Agnihotra FAQ's

“Om” is not be chanted while saying the agnihotra mantra. Generally it is assumed that the agnihotra mantra has a religious connotation to it. It is not true.

Agnihotra is a aopasana Homa. Aopasana mean something to do with Upasana, the worshipping. It is not vedic in the real sense. Though it is from the vedic times. It is not a vedic ritual. It is veda viheet, meaning, it is outside the vedas. Anything that is done outside the vedas Om is not chanted. Because Om is a Pranava, Pranava means Father. Anybody who is doing any ritual, has to invoke his father first. Invoking the father is alright in the vedic ritual but when it comes to anything that is done outside vedic ritual, one cannot chant Om alone. Something like hari Om has to be added. The father cannot be called by name. So technically Om is not to be chanted.

Secondly the moment you chant Om, it is getting stamped with the hindu religion. Agnihotra is not something belonging to any religion. So dropping of Om happened in 1962. Till then between 1942 and 1962 it was chanted. And then it was realised that technically Om is not supposed to be chanted because there was no qualification to use Om. And in 1962 it started spreading worldwide. And the other religions started accepting the process of agnihotra much easily.

As told by Shri Ajit Telang Guru

Ideally one has to face east -west direction. That does not mean that one has to face the east all the time or west all the time. The more consistent one is, the better it is in terms of creating that energy field around that particular place. There is also tremendous impact on the life process within that space where we are performing agnihotra. So ideally one has to face east or west and then consistently sit in the same position all the time. In both the times during sunrise and sunset one can sit in the same position, one does not necessarily has to face the sun.

the north – south direction is not recommended for doing the agnihotra process, because the various geo magnetic, electro magnetic and other forces cuts through the cycles of other divine energies.

One more thing one has to remember is that the vessel has to kept in the same position every time agnihotra is performed. There is a notch provided in the vessel, taking that as a base if one maintains the same position all the time the effect of agnihotra is magnified.

The agnihotra vessel should not be cleaned at all. At most one can wipe the vessel with a clean cloth. After removing the ashes and storing it in a glass jar one can reuse the vessel as it is. No water or soap or any chemicals should be used to clean it.

This is because on those exact timings of sunrise and sunset when the first rays of the sun hits the particular place then it has a tremendous impact in terms of multiple energies coming. The whole spectrum of energy descends there and then it bounces at that point of time in the pyramidal effect. And to get maximum out of that effect one has to do agnihotra at that point of time so that one does not miss an opportunity.

When we talk about the environment, we would like to include everything in the universe under it. Not just confining to the air and the atmosphere. Even the human existence and all space includes the environment. What agnihotra does is it basically restores the molecular structure of the environment, if we are talking of environment as atmosphere. Agnihotra restores the purity of the environment, the molecular structure of everything including the human body. It resets and restores. The “swaha” actually means, restoration. We are actually asking the fire to take the rice oblation now and restore the whole universe, reset the whole universe to the original pure form. And that is what every time the agnihotra keeps on doing. It works on 2 cycles everyday. It keeps on resetting whatever wrong has happened and balances the whole environment. And that balance is what we are looking for as a holistic phenomenon.

If a healing process is analyzed, one can see that no healing actually directly reaches the diseases. It always reaches the immunity system which in turn cures the disease. Immunity is something which has access to the organs and the tissues and the cells. If that immunity system is strengthened then probably most of the disease can be taken care of. In agnihotra precisely that is what happens. The immunity is restored the resistance power goes up. Even in HIV infected patients or cancer patients agnihotra works beautifully because it gives them inner strength and the body is in a better shape to fight the diseases from within. Also, the Agnihotra smoke gathers particles of harmful radiation from the atmosphere and on a very subtle level neutralizes their radioactive effect. Nothing is destroyed, merely changed.