Dear Friends,

During these winter months where I've been making a nightly fire to stare into and keep warm I became curious about textual references to the use of fire.
I'm generally wondering if there is any focused discussion around the following
verses in Manusmṛti pertaining to permitted uses of fire? I find this collection of verses interesting.

In 6.4 the 'forest dweller' is permitted to take
1 sacrificial fire and utensils with him.
In 6.23 he is instructed to use 5 fires and endure pañcatapa during summer.
In 6.23 he is instructed to increase the level of discomfort, leading to
the instruction in 6.25 to internalise the 3 sacred fires and then subsist without fire (he brought from home).

agnihotraṃ samādāya gṛhyaṃ cāgniparicchadam
grāmād araṇyaṃ niḥsṛtya nivasen niyatendriyaḥ // Manu_6.4

grīṣme pañcatapās tu syād varṣāsv abhrāvakāśikaḥ
ārdravāsās tu hemante kramaśo vardhayaṃs tapaḥ // Manu_6.23

upaspṛśaṃs triṣavaṇaṃ pitṝn devāṃś ca tarpayet
tapaś caraṃś cogrataraṃ śoṣayed deham ātmanaḥ // Manu_6.24

agnīn ātmani vaitānān samāropya yathāvidhi
anagnir aniketaḥ syān munir mūlaphalāśanaḥ // Manu_6.25

I'm specifically wondering if there is instruction made explicit (somewhere) about the route through which fire is internalised and how one might measure success of the process by which internalisation occurs.

Thank you.


All the best,

パトリック マッカートニー
Patrick McCartney, PhD
Research Affiliate - Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD), Kyoto
Research Associate - Nanzan University Anthropological Institute, Nagoya, Japan
Visiting Fellow - South and South-east Asian Studies Department, Australian National University
Member - South Asia Research Institute (SARI), Australian National University

Skype / Zoom - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp + Line:  +61410644259
Twitter - @psdmccartney @yogascapesinjap

bodhapūrvam calema ;-)