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Somatantra

THE INTERPLAY OF SOMA AND AGNI IN AN INFINITE LOOP OF CREATION

When soma is described as a drink prepared from the juice of a plant, we have no difficulty in identifying it as adhibhaukita (material) soma and, when it is described as moon or radiation coming down from interstellar regions, we can locate it as adhidaivika (divine) soma and so on.

Is it a drink prepared from plant juice?
Or is it the Moon?
Or is it pure radiation coming down from interstellar regions?
Does it mean water or food or amrta?
Does it constitute the life principle?
Is it manas or prana or vak pervading the entire space?
And above all, is it the real link between gravitation and electrical
phenomenon?

Soma is an exciting concept

The Vedic seers believed in a grand unity in the structure and functioning of the universe in adhiavika, adhyatmaka and adhibhautika spheres. They also discovered that the three fundamental entities in the Universe viz, manas (mind/consciousness), prana and vak (speech/matter), are responsible for every type of creation.

SOMA, CREATION & BIRTH

In the beginning, there was an indiscernible potential entity.

It gave rise to manas (mind) and in the manas, a desire to create arose and the creation commenced. The waters were the primordial fluid. They desired, “How shall we create”? They strained and warmed themselves up. In those agitated waters, the golden egg was formed.

The vedic seers also realized that manas and prana in the process of creation are later joined in by vak (matter) either in the form of agni or the primordial waters. But it is immaterial to discover what came first and second, since creation process requires the presence of all three and their interplay (copulation).

When copulation takes place, there is a deposition of fluid from the male into the womb of the female which results in creation.

Having brought into existence the Agni and Primordial waters, and the creation of life through their interaction, it is here that the SOMA concept took birth. “He with a desire to create various beings strained himself and created waters out of his body and released the seed in them.”

Creation oriented soma is formed out of the finest essence of the food we take. If we understand soma in all its aspects, we will be nearer to developing a physical model of the evolution and sustenance of the universe based on the Vedic concepts in which manas will be incorporated as a parameter at some stage.

SOMA - THE PRIMORDIAL WATERS

The primordial waters represented Sneha (stickiness) principle and angiras which represented the tejas (fire) principle.

The combined presence of bhirgu and angiras in the primordial waters constitutes the Atharva principle. It is the bhirgu principle, that carries with it the soma concept, while the angiras principle is associated with agni.

The main property of agni is to spread and lose itself completely. It requires soma as food for its survival and this substance should not only enable agni to survive, but also help in the creation of objects in the Universe, both living and non-living.

Take for example the occurrence of ritus ( seasons). The seers argued that the creation of life in ritus cannot occur because of agni alone. During the summer agni moves from South to North and pushes the snow line to the North.

During the winter agni moves towards the south and snow line advances towards the south. During the summer, agni asserts itself and interacts with the snow (considered as Soma). During winter snow advances and pushes agni to the south.

It is this interaction which can be described as the deposition of fluid-soma into agni, resulting in a fertilization process and the creation of life of all sorts takes place.

Hence in sanskrit “Somo vai retodah” ie. soma is a fertilizing agent.

SOMA - AGNIINTERACTION

In the celestial concept, the Sun and the stars requires some feeding in order to maintain their form and brightness. This food is essentially the food of agni (mahavrata or soma) which when consumed by the Sun becomes part and parcel of it. The Sun maintains its vak (matter) content and also contributed to its brightness by converting part of itself into agni.

Another important aspect of agni-soma interaction is that when soma in the form of food is offered to agni, it first becomes agni and rises up in flames. It ultimately loses itself in space, but in the process it becomes converted into soma finally and fills the space. If agni has the quality of spreading and losing itself, the other substance should oppose this spreading by feeding the agni and containing it.

When agni moves out it gets subtler and in this way it exhibits itself in three states viz,agni,vayu and Aditya. These are the three states of bhirgu principles.

Soma becomes denser and senser denser as it Shrinks and Therefore exhibits itself as soma, vayu and apah. These are the three states of bhrgu principle.The seers had conceived the radiative equilibrium of a stellar atmosphere in its most elementary form. The second substance named by them was SOMA, because it is offered to agni and reacts with it (suyate ayam agnau iti somah).

While agni was conceived as a form of vak (matter), in which prana’s role is predominant, soma was postulated here to be a form of vak, in which the role of vak is predominant. Agni is surrounded by soma, wherever the creation process is in operation.

