HYMNS ON AGNI

21. YASTVA DOSHAYA USHASI PRESAMSAD

PRIYAMVA TVA KRUNVATHE HAVISHMAAN

ASVONASVE DAMA AA EMYAVAN

TAMAM HASAHA PIPARO DASVANSVAM

Oh Lord Agni! Some worship you during the dawn hours. Some others worship you during the dusk hours. Like the domesticated horse you move in their houses during the day & night and protect them from every misfortune.

Commentary:

The domesticated horse is the horse that lives within the house of the owner. The horse is an animal that does not sleep like other animals or human beings. It only rests but does not sleep. That is why for horses stables are built. Horse is an animal that is filled with life up to the brim. So alert and active is its life that is ever wakeful. The hymn here symbolically speaks of the life force within the human body. The human body is the dwelling place and the human is the indweller. The life in the body is active during the day and during the night. Even when the human experiences sleep the life continues to be at work. Life pulsations function day & night and the basis for such continuous pulsating activity in ones body is Agni. The Vedas call this aspect of Agni as fire of life, Pranaagni.

Departure of life is considered misfortune. Because the indweller can no more dwell in the body and fulfil the purposes of incarnation. Failure to fulfil the life purpose is also a misfortune. Worshiping Pranaagni enables restoration of life. Hence this hymn.

"SEVEN TIMES SEVEN THE WHEEL ROTATES"