special talent to keep Agni alight. Only the kindling of the centers produces uninterrupted vigilance of consciousness. Even a partial manifestation of Agni already preserves the accumulations inviolate. Agni is no violator, but our friend. It must be explained that the ascent of the spirit is indeed a manifestation of Agni."

"Agni, the Lord of Fire, rules over all the fire elementals and devas on the three planes of human evolution, the physical, the astral, and the mental, and rules over them not only on this planet, called the Earth, but on the three planes in all parts of the system. (p. 65)"

"Agni, the sum-total of the Gods. He is Vishnu and the Sun in His glory; He is the fire of matter and the fire of mind blended and fused; He is the intelligence which throbs in every atom; He is the Mind that actuates the system; He is the fire of substance and the substance of fire; He is the Flame and that which the Flame destroys. (p. 602) All potentiality lies in the vitalising, energising power of Agni, and in His ability to stimulate. He is life itself, and the driving force of evolution, of psychic development and of consciousness. (p. 606)."

""Our God is a consuming Fire" refers primarily to Agni, the controlling factor in this age. The devas of the fire will play an increasingly important part in all earth processes. To them is given the work of inaugurating the New Age, the new world and civilisation and the new continent … Agni controls not only the fires of the earth and rules the mental plane, but He is definitely associated with the work of arousing the sacred fire, the kundalini . . . The Lord of Fire will achieve his peculiar work for this cycle by arousing the fire of kundalini in the large numbers of those who are ready. This will be begun in this century, and carried forward actively for the next one thousand years. (p. 390/1)"

"Agni – (Sk.). The God of Fire in the Veda; the oldest and the most revered of Gods in India."

"I praise Agni, the priest who is the light and the invoker of the sacrifice, whose chants bestow treasure."

"Who shake the mountains across the wavy ocean. May Agni come with the Maruts."

"All delights converge in Agni, as seven mighty streams the ocean."

"Agni, you move to the ocean of Heaven...to the waters which are beyond the luminous heaven of the Sun and to those which stand below it."

"Far far away hath Agni chased those Dasyus, and, in the east, hath turned the godless westward."

"Vaiśvānara the God, at the sun's setting, hath taken to himself deep-hidden treasures: Agni hath taken them from earth and heaven, from the sea under and the sea above us."

"All delights converge in Agni, as seven mighty streams into the ocean (I.71.7)."

"Oh Agni, for your firm law our words like cattle are spoken, as rivers to the sea (VIII.44.25).24"

"Agni, whose vesture is the ocean. (VIII. 102.4-6)."

"From Heaven, Agni first was born; second on Earth from us as the knower of all births; third, in the Waters as the God-mind, enkindled perpetually, those of wisdom laud him. In the ocean, in the Waters, as the God-mind, you are enkindled as the Divine vision, oh Agni, in the udder of Heaven. Standing in the third region, in the lap of the Waters, the bull has grown (X.45.1, 3)."

"Agni who possesses a sevenfold humanity is placed in all the rivers (VIII.39.8)."

"Agni the one ocean, the upholder of treasures (X.5.1)."

"Agni, your splendor that is in Heaven and on the Earth, which has entered the plants and the waters, by which the wide atmosphere is extended, it is a brilliant ocean of light. Agni, you move to the ocean of Heaven ... to the waters which are beyond the luminous heaven of the Sun and to those which stand below it (III.22.2- 3)."

"Having controlled the Nahusha people, Agni made them tribute bearers by his strength. In whose peace all people stand seeking grace according to their nature, the Universal Man sits at the supreme place of Heaven and Earth, in the lap of the parents. The Divine Fire, as the universal ruler, received the foundation treasures in the rising of the Sun. From the inferior and superior oceans, he received them, from Heaven and Earth (VII.6.5-7)."