When both these interact, creation takes place. If soma were not there, there would be no limit to the spreading tendency and ultimately the substance annihilates itself. If agni were not there, the shrinking tendency of vāk will lead to contraction of substances without limit and again the substance will lose its existence.

Therefore in creation both these forces exist in varying degrees and that is how, diversity in creation is achieved.

SOMA - THE SATYA
(TRUTH)

The concept of soma is a very great achievement by the Vedic seers in their understanding of the creation process. SOMA has come into existence, because of the creation of the waters, when agni and soma unite, the condition that results is called satya.

Satya is of two types, brahmastya and devastya. Agni and soma are two important entities in the Universe which create and sustain this jagat. They enter into every object of creation, both gross and subtle and provide support to them.

Agni stops the contraction of soma at some stage and soma stops agni's expansion at some stage. That agni and soma partake in creation, in varying degrees and are responsible for the variety of creation in the Universe. When a star is in radiative equilibrium, there is a balance between the radiation pressure and the gravitational force and the size of the star is determined by the comparative strength of these two forces.

Agni's brightness is maintained by soma, which is consumed and reformed constantly by moving up. Agni's movement is always upwards and soma always comes down (with rain). In short Agni-soma constitute the inseparable Siva-Sakti pair which pervades the entire jagat. In other words the Sun's heat falling on the earth and energizing the atmosphere and the rains that feed the earth, constitute the Siva-Sakti pair as discussed in Upanisad.

Soma is a comprehensive entity that exhibits varied activities. Because of its shrinking tendency it builds up hardness in substances. This is called asmāsoma. The hardness in rocks, bones etc are due to this property of soma. It is the expanding tendency of agni inside, that balances this contracting tendency of soma, which is predominantly vāk (matter) in this state. Soma will bring into existence any good thing in this world when the right type of agni - soma interaction takes place.

Soma can therefore be defined as 'satyavatārāya agnau suyate tasmāt somah' i.e. soma is that, which is made to react with agni to bring into existence any object which can be called satya.

SOMA - THE DIVINE FOOD

“O Soma, you have produced the herbs, the milk giving cows and the waters. You pervade the entire firmament and have dispelled the darkness with light”. All types of food or more precisely all types of enjoyables (bhogyavastu) come under the name soma and the enjoyer is of course agni., Garhapatyagni, antariksagni and dhisnyaagni.

Vaiśvānarāgni in the man is produced by the combination of divyāgni (agni of the heavens) and pārthivagni (agni of the earth) gets released of its earthly connection and becomes divyāgni. The finest essence of food that we take goes to make the manas. The food taken is used in three ways. The grossest part becomes waste (purisa) to be excreted. The medium part of it goes to build the flesh and the finest part goes to make the manas. When seers found that the Sun is constantly shining without any diminution in its brightness or change in its shape, they were led to the discovery of soma as the food, which kept Him immortal.

In their quest for terrestrial soma, they discovered the soma creeper which satisfied their conditions:

1. It exhibited growth and decay in phase with the growth and decay (waxing and waning) of the Moon.

2. Its juice had very desirable effects on the human system. That is, it formed an ideal anna (food).

'Indravijaya', śuśruta in his Samhitā deals with the medicinal and miraculous effects of soma juice on the human system. All types of food available on earth, which nourish the living beings, go under adhibhautika soma.

In the first stage, soma is shoot (amsu) having material form, i.e.vāk or five bhutas.

In the next stage, it is graha the vital principle of prāņa produced by the assimilation of amsu or food in the material form.

In the third stage, it is manas which is more subtle. Mind is supreme. Soma principle and the mind principle are the same. In other words, soma is the finest form of food, which goes to make the manas.

While rājasoma represents the mind, vājasoma represents pure absolute consciousness which is higher than manas.

Soma is variously described as mother, mrta, prana, anna, madhu, sukra, etc. When food is taken it splits into two parts viz. rasa (essence) and mala (waste). What is rasa in the first stage, becomes mala in the next stage.

In this way food that is taken is converted into rasa, (blood) asrk (seerum), māmsa (flesh), medas (fat), asthi (bone), majja (marrow) and sukra (semen) in seven stages. The quality of this manas in a man (whether satva type or rajas type or tamas type) depends on the food he takes. According to Suśruta, the soma creeper was created by Brahma and others on the Earth and it has the property of keeping aging and death away from those who consume its juice.

