Agnihotra FAQ — common questions answered

Yes, in a room with a window open and the kuṇḍa on a heat-proof surface. The fire is small and burns clean when the dung is dry and the ghee is pure. Many practitioners keep a fixed place in the home for it.

Make the offerings anyway and complete the words — the daily discipline is the practice. Then be earlier next time: the clock's rehearsal shows how long the sequence really takes, and the keep-screen-awake option stops the phone from sleeping in the last minutes.

East at sunrise, west at sunset — towards the Sun on the horizon. The kuṇḍa is in front of you; the horizon, if you can see it, beyond it.

The tradition lights the fire in the kuṇḍa itself, from camphor or a matchstick, so the fire is born for the offering. Do not transfer burning material from a stove.

Both are the practice. If life allows only one for now, keep that one every day without fail rather than both irregularly, and add the second when you can.

Yes. The mantras are short; the clock shows each one in Devanāgarī and transliteration and reads it aloud. Say them clearly and with attention. Children offering with a parent learn the sequence in a few days.

Collect it cold into a glass or clay jar. It is used on house plants and in the garden, a pinch in water, and in traditional preparations. It is not thrown in the bin.

Both are right for what they measure. Your phone gives the first glimpse of the upper edge with atmospheric refraction; the clock gives the Vedic moment when the centre of the disc is on the true horizon, which is two to four minutes later at sunrise and earlier at sunset. Agnihotra uses the Vedic moment.

Yes. Set the new place and the countdown follows that horizon. Zero time belongs to the place, not to the watch.

Yes. The same engine, the same ceremony guide and the same mantra audio run in the Swara Yoga app, where the clock also shares your saved location with the Hora, Tithi and Sankranti clocks and with Atulya.

It is its householder form. The classical śrauta Agnihotra described in the Brāhmaṇas and Śrauta Sūtras is a milk offering made by one who has established the three Vedic fires, in the evening and the morning, with its own mantras. The form taught here — rice and ghee into a copper kuṇḍa at the exact sunrise and sunset, with Sūryāya or Agnaye svāhā and Prajāpataye svāhā — was given in the twentieth century so that any person could keep the duty of the two daily offerings. The history page tells the story.

Yes. Agnihotra asks for no initiation, no caste, no creed and no priest. It is performed today by people of every faith and none. The mantras are Sanskrit praise of the Sun, the fire and the lord of beings; they ask nothing of anyone except to be spoken rightly at the right moment.

The shop on this site supplies the copper kuṇḍa, dried cow-dung cakes, pure cow ghee, unbroken unpolished rice, the copper spoon, pañcapātra and plate, and complete kits, shipped across India. The materials page explains what each is for and what to look for if you buy elsewhere.

Payment is by Razorpay — cards, UPI, net banking and wallets — through the same secure gateway used by swarayoga.org for courses and donations. Your account is created automatically at checkout with your e-mail, a one-time code, your phone number and your addresses; you can see every order under Agnihotram orders in your Swara Yoga account.

Keep it. Let the fire burn out, tip the cold ash into a glass or copper jar, and use it for the plants, the soil, the water, as tilaka, in a glass of water in the morning, or mixed with ghee on the skin. The ash page gives every use.

Agnihotra is a spiritual practice with well-documented effects on the air of a room and on soil and plants, and with many reports of improved health, especially of breathing, sleep, digestion and mood. It is not a medical treatment and does not replace one. Keep your doctor's care and keep the fire; the health page separates what is known from what is believed.

The clock works anywhere on Earth and the mantra audio plays everywhere. The shop currently ships within India; for other countries write to [email protected] and the Peeth will advise where to find the materials locally. Agnihotra communities exist in dozens of countries.

Because the sound is the point. A person who reads Tamil, Bengali, Russian or Japanese should be able to read the Sanskrit syllables exactly in their own script, not guess them from English spelling. The renderings are letter-for-letter; the meaning is given separately in each language.