Jaṭharāgni
Jaṭharāgni · jaṭhara-agni, “the fire in the belly”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of jaṭhara (the belly, the stomach) and agni (fire): “the fire of the belly”.
Meaning: the fire of digestion within the body, which cooks the food that is eaten and is the support of a man’s strength.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa speaks of the jaṭharāgni in the daily rite, in Āyurveda and in the science of sound.
- Before eating: first one does ācamana (sipping water). Then, adding “Oṃ” before and “svāhā” after the names prāṇa and the rest, one takes five āhutis (offerings) of the food. Having thus kindled the jaṭharāgni, one eats (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 77).
- By the Ṛgveda: Pushkara, teaching Paraśurāma the Ṛgvidhāna, says that one who recites the ṛk “Havishpāntam” is freed of pāpa, his diseases perish, and his jaṭharāgni grows (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 259).
- In Āyurveda: Dhanvantari teaches Suśruta that āhāra-śuddhi (purity of food) is needed to protect, increase and purify the jaṭharāgni, for agni alone is the root support of a man’s strength. One should eat what is wholesome, in measure, and only after what was eaten before is digested (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 281).
- In the rise of speech: Agnideva, teaching śikshā, tells how speech arises. The ātmā, thinking over things with the buddhi, joins with the manas through the wish to speak. The manas strikes the jaṭharāgni; the jaṭharāgni impels the vāyu; and the prāṇa-vāyu, moving in the heart, the throat and the head, brings forth the low, middle and high svaras (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 336).
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Bhagavān Kapila, teaching his mother Devahūti, says that bhakti is greater even than yoga-siddhi: as the jaṭharāgni burns up food that has been eaten, bhakti swiftly burns to ash the liṅga-śarīra, the subtle body, which is the heap of the jīva’s karma-saṃskāras (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 25).
In the same teaching he describes the man who clings to his house into old age: he eats the food his people throw before him as to a dog; from indigestion his jaṭharāgni grows weak, he eats only a little, his strength fails, and he lies in one place waiting for death (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 30). And the jīva in the mother’s womb, given knowledge of its past births, prays to the Deva who dwells in all beings as the antaryāmin: “I lie in the belly of another embodied one, in a well of blood, urine and faeces. This jaṭharāgni burns me greatly. Wishing to get out, I am counting the months. When will you bring me out?” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 31).
Of the two sons born to Pulastya in his wife Havirbhū, Agastya and Viśravas, Agastya in his next birth became the jaṭharāgni, the fire of digestion (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 1).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa: Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, telling Yudhishṭhira of the sorrow of birth, says that the heat of the jaṭharāgni in the womb gives the pain of being bound to a heated iron pillar (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 4).
Related terms: Agni · Prāṇa · Prāṇa-āhuti · Āhāra · Śikshā
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 77, 259, 281, 336
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 25, 30–31; Skandha 4, Chapter 1
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 4