Astrology & Spirituality Resources

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What is Yoga

The literal meaning of “yoga” is “merging two into one”. Yoga is well-known today as a system of physical postures and breathing exercises that promote physical well-being and calmness of mind. That is only the outer meaning and purpose of yoga. The real meaning of yoga is to uncover the divine within one’s consciousness and merge the individual consciousness with cosmic consciousness. For that, physical well-being and mental calmness are useful but not sufficient. There is more to yoga than physical postures and breathing exercises.

Fire and Divinity

Fire is the creative, purifying and transformational agent. Fire represents energy. Modern forms of energy such as electricity and inner forms such as psychic energy that facilitates perceptions, thoughts and emotions and nerve currents that enable all sensory experiences, are all different manifestations of fire. Fire in its various forms runs the universe and is essential for various life processes within us, at the physical, mental and spiritual levels.

No wonder fire is considered sacred and a connection to divinity, in several religions. Hindus, Zoroastrians, ancient Greco-Romans, Buddhists and native Americans are some groups that are known to have treated fire as sacred and worshipped god in fire.

In Judiasm and Christiantiy also, sacred fire is maintained in candles at synagogues and churches. Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses by god in the form of a “pillar of fire” atop Mount Sinai. Menorah with 7 lamps is an important component of Judaism. In Judaism, Korban Olah or whole offering consisted of completely burning animals in the mizbe’ah or altar. Altars for fire offerings were constructed by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.

New Testament refers to baptism with fire. John the Baptist says, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I – He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (MATTHEW 3:11). Purification with fire is superior to purification with water. Note that fire is clubbed with Holy Spirit here. Also in other places in New Testament, Holy Spirit is mentioned to manifest as “tongues of flame”.

Fire Yoga

Fire connects the physical world to the spiritual world. Fire is a representative of god on earth. It is an energy form that one can see with eyes and feel.

One can use an external fire to enkindle the internal fire, by resonance. When the internal fire burns brightly, it burns bad qualities and weaknesses inside one and purifies one. It prepares individual consciousness for a communion with the cosmic consciousness (yoga) and a long-lasting divine bliss. That is Fire Yoga.

One can visualize divine presence in fire and offer materials and thoughts into fire. By resonance, external fire will enkindle internal fire. That will enhance one’s concentration, mental focus and peace. It is a fast track for connecting with the divine, burning impurities in one’s individual consciousness, accelerating internal transformation and merging the individual consciousness with cosmic consciousness someday.

Fire reduces everything it comes in contact with to a common substance, i.e. ash. Similarly the internal fire of wisdom that burns inside us reduces all objects perceived by one’s mind to a common substance, i.e. the underlying divinity in all of us. When that happens, one’s mind is filled with peace and bliss. Though the internal fire of wisdom does not burn well in most people, it can be made to burn stronger through fire yoga. Internal fire resonates to the external fire and gets strengthened over time due to fire yoga.

Even 20 minutes spent every day – or an hour or two every week – in front of fire with a sense of sacredness and reverence can make a lot of difference to one’s state of mind and make it more focused, calm and peaceful over time. The proof of the pudding is in eating it. One can try it and see for oneself what it can do.

Religion and Fire Yoga

Fire yoga is religion agnostic. The sacredness of fire and the ability of fire to purify one’s consciousness is universal. As shown above, seers of several religions used fire to purify themselves and reach god.

If one is open to trying fire yoga, one need not worry about whether one’s god can be reached through fire or not. People have the notion that there are different gods who created different people. But the fact is that one god created this whole universe and god is beyond forms, beyond knowing, beyond understanding and beyond describing. People who have experienced different aspects of this one god have given different names and descriptions and different paths to reach god.

Despite the existence of many religions and many notions of god today, one thing we can declare confidently is that god is one and all religions are different attempts to reach that one god or cosmic consciousness. Infinite god cannot be captured completely by anything finite, including religion. God can be realized only though internal experience and not through reading books or intellectual discussions or hearing about someone else’s description of god.

Fire yoga is an accelerated method to bring internal transformation and uncover the divine within. It is not without reason that fire is considered sacred in many religions and cultures and used as a medium to connect with the divine. However, one need not jettison one’s own Faith and concept of god in order to take advantage of fire yoga and approach god via the medium of fire.

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Bottomline

Worshipping god in fire is an accelerated method to bring internal transformation and approach the divine within. It is not without reason that fire is considered sacred in many religions and cultures and used as a medium to connect with the divine. One can stick to one’s own Faith and concept of god and yet take advantage of fire yoga and approach god via the medium of fire.

Fire yoga first brings calmness and balance to mind, it then control various mental weaknesses and burns impurities in consciousness. Eventually, when one is ready, individual consciousness is merged with cosmic consciousness.

The proof of the pudding is in eating it. One can try Fire Yoga for a few weeks and see for oneself what it does to one’s mental state.