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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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Even the word Agni (fire) is the most appropriate one for tapas, because asceticism is really the purification of the mind by the fire of vairágya, or the baptism of fire, as it is termed, in the canonical books of Christianity. As for the special characteristics of Agni, the god
(i) has three feet, (ii) seven hands, and (iii) seven tongues ; (iv) he is the priest of gods who appear at his
invocation ; (v) he is the devourer of the clean and the un
clean both, and (vi) the giver of strength to gods, so that the
more he is fed by sacrificial oblations, the
greater is the strength imparted to gods, The Explanation of these highly artistic conceptions is as follows:
) Tapas rests on three kinds of controls, namely, (a) the control of the mind, (b) the control of the body, and (c) the control of speech.
There can be no tapas if only two of these
controls are exercised, and there is no fourth thing to control. Because tapas rests on these three kinds of controls, it is said to have three legs or feet.
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