Why is there creation? Because of friction. Without friction there is no creation. And whenever there is friction, there is FIRE. You can't produce fire without friction. No, unless you take it directly from the sun, using a magnifying glass for instance. Fire is created for Vedic sacrifices by friction, by rubbling two sticks together, much as the American Indians used to do.
Friction may possess an excess of any of the three Gunas: Tamas, Rajas or Sattva (the three "gunas" are an important part of the Sankhya philosphy, where the material world is classified into these three "gunas" or three tendencies of conciousness manifested through the mind. Sattva is equilibrium, Rajas is activity and Tamas is inertia. The mind fluctuates among these three states continually until, by dint of sadhana it is brought under control and focussed on a single point). "Tamasic" friction is argument, discord between people. It creates fiery emotions like hatred, anger, revenge and violent frenzy. "Rajasic" friction is sex, which is due to the fire of lust. The Upanishads explain that the woman is herself the fire, the penis is the fuel and the pubic hair - the smoke. The vulva embodies the flames, the friction is the coals, and the pleasure is the sparks. This is much better than the tamasic friction because the two people who are involved in the act of sex atleast derive some pleasure out of it...even if it is momentory...and unlike the case in tamasic friction, which only brings forth complete negativity. But what gets created out of the act of sex is more lust and children! "Sattvic" friction, which is "sadhana", is the best of all. When you perform sadhana, you are working against your all your old tendencies and habits caused by the karmas of the millions of births that you have taken. This is bound to produce friction and you will heat up. The word for penance, tapas, literrally means heat. I have read this about people who do deep meditation or mantra recitations...actually feel their body heating up and at times there is a physical manifestation of the same outwardly through burning sensations and reddening of their skin around the chest and throat areas.
Enlightenment is achieved by the "burning" of your karmas through tapas. When you do plenty of penance your mind heats up and you become irritable. During such times (when you are doing plenty of penance, that is), if you indulge in sex or lust their fire will burn away the shakti that you have accumulated, but if you follow on your vows and control your temper and your passion, the resultant enlightenment will make the whole thing worthwhile. Remember that the fire's basic quality is to burn. Did you know that the fire which is the tongue burns whatever it speaks? What this means that you should always confess any nad karmas that you perform. This will free you from them, they will be "burned" up. And you should never speak about any good deeds you do, or about your spiritual experiences, because if you do, they will be destroyed just as surely. Unfortunately this is the kali yuga and most people do exactly the opposite. They hide their sins down deep in their hearts where they can't be cleaned out and they boast to everyone in sight of their accomplishments and spiritual achievements.
Fire purifies whatever it burns, but it takes on some of the qualities of whatever is offered to it. The purity of offerings extends to the wood used (each piece of wood should be inspected to make sure that there are no insects that might be cremated when it begind to burn) and also all the offerings materials that insludes clarified butter (ghee), barley, wheat, rice, seasame seeds, dry & fresh fruits, honey and sugar. Each material should be thoroughly inspected, carefully sifted and screened so as to remove dirt and insects before they are combined together in various proportions into the final offering mixture - the samagri. The choice of offerings in a homa depends on the work, both spiritual and mundane, that you have for the fire to do. Generally the offerings are sweet in nature...because we want the fire to give is mundane prosperity as well as spiritual advancement (one can add sugar cane pieces also, which is very dear to elephants. This propitiates Ganesha, who must always be propitiated first whenver you do any sort of worship. One can also use medicinal herbs, which makes the resulting ash medicinal).
Note: The homas that are done as part of the Six Rituals of Tantra - rituals performed to cause death, delusion, discord, hatred, obstruction and enchantment - are quite different. Each rituals require a specific set of mantras and even clothing. Worship materials like oil, salt, chillies and other intense, spicy substances are used.
Warning Note: Don't experiment with these rituals, terrible karma is involved and never try adding such substances in your own fire. Since you don't know what you are doing...you will end up harming yourself.
