[In the Veda] Agni is plainly the God of Fire.1
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Without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.2
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There are many forms of Agni, — the solar fire, the vaidyuta [electrical] fire and the nether fire are one Trinity — the fivefold fire is part of the Vedic symbolism of sacrifice.3
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it is a fact that Agni is the basis of forms as the Sankhya pointed out long ago, i.e. the fiery principle in its three powers radiant, electric and gaseous (the Vedic trinity of Agni) is the agent in producing liquid and solid forms of what is called matter.4
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As for the heat, it must be the heat of Agni, the fire of purification and tapasya; it often feels like that when the inner work is going on.5
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There is the vast peace and silence and in that the Force or the Will works to do what is necessary — in that also is the action of Agni or the psychic.6
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In the very first verse of the Rig Veda Agni is described as being himself the Purohit, the priest representative of the householder sacrificer, Yajamana, as the Ritwik, the one who saw to the arrangement of the rites, the Hota who invoked the Gods and gave the offering, and in other hymns he is spoken of as the priest of the purification, the priest of the lustration etc.7
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When the Rishis speak of Indra or Agni or Soma in men, they are speaking of the god in his cosmic presence, power or function. This is evident from the very language when they speak of Agni as the immortal in mortals, the immortal Light in man, the inner Warrior, the The Veda and the Upanishads Guest in human beings.8
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Agni is the psychic fire — it is not the Divine Presence.9
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When it burns in the heart, it is the fire in the psychic. The psychic fire is individual and takes usually the form of a fire of aspiration or personal tapasya. This Fire is universal and it came from above.10
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The psychic fire may burn in the vital. It all depends on whether it is the fire of the general Force that comes from above or the fire of your soul’s aspiration and tapasya.11
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All that [fire in the heart and elsewhere] is simply the burning of the Agni in various parts of the being. It prepares it for transformation.12
~ Sri Aurobindo
References:
- CWSA Vol. 14, Vedic and Philological Studies, P: 190
- CWSA Vol. 15, Page: 379-80
- CWSA Vol. 28, Letters on Yoga-I, P: 458
- CWSA Vol. 28, Letters on Yoga-I, P: 386
- CWSA Vol. 29, Letters on Yoga-II, P: 162
- CWSA Vol. 29, Letters on Yoga-II, P: 271
- CWSA Vol. 29, Letters on Yoga-II, P: 418
- CWSA Vol. 29, Letters on Yoga-II, P: 420-21
- CWSA Vol. 30, Letters on Yoga-III, P: 374
- CWSA Vol. 30, Letters on Yoga-III, P: 373
- CWSA Vol. 30, Letters on Yoga-III, P: 373
- CWSA Vol. 30, Letters on Yoga-III, P: 373