Abhimānin

(Abhīmānin, Abhimānī) A name of AGNI, the god of fire, in the Hindu Viṣṇu Purāṇas. He is the son of BRAHMĀ, the Cosmic LOGOS. Abhimānin is also the father of the three fires: the electric fire (Pāvaka), the solar fire (Śuchi) and the fire produced by friction (Pāvamāna). The three had in turn forty-five children, totalling 49 fires. The three fires, according to the Bhāgavata-Purāṇas, were condemned by a curse of Vasiṣṭha, the great sage, “to be born over and over again.”

According to Helena P. BLAVATSKY, Pāvamāna (fire by friction) is the parent of the fire of the Asuras, while Śuchi (solar fire) is the fire of the gods, and Pāvaka (electric fire) is the father of the fire of the PITṚIS (SD II:57).

H. P. Blavatsky writes that these three fires are Spirit, Soul and Body. The fire of friction refers to the union between BUDDHI and MANAS. In the physical sense, “it relates to the creative spark, or germ, which fructifies and generates the human being” (SD II:247).
V.H.C.

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