Satsang Q & A

Ed.

Q: I am interested in beginning a regular practice of Agnihotra. I am looking for a supplier of ghee and cowdung, but I am also vegan and mean no disrespect to anyone, but want to make certain that the ghee and cowdung are from sources that do not harm their cattle in any way whatsoever.

“Harm” would include taking their calves away before they are grown or killing calves/retired dairy cows for meat, and not allowing their animals to live out a normal natural lifespan. I can’t personally be content with making offerings that are a product of any human cause related suffering.

A: For ghee, our research has shown Ancient Organics brand, in California, to be an ahimsa (nonviolent) source. They sell by mail order. For cowdung, agnihotrasupplies.com has some cowdung available which meets your requirements.

From the Vedic point of view, Agnihotra is an ordained duty for all human beings, to heal the planet and keep the energy cycle of the planet in harmony. Ghee is a non-negotiable requirement for the process. Agnihotra benefits all life forms, including animals, and the plant life which supplies cow fodder. There are wonderful accounts of animals being healed by Homa Therapy on the www.homa1.com website. Over the years, many people have written to us about the beneficial effects of Agnihotra on their pets, livestock, the birds near their house, etc. Pollution takes a heavy toll on the animal kingdom. Agnihotra helps reverse the trend.

Homa Therapy teachers around the world advocate the use of organic ghee. Some Homa Therapy practitioners are connected to the work of cow sanctuaries. A large effort in Homa Therapy work is the formation of Homa farms around the world, where animals are treated humanely.

Certainly, the purer the ingredients of Agnihotra, the better the result. However, availability of such strictly pure cowdung and ghee are very limited, and would supply only a small number of the people who currently practice Agnihotra. We feel that Agnihotra is so urgently needed now, to counteract so many forms of pollution, heal our planet and benefit all life forms, that it is more important that people perform it, even if all the ingredients are not absolutely ideally sourced. People from all over the world have written to us, telling of the the wonderful effects/healings they have experienced through Agnihotra, and most of them are probably using ghee and cowdung from ordinary sources.

We also feel that Agnihtora, when correctly performed, helps to shift consciousness and thus bring real change. This helps bring man into the right relationship with the cow. Agnihotra’s effect on plant life and the environment helps support the cow’s environment.

We feel that the many benefits of Agnihotra far outweigh any effects from less ideally sourced ingredients.