As I write this epistle, a grey winter day is clamping down, with fog swirling in. People are hurrying home pulling their woollies closer. Here and there, orange flames break the fast-falling darkness as the destitute and the homeless make futile efforts to survive another night in the freezing open.
Even in these days of room heaters, the mere thought of a merry, crackling fire leaping upwards warms your cockles. No wonder the English builtsuch splendid fire places in their sprawling bungalows. Fire has significance in the history of humanity hardly accorded to any other natural phenomenon. The discovery of making and controlling fire changed the life of the primitive man radically.The use of fire instantly differentiated Man from the other living beings and brought him to a higher plane. Not only could he cook food and eat it hot but the fire protected him from animals, and eventually led to his invention of weapons and tools. Of the five elements from which Srishti or creation has sprung, the Vedas place Agni or fire on the highest pedestal. No religious Hindu ritual is complete without Agni worship.Finally the fire becomes a conduit through which our earthly body is diffused back into the five elements wherein it was created.
Fire has been deified in many other world religions.Globally, from the earliest timesfire has been an agent ofpurity. It has been seen as a symbol of righteousness and truth. This concept can today be explained by the fact that fire burns ever-upwards and cannot itself be polluted. Zoroastrianism is associated with fire temples and fire worship. In Greek mythology Prometheus the Titian was punished by the Gods for stealing fire for the Humans, because it had made the Gods so powerful that they did not want to share fire.Fire is a repetitive motif in the old Testament, such as the ‘pillar of fire’ or a ‘bush bursting into fire’ at allegorical moments.Candles are lighted with prayers in the church anddiyasburning for the pirbabas is a common sight.
Fire stands for effulgence and illumination. To be alive, we need heat provided by fire that warms our hearts, moves our body, quickens our mind and lifts our spirits.At the same time, fire symbolizes anger and aggression and if misused, nothing has such potential for destruction. Much of human suffering today, such global warming, war, violence, and crime is due to Man’s misuse of fire. As in Nature, so within us, human sufferings are due to our ignorance and mental afflictions of greed and selfishness. To purify our mind we need the heat or fire of tapa. With faith, fire can take humanity to divinity. Instead of misusing fire let’s use it to communicate between our inner and outer worlds and thus establish a connect with the Almighty.
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