Agni Dev : God Of Fire

AGNI DEV : GOD OF FIRE

   Agni is a sanskrit word which means fire. And in ancient texts, agni dev is considered as the god of fire.Agni dev is represented as most important god in Rigveda. Out of 1028 hymns of Rigveda, 200 hymns are dedicated for Agni. The five elements of which the earth is made and Agni is one of them.

     In Hindu culture, Agni is considered as the purest of all. As in Ramayana, to give the proof of her purity, Sita mata gave the Agni Pariksha as it is purest of all. Agni is always be the witness of auspicios event and is also a part of rituals like Birth and Death. We provide our offerings or sacrifice to gods through agni as a medium to show gratitude towards them.Fire is most important part of Vedic Rituals.

   Agni Dev is one of the important deity of all the major deities.After Devraj Indra,Agni Dev had an important place in Indra Sabha. Agni Dev is described in some texts who has one to three heads from which fire always comes out and four to  seven or eight hands and have three legs, riding a ram.

   According to Agnipurana, it is believed that the god of fire has 7 tongues which are named: Kali, Karali, Manojba, Shulohita, Dhumarvarni, Safulingi, Vishwaruchi.  It is also believed that the offerings made to the deities by fire in the yagya are divided into 7 parts which are further distributed among the deities, pitras, phantoms and those who die at a young age.

    Two heads of Agni Dev represents his beneficial and terrifying form of Agni or fire. Because if fire in his normal form  gives light and dispels darkness, provides warmth but at the same time if fire takes fierce form then it can destory everything which comes in its way.
   

Parents :

  Maharishi Kashyap ( one of the great seven sages- Saptrishis ) is father and Devi Aditi (daughter of Daksh Prajapati ) of Agni Dev- God of fire.He is one of the adityas. 

But in some places Lord Brahma is creator of Agni.

Abode :

   The abode or home of Agni Dev is Agniloka.

Mount or Vehicle :

   The mount of God of Fire is Sheep.

Consert & Children :

    Wife of Agni Dev is Svaha. She was the daughter of Daksha Prajapati and Prasuti. It is considered that Agni Dev takes offerings in form of Svaha from Yagna after which that offerings passes through Agni Dev to that deity for whom that Yagna was performed.

     Children name of Agni Dev and Devi Svaha are Pavaka, Pavamana and Suchi.

Story :

   There are various stories related to Agni Dev. One of the story related to Agni Dev is as follows:

When Agnidev became egostic:

   Once Lord Kartikeya- son of Lord Shiva gave up his post of Senapati. After this, Lord Shiva gave this post of Senapati to Agni Dev after the agreement of all other gods. When the all gods gone to heaven,Lord Shiva told Devi Parvati that if Agni Dev became egostic then everything will be in chaos.

     And it happened, Agni Dev in his ego started creating problems for other gods and started doing arbitrariness. Seeing all this, Guru Brahaspati-priest of Gods told Agni Dev to leave his ego otherwise it will be very bad for you.

   On this angry AgniDev went to Lord Shiva at kailash ( abode of Lord Shiva ) asked that why I can not take my decision independently. On which mahadev said to Agni dev that Devraj Indra is your king so you have to listen to him before taking any decision.

    Agni Dev got angry and accuses Mahadev of bias. On this Lord Shiva said to AgniDev that think about what you want to do and You have to put a restriction on your thoughts or else this thinking will destroy you.

    After this Agni Dev went to Swarglok and their he started showing his powers which was creating chaos everywhere. When other deities ask Agni Dev why he is doing this, so Agni Dev says in his defense that Mahadev has only asked me to stop my thoughts and not my powers.

   And Agni Dev challenged Devraj Indra and now I want to become Devraj. Then Devraj and Agnidev get into an argument. After that Agni Dev starts troubling the gods, as well as he starts troubling the sages and tells them that I should be considered as the best god.

   Seeing this Saptrishis went to Lord Shiva and told him that Agni Dev is ruining our Yaganas and became a problem for us. On this Lord Shiva got angry, so he made a disguise and went to Agni dev.Their was a fight between them and Mahadev easily defeated him and again explaining to him that he should use their powers in the right place,not to trouble other people.

   Taking this as his insult, Agnidev in his ego started harming peoples with his fire. On this Lord Shiva got angry and in his anger, he opened his third eye and started to consume powers of Agni Dev. All gods went to Lord Shiva and prayed to him to forgive Agni Dev. God of fire also apolozied to Lord Shiva.

      But even this does not quell the anger of Lord Shiva. Then Lord Shri Krishna prayed to Lord Shiva by which anger of mahadev subdued. In this way, Ego of Agnidev was destroyed by Lord Shiva.
   After that Agni Dev accepts his mistake and apologizes to everyone. And later he had also relinquished the post of Senapati.

                     | ॐ अग्नेय स्वाहा। इदं अग्नेय इदं न नम। |

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