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The five elements form the basis of life and the panchanga. Both are central to jyotish. These five limbs
or energies of time are the carriers of the five elements and are based on the tabulations of the positions
of Sun and Moon. Each true planet: Mars, Venus, Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter carries the energy of one
of the five elements: fire, water, air, earth and space (akash). (Sun is a star, Moon is a satellite, Rahu
and Ketu are eclipse points)
The first element, fire (agni), has a physical, mental and spiritual aspect.
In the spiritual sense, Vedic people worshiped Agni as a god. He is the brother of Indra (lord of the
heavens and leader of the devas), the most powerful god from antiquity…
The first word of the canonical Rig Veda (Sukta 1.1) is appealing to Agni: aghnimīḷe purohitaṃ
yajñasya devaṃ ṛtvījam (I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice,…)
The ancient Vedic people believed that the gods are the celestial controllers who are subtle but potent
forces of nature and only through Agni can they connect with them (Agni Purana) by yajna (spiritual
ritual where the fire is seen as the carrier of offerings to the gods). The ancient seers (rishis) saw with
their inner eye, Agni relaying the aspirant’s prayers to the divine realms, insuring the growth and
prosperity of humanity. In this metaphysical/spiritual sense Agni digests and transforms the prayers,
mantras, hopes and desires just as physical fire consumes and transforms what it comes into contact
with.
“Any technological advance can be dangerous. Fire was dangerous from the start, and so (even more
so) was speech- and both are still dangerous to this day -but human beings would not be human
without them.”
― Isaac Asimov
Fire ignites, matter. explodes, the universes come into being (big bang)
A look at world history and events leaves little doubt that the more destructive aspect of agni
(adharma) represented by Mars (rather than the Sun) is the predominant influence on this world. Our
recorded history is mostly about conquests and war. And even attempts to promote positive intentions
and prayers in a desperate desire for peace, would often lead to inaction toward warmongers until the
only answer to save the situation was war. Our history is filled with the deeds of great heroes; warrior
leaders like Rama, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Ashoka, George Washington, Napoleon,
Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill, or wicked tyrants like Genghis Khan, Aurangzeb, Hitler, Stalin
or Mao Zedong. The greatest epics of all time, the Iliad, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are bloody
war poems, as are the battles described in the Old Testament and the Koran.
Rama and his army battle with Ravana and his forces
The more recent history of humanity is also a string of wars and conquests with every inch of territory
and every scrap of property changing hands multiple times after varying degrees of bloodshed. It is no
wonder with Mars ruling land and property.
By comparison, out poets, musicians, scientists, industrial giants, inventors and researchers occupy a
much smaller page in our history, right next to the saints, reformers and founders of religions. And even
the best intentioned religions were often harassed by followers of competitive schools of thought which
in itself ended up causing many wars.
In other limbs of the panchanga ruled by other elements agni also plays a role. For instance in the limb
ruled by water (jala) called tithi (phase of the Moon, there are 15 tithis each with a ruling deity), Agni
initiates the tithi scheme by ruling the first one. Nakshatras, the limb ruled by the air element, also has
Agni ruling the nakshatra Krittika, the first nakshatra of the earliest lunar zodiac.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvaveda).
Ps. Thank you for reading… feedback, comments, corrections, constructive criticism (I have Venus in
Krittika , I can handle it as long as it is well meaning please) . I hope to be adding more as I learn more
about the nakshatras particularly Krittika.