| Next we read about stirring man to pleasure and great joy, a trait of the mushroom. Further, Agni is associated with floods and forest. He lays upon high surfaces. Agni is known to declare to mortal men the mysteries. He is wise, knows law and is truthful. When one consumes the mushroom, goodness and truth become very important dictates to the soul. Righteousness becomes a very desirable trait: (4) Whate’er he meets he grasps and then runs farther on, and straightway, newly born, creeps forward with his kin. He stirs the wearied man to pleasure and great joy what time the longing gifts approach him as he comes. (5) He is a wild thing of the flood and forest: he hath been laid upon the highest surface. He hath declared the lore of works to mortals, Agni the Wise, for he knows Law, the Truthful. (RV1) Hymn CXLV. Agni In the next hymn, Agni is described as having seven rays and three heads. In later Greek myth, Hecate is also known as a triple headed deity. These usually relate to magi and magical numbers. It could be the group of mushrooms that grow up together in a cluster or it could relate to the number which should be consumed: (1) I LAUD the seven-rayed, the triple-headed, Agni all-perfect in his Parents’ bosom, Sunk in the lap of all that moves and moves not, him who hath filled all luminous realms of heaven. (RV1) Hymn CXLVI. Agni In the next hymn, we have the description of shining once again, but this time it relates also to the word glory which we find in later Christian writings. The mushroom is born from rain, and therefore, water is its most primal element. In this case, it is birthed from waters. The first appearance of A. muscaria is that of an egg or stone, and mushrooms have the ability to “grow right up through stone or concrete,” or anywhere its finer mycelial network can reach. Additionally, it is birthed from forest trees, as in the A. muscaria variety: (1). THOU, Agni, shining in thy glory through the days, art brought to life from out the waters, from the stone: From out the forest trees and herbs that grow on ground, thou, Sovran Lord of men art generated pure. (RV2) Hymn I. Agni. In the next hymn, we hear Agni referred to as the red pillar, red in color, an immortal god who knows all. Another interesting part of this hymn is the burnt grass of the Asvins, which we will address shortly: (3) Lay this with care on that which lies extended: straight hath she borne the Steer when made prolific. With his red pillar—radiant is his splendour—in our skilled task is born the Son of Iḷā. (6) When with their arms they rub him straight he shineth forth like a strong courser, red in colour, in the wood. Bright, checkless, as it were upon the Aśvins' path, he passeth by the stones and burneth up the grass. |
(7) Agni shines forth when born, observant, mighty, the bountiful, the Singer praised by sages; Whom, as adorable and knowing all things, Gods set at solemn rites as offering-bearer. (13) Mortals have brought to life the God Immortal, the Conqueror with mighty jaws, unfailing. The sisters ten, unwedded and united, together grasp the Babe, the new-born Infant. (14) Served by the seven priests, he shone forth from ancient time, when in his Mother's bosom, in her lap, he glowed. Giving delight each day he closeth not his eye, since from the Asura's body he was brought to life. (RV3) Hymn XXIX. Agni In the next hymn the interesting part to notice is the connection between the cows and some secret which the cows possess which Agni guards: (3) The Maruts deck their beauty for thy glory, yea, Rudra! for thy birth fair, brightly-coloured. That which was fixed as Viṣṇu's loftiest station—there with the secret of the Cows thou guardest. (RV-5) Hymn III. Agni In the next hymn we read about two prevalent themes of the mushroom, both the archer and bow and arrows and the bird who makes his nest in the tree, usually above the serpent at its base. Agni is also compared here to Mitra, who becomes Mithra in Persian lore, another mushroom deity with similar traits: (3) Bright God, whose look is free from stain like Sūrya's, thou, swift, what time thou earnestly desirest, Hast gear to give us. Come with joy at evening, where, Child of Wood, thou mayest also tarry. (5) Archer-like, fain to shoot, he sets his arrow, and wets his splendour like the edge of iron: The messenger of night with brilliant pathway, like a tree-roosting bird of rapid pinion. (6) In beams of morn he clothes him like the singer, and bright as Mitra with his splendour crackles. Red in the night, by day the men's possession: red, he belongs to men by day, Immortal. (RV-VI) Hymn III. Agni Rudra is one of the main Vedic deities, along with Indra, Agni, Varuna, the Maruts, the Asvins and the Visvedevas in the Rig Veda, though he is not mentioned all that often. One translation of his name is “the roarer.” Another interpretation is suggested by Prof. Pischel derives Rudra as the “red one,” the “brilliant one” from a lost root rud-, “red” or “ruddy.” (31) Rudra’s epithets include “the archer” and the arrow is an important attribute of his. (32) (31) Griffith, Ralph T. H. (1973). the Hymns of the Ṛgveda. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass (32) Kramrisch, Stella (1981). The Presence of Śiva. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press |