The ancient science of Agnihotra — the Cleansing Ceremony
Numerous efforts are being made to examine the efficacy of performing of different rituals in yajnas with the modern scientific techniques in different parts of India both on a larger as well as on a smaller scale. Such efforts of scientists have attracted the attention from other parts of the World and many such attempts are being made in different countries to measure the positive effects produced by the sacrificial rituals on the atmosphere to improve the quality of life on Earth.
A detailed account of the Performance of Agnihotra by some farmers in USA is mentioned in a book called ‘Secrets of the Soil’ by Peter Hopkins & Chris Bird, a Harper publication (1989), which contains a chapter called ‘Purified with Fire’. They give a report of a practice of Agnihotra which they term as ‘a Cleansing Ceremony with Fire’ in USA and other countries for purification of atmosphere which can bring down the negative effect of toxins in the soil as well as the radioactivity in atmosphere caused by nuclear disasters.
Further, the authors have mentioned that they received a report from a group of scientists who were experimenting to check the effects of Agnihotra in Rovini, Yugoslavia. Their interest had been aroused by the discovery that, after they had burned the required ingredients in a copper pyramid, their instruments failed to pick up radio-activity in the immediate area, an anomaly since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which irradiated, along with large parts of Europe, even their small Adriatic seaport on the Istrian peninsula in the province of Croatia. The Yogoslavs also learned that groups of Indian origin living within the borderlands of the Soviet Union who used dried cow dung to seal their huts were unaffected by the radio-active contamination. They also add that they were invited by the Soviet Union authorities to demonstrate the process of Agnihotra in the hope that it may be of value to its citizens.
The article gives a detailed account of how the mission of spreading Agnihotra to clean up the planet from toxins was started by Sri Vasant Paranjape who came to Washington DC in 1972. He had traveled all over the country, and all through South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. The local farmers who are practitioners of Agnihotra were happy everywhere, with the success of raising their crops with Agnihotra ash, or ‘miracle dust’ as they chose to call it. He has recorded that the key ingredients of Agnihotra ash are cowdung, ghee, rice and balsam or sandal wood along with an inverted copper ziggurat (an inverted pyramid with flat base). The dried cow dung is placed in an inverted copper pyramid, the size of a monk’s begging bowl stepped like a ziggurat, along with a spoonful of ghee, a handful of rice and a pinch of redolent sandalwood. This strange assortment is set ablaze to the accompaniment of mantras chanted in Sanskrit, as curling pearl-grey smoke rises from lapping red-and-blue flames to purify the surrounding atmosphere, miraculously increasing the quantity and quality of fruits and vegetables grown in the area.
The main object of the exercise, according to Mr. Brown, an ardent follower of Agnihotra is to heal and improve the land rather than pollute and destroy it with chemical poisons and thoughtless farming practices. He explains the vedic technique of yajna as a process of purificiation of the atmosphere through the agency of Fire. The yajna is tuned to rhythms of Nature to radiation effects, to astronomical combination. He says that ‘it injects nutrients into the atmosphere. The smoke gathers particles of harmful radiation in the atmosphere and neutralizes their effect at a subtle level. Nothing is destroyed, only changed. A powerful change takes place in Universal prana — the Life Energy that pulsated through us and connects us with the cosmos- creating a healing effect on body and mind. It also leads to a better absorption of the Sun’s rays by the water resources of planet. Fire produces out of a normal state of matter an ideal state, which allows energy transformation at a different level. Bursts of Energy emanate from the Agnihotra depending on the phase of the Moon and the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun.’
