Agni Paper Flashcards
What is Agni?
Agni is digestive fire. It is an energy in the body and mind that has the qualities/gunas of both vata and pitta: hot (p), light (p/v), sharp (p), mobile (v), subtle (v), and dry (v). Agni qualities are the opposite of kapha, and when there is a kapha excess, there is reduced agni. Agni is in the food carrying channel/AnaVahaSrotas and in the the tissue channels/dhatu srotas.
What does Agni do?
Agni is the energy that fuels the transformation of food into body tissue. It takes nature elements and converts them into the human body. When agni is strong, your body gets good healthy tissues, which gives longevity and health. Life depends on Agni function.
Other than converting food into tissue and experience to knowledge, agni produces doshas, maintains normal body temperature and good complexion, gives emotions of confidence/courage/fearlessness/joy/cheerfulness/laughter/patience/stability, provides mental clarity and intelligence, produces tejas for cellular metabolic health and ojas cellular immunity against any disease, produces and utilizes prana, and is responsible for longevity.
What are the different types of Agni?
Primary digestion has JatharAgni. Secondary digestion has 7 DhatuAgnis: RasAgni, RaktAgni, MamsAgni, MedOgni, AsthyAgni, MajjAgni, ShukrAgni. BhutAgni Paka has 5 BhutAgnis: Parthiva (Earth), Apya (Water), Tejas (FIre/Agni), Vayavya (Air/Vayu) and Nabhasa (Akasha).
How does Agni work in digestion?
It is the energy of digestion, and it digests, absorbs, and assimilates food. It is responsible for both primary digestion/JatharAgni Paka (& BhutAgni Paka) where food is transformed by JatharAgni (& 5 BhutAgnis) into juicy food/ahara rasa, and for secondary digestion/DhatuAgni Paka(&BhutAgni Paka?) (metabolism) where ahara rasa gets transformed by various tissue-agni/DhatuAgni to nourish body tissues in a specific sequence. In primary digestion, JatharAgni and Bhutagni turn food into essence of food/ahara rasa through 3 food stages: AmAshaya, PaccchmanAshaya, and PakwAshaya. In secondary digestion, DhatuAgni is involved in the excreta/dhatu mala from the tissues at the same time.
As the energy of the mental body, agni digests, absorbs, and assimilates experiences into knowledge/understanding.
What are helpers of Agni?
3 subdosha mainly help agni: Kledaka Kapha, Pachaka Pitta, Samana Vata. Pachaka Pitta is the main associator of agni and strengthens the power of digestion via helping agni. Kledaka Kapha helps distribute the transforming energy of agni and protects the digestive lining from damage from the sharpness of agni. Samana Vata stimulates agni in the same way that air fans flames to be bigger and hotter.
Prana vata also helps by being the organizer. It influences agni because it is the controller of all dosha systems. If dosha is not in balance, health is not in balance. Prana vata along with mind regulate digestion (and therefore agni) because they have to be working well to digest well.
When does agni get out of balance? What gets in the way?
Agni can be overall too high, overall too low, or irregular. Balanced agni for good health is SamAgni. Too-high agni or metabolism is Tikshna Agni, associated with Pitta dosha. Too-slow agni or metabolism is MandAgni, associated with Kapha dosha. Irregular agni or metabolism is VishamAgni, associated with Vata dosha.
Too-weak tissue agni/DhatuAgni is called dhatu vruddhi, where tissue is formed in excess and improperly. This is anabolic (building up) in nature.
Too-strong/sharp tissue agni/DhatuAgni is called dhatu kshaya, where tissue is insufficient and in which juicy food essence is burnt and never makes it to nourish tissues. This is catabolic (breaking down) in nature.
Dosha and ama both create problems for agni.
Ama, or unprocessed food particles (endotoxins in the digestive system), occurs when there is too much quantity or a difficult quality of food compared to how much agni can convert. (Ama can be caused by things other than dietary/Agni.)
Dosha and agni effect each other.
What happens when it’s out of balance?
When it’s out of balance, agni can cause disease. In fact, if agni stops, we die.
In secondary digestion, if the tissues-specific agni/DhatuAgni is: too weak/dhatu vrudhi, there is a build up of improper tissue; too sharp/dhatu kshaya, there is tissue insifficiency because juicy food/ahara rasa gets burned up and there is nothing to nourish tissues.
When out of balance, agni can also cause excess dosha imbalance, leading to dosha specific disease. Increased dosha has an effect on agni, and imbalanced agni increases dosha leading to disease. (see below)
How does agni relate to health? How does agni relate to disease?
Agni is 1 of 2 things used to diagnose health, the other being dosha.
Long life depends on agni. Your body tissues deplete every day and need to be re-built from food. When agni is strong, your body gets good healthy tissues, which gives longevity and health. What you eat and how you digest decide your tissues, which decide your health and longevity.
Dosha effects Agni, Agni effects Dosha
IRREGULAR AGNI/metabolism:
Increased Vata —> Visham Agni —> Incr production Vata —> Disease of Vata
FAST AGNI/metabolism:
Increased Pitta —> Tikshna Agni —> Incr production Pitta —> Disease of Pitta
SLOW AGNI/metabolism:
Increased Kapha —> MandaAgni —> Incr prod. Kapha —> Disease of Kapha
Why does Ayurveda put so much emphasis on Agni?
As we trace the pathway of disease, it comes back to the question of “is there a problem with agni and dosha?” As Carlisle pointed out, “If you can correct agni, you can heal the entire body; it’s the most effective concept for treatment.” Weak or excessive agni causes (a) dosha and disease and (b) ama; disease can be healed with balanced agni.
I have adopted this principle of agni in my day to day: I eat for my agni, just like I eat for my dosha.
How does agni and hunger relate?
Samana vata stimulates agni and hunger. Healthy hunger reflects sufficient agni. Sometimes agni and hunger are mismatched, such as with hunger that is too strong for agni’s potential.
How do we maintain balanced agni? How do we balance an unbalanced agni?
