Abstract
The ancient Indian medical system of Ayurveda enumerates three kinds of therapies, viz. daivavyapashraya (spiritual therapy), yuktivyapashraya (therapy based on reasoning or physical propriety i.e. administration of proper diet and medicinal drugs) and sattvavajaya chikitsa (psychic therapy). Of these, the various forms of spiritual therapy like the incantation of mantras, obeiscance to the god, observance of scriptural rules, chanting of auspicious hymns, oblations in Yagya/Agnihotra etc. have empirical powers to eradicate diseases instantaneously.
Agnihotra is the basic type of Yagya and is basically a healing process. In Agnihotra, medicines and herbs are vaporized by offering them into the sacrificial fire, and they enter the human body in a gaseous form through the nose, lungs and the pores of the skin. This might be proved to be easiest, least taxing, least risky and most effective method of administering a medicine so as to reach every single cell of the body. The technique of Agnihotra for the treatment of physical and psychic diseases does not comprise mere vaporization of the constituents or herbs to be employed, but various samidhas are offered into the sacrificial fire of Agnihotra to create the desired effects.
The herbs used in Agnihotra work on the principle of magnified potency by subtlization and sublimation. It is well known that the oral medicines consumed in gross form like tablets or powders show lesser effect as compared to those infused directly into the blood stream as intravenous injections. The same medicine if inhaled through breath and the skin pores would have many fold positive effects. The plant and herbal medicines of Ayurveda work on the above principle that finer grinding, stirring and result in greater extraction of their healing effects, as the potency of the drug increases exponentially with its subtlization and sublimation. Similarly, the coarse havan-samagri sacrificed in the Agnihotra fire is sublimated and transformed into vapor form, magnifying its potency and healing effectsPurification of environment through the medicinal vapors of the substances fumigated in Agnihotra is an obvious effect of this process. The medicinal fumes emanating from Agnihotra have been observed by researchers in the field of microbiology to be clearly bacteriolethal in nature. These eradicate bacteria and other micro-organisms, which are the root cause of many infectious diseases. Also the unique impact of mantras chanted during the process is of paramount importance. The collective chanting of mantras in adept rhythm in front of the agnihotra fire magnifies the mantra shakti exponentially and expands the mantra vibrations to greater heights in all dimensions, intensifying its therapeutic effect.
Experimental studies indicate alleviation of both physical and psychic ailments with regular practice of Agnihotra because it creates a pure, nutritional and medicinal atmosphere along with the increased level of Prana or vital energy in the immediate surroundings. On the other hand, psychosomatic diseases are even more rampant than physical diseases and they wreck the man more than the later. The stress and strain of modern life, degradation of social behavior and fall in moral values all around are contributing to their alarming increase. Recent scientific investigations have shown that these psychosomatic diseases can be cured using specific combinations of herbs and samidhas for oblation in Agnihotra fire. With further investigations under way at many places in India and abroad, very shortly this will be established as a full fledged therapeutic system in line with the other major conventional systems of medicine..
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