Homa: One begins the homa by remembering the "mother"...first the cosmic mother and then your own mother...after all you are here because of her. Then the family's rishi (each family has the gotra which is basically a rishi lineage...not many in the modern days remember, hence remembering the seven rishis - the sapta rishis - Pulaha, Pulastya, Devala, Asita, Kratu, Bhrigu and Angiras - is beneficial), next teh various gods and goddesses, the planets a
nd all the demigods. Some also make offerings to other benign etheral beings like the Yakshas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas and Vidyadharas, as well aso those who are more malevolent like the Brahma Rakshasas.
nd all the demigods. Some also make offerings to other benign etheral beings like the Yakshas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas and Vidyadharas, as well aso those who are more malevolent like the Brahma Rakshasas. You then turn to the fire and request it to enter your body and enkindle the bhuta agni (the Bhuta agni is the fire of the subtle body, the fire which MUST be ignited inorder to make spiritual progress). One important reason for doing homa is to awaken the bhuta agni. If you really want the fire to enter you then your 'I' must disappear, a spiritual vaccuum must be created.
After all these preliminaries are over, you request your deity to be present in the pit and then begin the offerings (samagri) alongwith the requisite mantras to propitiate the particular deity. As the homa proceeds the fire will sometimes, crackle, hiss or make other noises. This is the fire's ways of trying to talk. You need to generate/develop a certain level of subtle perception and connection with fire...before you can actually interpret what the fire is saying to you. It also tries to communicate with you in other ways. Its colour is especially significant.
Modern science has itself proved that each different colour of light has a different effect on the body and the mind, by stimulating the pituitary, pineal and hypothalamus, which then influences the rest of the organism. One colour may cause anger, another joy and the third may improve concentration. When you get close to the fire and embrace it (mentally), you offer yourself to it and it enters you. Then the external fire acts as a barometer of the workings of the internal spiritual fire, the bhuta agni. One must bring the bhuta agni under complete control, before even thinking of controlling the external physical fire.
When you are finished with the number of offerings, which you plan to make, at the end of the homa, one must put a coconut into the fire. The coconut represents the worshipper's head, with its three eyes. Also it is full of water, just as the head is full of blood, cerebrospinal fluid and glandular secretions. When you offer the coconut, it represents that you are offering you are offering your entire conciousness to the fire with the request that it be transmitted into a divine conciousness (you offer your own head to replace it with a divine head). Then you bow to the fire and request the deity to return to His or Her home...after that the homa is completed. One must sit near the fire for sometime and try to commune with it.
Always rememer, fire is a living being. Once you bring it to life you are responsible for it. For example, you don't dare smother it any more than you would dare to smother any other living being. Hence you must permit it to die out by itself. Don't smother it with milk or water...as many people do. After you collect the ash...wash the place of ritual so that nobody steps on some ash remnants accidentally, and any ash that you don't use should be disposed off in flowing water - like a stream, river or an ocean and not a drainage ditch! And one other thing, it seems like the fire is about to go out during your homa, don't blow on it directly. Always blow on the palm of your hand abd that sir fall into the fire.
Always rememer, fire is a living being. Once you bring it to life you are responsible for it. For example, you don't dare smother it any more than you would dare to smother any other living being. Hence you must permit it to die out by itself. Don't smother it with milk or water...as many people do. After you collect the ash...wash the place of ritual so that nobody steps on some ash remnants accidentally, and any ash that you don't use should be disposed off in flowing water - like a stream, river or an ocean and not a drainage ditch! And one other thing, it seems like the fire is about to go out during your homa, don't blow on it directly. Always blow on the palm of your hand abd that sir fall into the fire.
As your conciousness progresses from that of a limited human being to that of an unlimited being, you will experience all sorts of things - wonderful and apalling alike. Don't ever become attached to any of these experiences...these are mere guide posts to tell you how far you have come and how far you have yet to go!
-----------Excerpts from Aghora Part II - Kundalini, By Robert Svoboda
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