What is Agni?? - Part 4

As we have seen previously about gross digestion (jatharagni)and subtle digestion(dhatvagni). Now we will take a look at bhootagni.

To understand this concept, let us first understand what mahabhootas really are.

According to the Indian knowledge system, the complete universe is made up of 5 elements or mahabhootas which are :

1.        Akash (space)
2.      Vayu (wind)
3.        Agni (fire)
4.        Jala (water)
5.        Prithvi (Earth)

The first principle of ayurveda says that the macrocosm and the microcosm are exactly similar thus suggesting that every element present in the universe is present in the human body.

In the human body there are 5 sense organs (indriyas) i.e. Shrotendriya(hearing), sparshanendriya(touch), chakshurendriya(sight), rasendriya(taste) and ghranendriya(olfaction) which operate only due to these 5 elements.

*These indriyas are not present in the eyes, nose, ears, skin and tongue, but are present in the brain!!! The eyes etc. are only the medias through which they operate. They are nothing but specialized mirrors who reflect the surroundings.

For people in the study of ayurveda or of Darshana Shashtra know of a controversy between Ayurveda and Samkhya darshan. For those who do not know this, let me explain in short.

According to Samkhya Darshana, Indriyas have their origin from Ahamkara (which later on forms mahabhutas as well) and according to Ayurveda, the indriyas originate from the mahabhutas and not from Ahamkara.

Now, this controversy brought me to a sort of dilemma. One one hand, I had complete faith in ayurveda and its arguments made a lot of sense, but on the other hand, what samkhya darshan said also seemed true and its arguments made sense too. The question that put me in a dilemma was that how can 2 seers contradict each other?? Either one of them is wrong, or that in essence both are saying the same thing, but at 2 different levels. More often than not, the latter prevails. I needed my question to be answered, thus I tried to find a connection in both these seemingly non-coherent theories, and to my surprise I found that what both of them say is completely and totally one and the same, just explained on a different level.

Thus, let me try and explain this connection and thus give us a better idea of the nature of existence of these indriyas.

This is really important to understand if we want to understand what bhootagni really is and how it can be manipulated and tapped into for our spiritual advancement.

According to me, Indriyas are in 2 forms just like mahabhootas. There is a parmanu rupa and a karya rupa. Or put in other words, there is a potentially complete Indriya(paramanu rupa) and an incomplete Indriya (which may or may not be going towards completeness) (karya rupa). So the potentially complete Indriya is always present in all beings, be it humans, animals, insects, birds, etc. This is developed from Ahamkara or individualization factor.

Every being is complete potentially and thus every Indriya also has to be complete potentially.

This potential completeness is definitely developed from ahamkara, which is present in all beings. Samkhya explains the completeness of the universe, hence every aspect of it must be taken as potential and not as what has been extracted from it.

Thus this explains the Samkhya Darshan’s standpoint of indriyas i.e that they are complete and have emerged from ahamkara and are present in all beings.

The Samkya Tree showing the formation of Indriyas from Ahamkara

Now to explain what ayurveda says:

According to Ayurveda (charak and sushruta, both):

They say that Indriyas are developed from mahabhutas or from the 5 elements and they have given explanations for the same. One of them is that it shows that the sense organs develop and improve or worsen depending on what you consume, thus proving that when u eat food containing of mahabhootas, u affect ur indriya’s strength, so even indriyas must be made up of mahabhootas. This argument and many such make tremendous amount of sense.

This theory had to be proposed, because if ayurveda accepted that indriyas are ahamkarika, then ayurveda could not treat it, because ego cannot be treated upon by any medicine.

But, what ayurveda really does is that it acts upon the perceptibility of the indriyas and not on the indriyas itself. Herein lies the main difference. Let me try to explain it better.

Ayurveda acts to improve Indriya “perceptibility” in 2 ways:

1.         It clears out and enhances the organ(eyes, nose, etc.) and the path through which the impulse is transmitted, thus improving perceptibility.
2.         It energizes the cortices of the brain responsible for perception, thus improving the perceptibility, but it cannot change or alter the potential of the Indriya.

So, the controversy is only on the superficial level. It is like this: One person says that a tree emerges from the parent tree and the other says that it emerges from the seed.  Or its like saying that every human is complete and someone else removes defects from a person. We must understand that what is said is said in “potential” terms and not in current terms.

Thus, both ayurveda and samkhya, according to me seem totally correct and co-herent, but we need to understand the essence and the context in which this was spoken and debated upon.

I have tried to get this controversy clear, because if we do not understand this, then explaining bhootagni will only entangle your concepts further.

I hope I have done justice to this blog. Please give your ideas and comments so that I may be encouraged or corrected, in both cases, I will be benefitted. In my next blog I will explain what Bhootagni is and how it functions and how it can be practically used and manipulated so as to increase our spiritual growth.