Agni - The Force of Growth and Balance

Each of the five koshas or sheaths that encase the soul has a different form of agni that is responsible for its development. Here is an overview of how the role of agni develops and balances the koshas.

• The food sheath or the annamaya kosha relates mainly to the agni of food or digestive fire. It represents the abdomen, specifically the small intestine where digestion of food occurs. Digestion provides nourishment to all the tissues in the body. The physical body is essentially a tube built around the digestive tract whose main opening is the mouth - closely linked with speech. It is important one is mindful of what goes in the mouth and what comes out of the mouth for growth and balance physically and spiritually.
• The pranic layer, pranamaya kosha relates to the agni of the heart and lungs. It connects with the solar plexus, which is below the physical pranic center. Through pranagni we digest air (prana), which gets transforms into energy. This layer is also connected with speech that is energized by the breath.
• The agni of the outer mind or the manomaya  kosha is associated with perception. This allows us to digest our sensory impressions. Mental fire is most closely associated with the eyes and speech that we form in our mind or the internal voice. Agni of the mind is how we digest our impressions of the outer world and bring them into our internal landscape. 
• The agni or fire of intelligence is the level of the vijnanamaya kosha. It is how we discriminate truth and actions of right and wrong. The fire of intelligence extracts the meaning of ideas we formulate that ultimately become our beliefs.
• The agni of bliss or the anandamaya kosha, represents the fire of love. If we are not in alignment with our spirit, this form of fire is desire. It is the flame of our deepest desires, visions and aspirations. This level of agni transforms into the bliss of our spirit from which wisdom grows of the divine.

There are two additional levels of agni, the fire of consciousness and the fire of being. This is the fire of higher knowledge or consciousness. It is the inner light. The fire of being represents existence or universal fire. It is beyond duality - it is the supreme reality.

Om!

Mary Jane - Fengshui Yoga Girl - www.fengshuiyoganj.com