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Writer's pictureGautham Bodepudi

Can Ayurveda help us understand Agnihotra? Part IV

In parts I, II, and III [hyperlink for each] we see that Agni is a fundamental force that drives all metabolic and energetic processes in the body, as well as in nature. Jataragni is the body’s digestive fire and the major agni of the body that regulates all micro agnis at the cellular level. Nature’s analogous Jataragni is Yajna. By making offerings to a specially-prepared fire in conjunction with Mantra, in attunement to biorhythms of nature, we nourish and replenish nature. Looking to Vedic references, we see that Yajna is the force that sustains balance between humanity and nature.


Going further, we can begin to understand how Yajna negates the harmful effects of pollution.


Within the body, when Jataragni is not functioning properly, then food is not broken down properly and nutrients cannot be absorbed by cells. Undigested food particles, called ama, accumulate in the body and create toxicity build up.


Ama in the body is analogous to toxicity of the environment, i.e., pollution. When Yajna is not performed, then nature’s ability to process and mitigate pollution is weakened, and environmental toxicity builds up. We see this with atmospheric radiation, pesticide runoff, and industrial waste.


Can this be verified through scientific experiments? Two interesting studies illustrate how the ash remaining after Agnihotra impacts different types of pollutants.


At the Physics Institute of Academy of Science, Kiev (former Soviet Union, now Ukraine), scientists received radioactive rice from the Fukushima region for testing. They measured the level of radioactivity, then put the rice in Agnihotra ash water and repeated their measurements daily. After three days the radioactivity began to decrease, and after ten days they only measured background radioactivity.


Nuclear radiation would typically take several years to several thousands of years to decay. But in this case, this process occurred within 10 days. Exposing the nuclear radiated rice to Agnihotra ash accelerated the decay of nuclear radiation.


Fergusson College performed another experiment on colchicine, a genotoxic substance. They added colchicine to a first beaker of water and, in a second beaker, they added colchicine to a mixture of Agnihotra ash and water. They placed an onion on top of each of the beakers.




In the first case, the onion rootlets did not grow. But in the beaker with Agnihotra Ash, long roots developed.


In the experiments above, the Agnihotra ash in water neutralized both nuclear radioactivity of rice and the genotoxic effect of colchicine on the onion rootlets.


This could help explain how Agnihotra heals the atmosphere and environment. Performing Agnihotra strengthens nature’s ability to process and mitigate environmental pollution.







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