Agni yoga: Difference between revisions

<blockquote>Fire will not lead away from life; it will act as a trustworthy guide to the far-off worlds.... He who would swim must dive fearlessly into the water. And he who has decided to master Agni Yoga must transform through it his entire life.... Verily, all actions must be infused with the purifying fiery striving....</blockquote>

<blockquote>Just as Fire is the all-embracing principle, so does Agni Yoga permeate the whole of life. One can notice how the consciousness is gradually sharpened, how the real values of the surroundings emerge, how the immutability of the cooperation of worlds grows. Thus life is filled with the signs of highest understanding. Truth as a real concept enters the daily life.<ref>''Agni Yoga'', 5th ed., rev. (New York: Agni Yoga Society, 1980), pp. 101, 103, 108</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>All preceding Yogas, given from the highest Sources, took as their basis a definite quality of life. And now, at the advent of the age of Maitreya, there is needed a Yoga comprising the essence of the entire life, all-embracing, evading nought, precisely like the unignitible youths in the biblical legend who valiantly sacrificed themselves to the fiery furnace and thereby acquired power.<ref>See Daniel 3.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>You may suggest to Me a name for the Yoga of life. But the most precise name will be Agni Yoga. It is precisely the element of fire which gives to this Yoga of self-sacrifice its name.... Fire will not lead away from life; it will act as a trustworthy guide to the far-off worlds....</blockquote>

<blockquote>Let us see in what lie the similarities and differences between Agni Yoga and the preceding Yogas. [[Karma yoga|Karma Yoga]] has many similarities with it when it acts with the elements of Earth. But when Agni Yoga possesses the ways to the realization of the far-off worlds, then the distinction becomes apparent. [[Raja yoga|Raja Yoga]], [[Jnana yoga|Jnana Yoga]], [[Bhakti yoga|Bhakti Yoga]] are all isolated from the surrounding reality; and because of this they cannot enter into the evolution of the future. Of course, an Agni Yogi should also be a Jnani and a Bhakta, and the development of the forces of his spirit makes him a Raja Yogi. How beautiful is the possibility of responding to the tasks of the future evolution without rejecting the past conquests of spirit!”<ref>''Agni Yoga'', pp. 100–102.</ref></blockquote>