Satsang Volume 45 No 6

Scientific Aspects of Agnihotra: Effect on Seed Germination

by Dr. Ulrich Berk,
Germany

(Quantity of food worldwide – especially in developing countries – continues to be an urgent issue.
Quality of food in developed countries – especially in the age of the spreading of the GMO scourge – is a less publicized issue [in part due to obfuscation by vested interests]. In both cases, the proven potential of Homa Organic Farming in yielding greater quantities and quality of food should not escape the notice of all. The following article shows the effects of Homa on seed germination – the first step in our food chain. – Ecovillage Bhrugu Aranya)
Earlier we have covered the beneficial effects of Agnihotra and Agnihotra Ash on air, soil, and water resources, as well as on radioactive radiation. As environmental pollution naturally also affects plants as it affects us humans, it can be expected that both Agnihotra and Agnihotra Ash have beneficial effects on the growth and health of plants as well as their resistance against pests.

The easiest way to experiment with that is by examining the germination of seeds, both in Agnihotra atmosphere and using Agnihotra ash.

Quite a number of such experiments have been done, some of them already quite some time ago.

Germination of rice seeds were part of two Ph.D. theses done at the Vivekananda University in Bangalore in the first years of this millenium. Rice seeds were put in petri dishes on top of a filter paper which was soaked in water. Agnihotra was performed, and root length, shoot length, fresh weight, and dry weight were measured and compared with control. There were three controls: One without any disciplines of Agnihotra, one with just the mantras, one with Agnihotra fire but without mantras and offerings. Result was that Agnihotra led to a significant increase of root length, shoot length, and fresh weight compared to control. Also it was obvious that the effect of Agnihotra is more than the added effects of mantras and the fire alone.

Interesting that one study specifically examined whether it makes a difference whether a male person or a female person utters the mantras. No surprise that there was no difference – which hopefully helps to remove one prejudice still prevalent in some countries.

The authors attribute the positive effects of Agnihotra on seed germination to the Agnihotra fumes. This seems to be a premature assumption – in experiments on water purification, we could show that water gets purified even when the water bottles are closed (and no fumes get in touch with the water). That means there must be some energy field around Agnihotra which leads to this effect. About this Energy Field of Agnihotra we will talk in a later issue of this newsletter.

The effect of performing Agnihotra in a room where seeds are kept was subject of these two studies just mentioned. Other studies examined the effect of Agnihotra Ash on the germination of seeds. One quite comprehensive study was done a couple of years ago in Fergusson College, Pune, India. Again the seeds were kept on some filter paper in petri dishes. Watering was done with:

a) tap water
b) control ash water (1 gm control ash + 100 ml water) and
c) Agnihotra ash water (1 gm Agnihotra ash + 100 ml water)

(Control ash is the ash you get by burning the same ingredients as used for Agnihotra – but without the disciplines of Agnihotra: No mantras, not done at sunrise or sunset, and the vessel – although made from copper – does not have the pyramid shape of our Agnihotra pyramid.)

Seeds of vigna aconitifolia (mat bean) and vigna unguiculata (cow pea) were taken as experimental material. Seeds were allowed to germinate and germination was observed every 24 hrs.

The results show clearly that control ash improves rate of germination as compared with plain water, but Agnihotra ash does so much more:

Read more…

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