Though the soma creeper is one only, its form and power vary according to the place in which it grows. There are actually twenty-four kinds of soma plants. Susruta enumerates the Vedic names of these plants in his Samhita. All these have more or less similar properties and the method of using them for treatment is the same for all.

Soma comes down with rain and enters vegetation and food substances as rasa. The sweetness of fruit juices, milk, honey, etc are attributable to soma. Somarasa has many medicinal properties and many times it is called amrta, because of its capacity to keep away aging and disease. As food it nourishes all forms of life. It mixes freely with water and is responsible for all sweetness (madhurya) in food. It enters the herbs and provides people an elixir, which will give long and healthy life when consumed. In short, soma provides everything that will ensure healthy species of life of all forms in this world. It covers everything that is conducive to healthy and long life. If a man wants to enjoy spiritual and material prosperity in this world, he should worship Soma.

RAIN - ‘DIVINE SOMA FOR THE EARTH’

The seers had realized the importance of rainfall for all forms of life on Earth. They described this phenomenon in various ways and agni + soma description agni going up, and soma coming down was one of the ways used by them. The movement of water is uniform. It goes up and falls down. rain bearing clouds to feed the earth and agni moving up reanimates the heaven.

It should be noted that the rain contains soma. In other words, the only way by which soma reaches the earth is through rain. It is the heat of the earth that restores water to the clouds, which later comes down as rain. This is real constructive feeding of the earth and the life it supports.

The Vedic seers were keen observers of Nature and had realised the importance of rainfall for the coming into existence and survival of all forms of life on earth.

They knew that the Sun's heat plays an important role in bringing rainfall to their region. The Rigveda says that the water vapor is lifted by the Sun's rays and is carried to the northern side.When the sun reaches his extreme northward position and retraces his path, the rains occur in their region (extreme Northwest India and adjoining Pakistan).The Vedic seers knew that the periodic depletion and replenishment of snow in the Himalayan mountain ranges occur in unison with the north-south movement of the Sun during the year and flow of snow-melt water sustains them, whenever the rains are not there. Since the Sun was involved in the production of rains, they brought in the adhidaivika influence on the origin of life on the Earth.

The lightning that occurs during a thunder storm was attributed to the consumption of soma by Indraprāņa active in the clouds. This led to the idea that soma gets illuminated when it comes into contact with agni. Soma dispels darkness everywhere. Since soma reaches the Earth along with rainfall and since rainfall gives rise to all forms of life, soma was conceived as a fertilizing agent. It also nurtures herbs and all forms of vegetation and life on Earth. The lightning that is produced during thunderstorms is due to agni soma interaction. The Vedic seers attributed the electrical phenomena in the atmosphere to soma.

SOMA - HUMAN RELATION

Adhidaivika soma was responsible for the birth of the plants on the earth and also the birth of human beings. While angiras principle creates deva pranas and bhigru principle creates pitrapranas, atri principle creates bhutas (material bodies).

When a women is in her periods she is called Atreyi, because of the appearance of rajas which represents tamobhaga..,, That is why she is kept aloof. Certain changes take place in her, which finally end upnas in aa condition in which she becomes fit for receiving the retas of the man, which later results in the birth of the child. Agni is purusa and soma is stri. The first creation from their union is the Sun. This is ādhidaivika yajña. In the ādhyatmika yajña, the sonitagni of the woman (i.e. agni of the womb) is the purusa and sukra of the man constitutes the stri.

In fact the visible part of the celestial sphere was conceived by the Vedic seers as the puruşa and the invisible part as stri. The entire celestial sphere constitutes the stri- puruşa pair. That is why the man is called as apūrņa i.e. incomplete. Only when he gets a woman, he becomes pūrņa. The wife constitutes an important component in the yajña.

Prajapati converted one half of himself into a woman and produced virāt in her. Both man and woman have agneya as well as soumya components in them. In the case of the man, the body is agneya but the sukra which forms the pratistha (basic support) for his body is soumya (stri). In other words stri is the pratistha of the man. That is why the Rgveda says, male-female pair.

'They say that these are males though really they are females. He who has eyes (i.e. the wise) only know this and not the blind (i.e. unwise)'3.

The right part of the man is stronger than the left part. The right part is agneya and the left part is soumya. The woman by nature has a soft body (soumya) whereas the body of a man has a rough structure (agneya). However the atman of the woman is agneya and therefore strong.

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