Fire is life , the elanvital, the
driving energy of the cosmos. Fire is the only element which goes up. It gives
light and heat. In Hindu mythology fire
is born out of water. The fire-breathing Mare moving on seabeds symbolises the
potential force of Doomsday. The golden seed of Agni in the cosmic waters ’to
hatch into the universe’. The Vedas , Satapatha
Brahmana clearly suggest that fire is born of water. The seed is fire and
the womb is water. The whole of creation mostly centres round fire and water.
Fire is male water is female: the universe is created by their union. Fire
symbolizes power, energy, creativity and vitality. Water symbolizes fertility, immortality,
peace and creative powers. In Hindu symbolism Shiva is both fire and water.
Shiva is born from the golden egg in water. His dances- Lasya and Tandava-
therefore are the artistic manifestations of fire and water. Fire burns and is
terrible, water harmonizes and sustains. The figure or image of Shiva is the archetypal
metaphor. His interior is hot and fiery. Because of this kind of interior he
could swallow the poison that came out of the churning of the sea. But on his
head he wears ganga and the moon. Shiva is more powerful than other gods as he
maintains the spiritual equilibrium between fire and water, death and life,
creation and destruction.
Fire is of two forms for most
Indians. Fire is love and sex, Kama;
it is also lust and destruction. The other form is the energy of meditation
–tapas. Meditation controls the energy of sexual drive and becomes in turn
another potent energy. Asceticism, chastity, renunciation are as powerful as
sexual energy. Mahatma Gandhi is a case in point. He was not an ascetic in the mystical sense.
He was a true ascetic as his self – control, abstinence, love of truth and
saint like devotion to ideals of life made him a powerful being of whom the
powerful British empire was mortally afraid. The power of chastity has always
been glorified in our literature. Those who master the art of saying no to
their desires are definitely powerful. Renunciation and service of the poor and
helpless are also the power of tapas. The word tapas means heat and this heat
is more potent than kama or the sex drive. In the 20th century if we
saw the great Mahatma, we also saw Mother Teresa. In the vedic civilization the
saints practising asceticism were as powerful as Indra, the king of heaven.
Indra had fire as kama , which includes heroism and the power of a great
warrior. Fire is like the Sun and Moon in the sky, mutually complementing
life and the cosmic energy.
The Greeks thought fire was the
exclusive property of heaven. Prometheus who stole fire and gave it to the heathens,
therefore, was cursed and punished and his brother Atlas is still seen even
today, holding the Globe (like Vasuki) in their myths. Fire is divine for it
gives more light than heat if the people know how to use it. Fire is
simultaneously the creator and the destroyer. Balancing fire in life is the
most urgent need in the Human world.
Fire is also a purifier like
water. It purges the body and mind. Fire as purifier, destroyer, redeemer and
energizer sustainer as well as that consumes like time’s agency has entered in
a big way all human society. Love and sex are always described through fire imagery.
When desire is inflamed men and women, passion –struck, climb mountains and
swim oceans. The fire in the belly makes human beings great achievers.
Athletes, sportspersons, thinkers and infact even politicians of all hues are
motivated by the fire within to win, conquer, rule and reign. Fire power is the
measuring rod of military might. Often we say- he made a fiery speech and set
all hearts afire. Someone is a firebrand politician or someone has the fire in
him to fight till the end.
But fire that burns and consigns
things to ashes is to be contained. Fire also emits light and gives life. Shakespeare‘s
Othello in his soliloquy before he ‘sacrifices’ Desdemona uses “Promethean heat”
which may relume the life of his love: but he by another fire, the fire of
jealousy, extinguishes D’s light of life.
Light is life. It stems from fire
but it redeems and prolongs life. What we need today is light: the light of
love to enkindle all avenues of life, not the fire which singes and kills with
pain. Fire should be worshiped as light to brighten things not to darken all
luminous values.
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