Agni, Lineage, and Living Practice

My recent visit to India was deeply nourishing, rooted in study, teaching, and sacred ritual. I’m happy to share some highlights with our community.

Teaching at Mysuru Yoga Utsava

I taught a session at Mysuru Yoga Utsava, a gathering of scholars and practitioners from Yoga and other Indic sciences. My focus was the Agni Sūktam, approached through the power of adhyayanam.

Adhyayanam is sustained engagement with mantra through correct listening, recitation, correction, repetition, and reflection. In the tradition, this process itself is tapas. It requires steadiness and attention, and its effects are cumulative rather than immediate. It refines attention, steadies the mind, and gradually reshapes the practitioner from within.

During the session, we worked with the first nine mantras of the Ṛgveda, allowing the structure of the hymn to guide the understanding. Agni is first invoked as purohita, the one placed at the forefront of the yajña, and gradually revealed as the inner force that carries effort toward clarity and coherence.

Across these mantras, Agni is consistently addressed in functional terms: as purohita, ṛtvik, hotṛ, and carrier of the offering. The hymn moves from establishing Agni as the one who leads and sustains the yajña, to recognising him as the source of inner growth (rayi, poṣa), and finally to a relational invocation in the ninth mantra, where Agni is asked to remain near and accessible, as one who supports well-being.

The session gave participants a direct sense of how adhyayanam functions as practice, the effort of listening, aligning and repeating mantra accurately. A millennia old tried and tested practice of learning mantra effectively.

All participants received the Nitya Prārthanā & Dhyāna book set to support daily recitation.

Community and Connection

It was wonderful to meet several Veda Studies students in person, some for the very first time. It was also great to meet so many other participants partake in this tradition with respectful curiosity and sincere enthusiasm.

I’m grateful to Poornima, Anna, Mythili, Sophie and others for traveling to Mysuru so we could meet in person! Dr. Vignesh Devraj from Sitaram Retreat recorded a podcast with me which will be coming your way soon. Much gratitude to the INDICA team for an incredibly organised festival in a fabulous venue.

An Auspicious Culmination: Mahālakṣmī Yajña

My visit eventually concluded in Bengaluru with a special experience: participating in a Mahālakṣmī yajña with my Guru. Together, we recited the Śrī Sūktam 16 times, offering āhuti-s into the sacred fire. My prayers are for our entire community, to invite abundance in our lives for the new year.

In a yajña, āhuti is the conscious offering-of ghee, grains, or herbs-into Agni, accompanied by mantra. Repeating the Śrī Sūktam in this way supports sustained attention and alignment with the intent of the hymn. In the context of the yajña, the recitation and āhuti-s are directed toward invoking śrī as understood in the tradition: order, stability, beauty, harmony and well-being, rather than material gain alone.

Participating in this ritual was deeply personal for me – I love the Śrī Sūktam – I love that we have such a magnificent hymn and prayer to bring auspicious thoughts to our mind.

Śrī Sūktam practice on New Year’s Day

For those who feel drawn to this hymn, I warmly invite you to explore the self-paced Śrī Sūktam course, which offers structured learning, correct recitation, and contemplative depth.

Śrī Sūktam – Spiritual Abundance

I will also be inviting everyone who has studied the Śrī Sūktam to join me on New Year’s Day for a collective practice-reciting the hymn together, followed by japa. Beginning the year in shared prayer and sound is a powerful way to establish intention and steadiness for what lies ahead.

Sending warm wishes to our community for a meaningful end to 2025 and an uplifting beginning to 2026.