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MYTHOLOGY
(ii) The seven hands represent the seven kinds of
occult powers that are acquired by ascetics, There are seven psychic chakras (plexes) in the spinal column and a specific occult force is conceived as slumbering in each one of them. These are roused into activity by asceticism. As power is exercised by hands generaliy, these seven kinds of occult powers are described as the seven hands
of Agni. (iii) The seven tongues are the five senses, manas
or mind and buddhi (intellect) which are
to be offered up as a sacrifice to Agni. (iv) As the divine attributes of the soul become
manifest by the practising of tapas, Agni is said to be the priest of gods (= divine attri
butes) who appear at his invocation, (v) Virtue and vice are both causes of bondage,
the former leading to pleasant and the latter to unpleasant kinds of rebirths. Both of them have to be given up ultimately for pure self-contemplation. Hence Agni is the devourer of the clean (virtue) and the
unclean (vice) both. (vi) The food of Agni is self-sacrifice, i.e., the
sacrificing of desires, because asceticism consists in curbing one's desires. The divine qualities and attributes of the soul are developed and strengthened by the
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