The five Fires

Chandogya Upanishad tells how King Pravahana taught sage Gautama the Panchagni Vidya, knowledge of the five fires, said M.K. Srinivasan in a discourse. The first fire is svargaloka.

The sun is the samit (sacrificial stick) of this fire. The rays

of the sun are the smoke, while the day is the flame. The

moon is the ember. The stars are the sparks of this fire.

When Agnihotra is performed, the jivas become Soma raja

and enter svargaloka.

The second fire is Parjanya. For this fire, vayu or the air is

the samit. The cloud is the smoke. Lightning is the flame.

The thunderbolt is the charcoal. The roars of the fire are the

sparks. Somaraja ( jiva) is the oblation in this fire.

The third fire is the earth. For this fire, the year is the

samit. Akasa, that is the sky, is the smoke. The night is the

flame. The directions are the live charcoals. The directions

are the sparks. The oblation in this case is rain. When the

rains reach the earth, food is grown.

The fourth fire is man himself. His speech (vaak) is the

samit. His prana is smoke. His tongue is the flame. The eyes

are the live charcoals, and his ears are the sparks. Here the

oblation is food. From that food the seed of man is born.

The fifth fire is woman. The interaction between man and

woman is the live charcoal here. The small pleasures are the

sparks here. The oblation here is the seed of man, and from

this does a newborn emanate.

Thus the Chandogya Upanishad says that jivas go to

svarga, but their stay there is temporary. From there they

come down to the earth as rain and then become food,

which then gets transformed into the seed of man, resulting

in procreation. The important point to note is that while the

jiva passes through all these various stages, its essential

nature remains unchanged.