Tejas, the Fire of Life 99 



thoughts, and correspondingly suffers' as strong a 

 re-action from them. Indeed, no other Tattva is 

 so quickly affected by every mental disturbance. 



The Hindu god of fire that is, the power or 

 force in this element, the luminiferous ether is 

 called " Agni," and this word is frequently used in- 

 terchangeably with Tejas to signify the same ele- 

 ment; though, in some of the Upanishads the dis- 

 tinction is made of naming heat or fire " Agni," 

 and light " Tejas." The god " Agni " is repre- 

 sented with seven tongues, which of course symbol- 

 ize the seven permutations of the Tattva. There 

 are many references in the Upanishads to Agni as 

 " the fire within by which the foods are cooked." 

 The student is bade to stop his ears and meditate 

 upon the throbbing he hears within which he should 

 recognize as the noise of Agni's activity; and also 

 as tangible proof of the life and light within which 

 are one with the Spirit Divine, in very truth, not 

 figuratively, omnipresent. On the approach of 

 death this inward noise ceases. The forces of life 

 are withdrawing. 



Agni is the name of various plants, among them 

 Citrus acidus (lemon) and Plumbago Zeylanica, 

 a member of the leadwort family. Other plants 

 are called " Tejas; " among them several scarlet- 

 flowered ones; and were we to make a careful ex- 

 amination of these plants we should doubtless find 

 they all possess some pungent or heating property. 



