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The Digestive Fire: Agni

“ The digestive fire in the intestines (jataragni) is the root of all the digestive fires in the body. As it causes the increase or decrease of the elemental and tissue digestive fires it should be treated with great care.’ Ashtanga Hridaya Samhita[i]

Ayurveda considers that health of the digestive system is at the centre of optimum health. If you can absorb and assimilate life’s experiences, whether physical or emotional, then you are healthy. This means that you can manage life’s challenges and will not be held back by past ‘meals’ or experiences. An undigested meal leaves discomfort as can an undigested experience. Ayurveda teaches you the way to enhance your digestion and digest all your experiences!

The ancient Indian Vedic culture revered agni or fire. It gave them light, warmth and cooked their food. Agnideva is the Fire god who acts as a messenger between the mortal world and the heavens. In Vedic rituals humans offer oblations to the sacred fire. The fire takes a portion for himself and then vaporises the rest for the benefit of the gods. The gods imbibe this nutritious fragrance and in return give life-giving waters and favourable environmental conditions from which crops flourish and humans can feed themselves. This benevolent cycle continues as long as both parties are happy.

It is a metaphor of our own digestive system. We eat and ‘offer’ food into the fire of our bellies. Agni digests this food and the control centres in the brain are nourished by these fragrant ‘vapours’. This nourishment releases the nervous impulses which release enzymes and hormones. This stimulates systemic metabolic activity so that the whole body-mind complex functions efficiently.

Agni is seen as the metaphor for all metabolic functions in the body. It includes the digestive function, sense perception, cellular metabolism and mental assimilation.

AGNI: Meaning fire, spark, digestive fire. ‘Ignite’ & ‘agni’ have the same linguistic root

Qualities: Hot, Light, Dry, Sharp, Penetrating, Pungent, Luminous, Transforming.

Functions: Absorption, assimilation, metabolism, digestion, perception, taste, touch, hearing, vitality, clarity, alertness, regular appetite, combustion.

It includes the digestive function, sense perception, cellular metabolism and mental assimilation. Note the link between mental well-being and digestive health (and vica versa).

It gives immunity, a sparkle in the eyes and lustre to the skin.

Emotions:

When agni is balanced it causes emotions that are beneficial to health: courage, cheerfulness, lucid, intelligence.

When agni is out of balance it causes emotions that are destructive to health: fear, anger, confusion, idiocy.

Effects of low digestive fire:

a) All forms of imbalanced agni create undigested residues (ama) that form toxins.

b) The dosha accumulate at their site- kapha (K) in the stomach, pitta (P) in the abdomen, vata (V) in the colon. This starts the cycle of imbalance and must be avoided if you want to stay healthy.

c) If this is left untreated the accumulated dosha can become disturbed.

d) This results in the dosha overflowing- a very dangerous situation.

- K can become mucus, coughs, asthma, diabetes, obesity.

- P can become skin problems, heart problems, inflammatory problems.

- V can become bone problems, nervous conditions, degenerative conditions

Toxins (ama) become present in all chronic conditions- high cholesterol, blood disorders, fatigue syndromes, tumours, cysts, skin conditions, allergies, cancers.

The thirteen digestive fires

a) The central digestive fire (jatharagni): This is located from the mouth to the anus and is present throughout t