The Rig Veda, which is the earliest written document of human spirituality, is basically
a fire technology. Fire defines human life because human beings are warm-blooded animals.
We will die without fire. But that is to understand fire in a very, very limited way. The neurons
fire, and then you get intelligence—that’s also fire, electricity. So there is a gross
fire with which we have barbecues and cooking, and so forth. Then we have neuronal firing
which I mentioned. There is also fire within the Planets, and that’s another fire — electricity,
light, and heat. Light and heat also could be understood in very profound, subtle and
metaphysical ways. And that is contained in this technology of Homa or fire ritual. I
prefer to call the fire ritual a Fire Lab. It’s a laboratory. A fire ritual or Homa
is a laboratory. What do you do in the laboratory? You want to contact Fire, the Fire God, to
come and bless you with health, and wealth, and ever so many things that you require for
human life. In the Rig Veda, the Yogis contacted the Fire God through fire ritual by giving
food offerings to various Gods. Fire is a messenger who takes all of these offerings
to various Gods. What’s the benefit? Once the Gods are fed, then they come and give
you whatever you want. [Chants:] “Agnim ile purohitam yajnasya devam ritvijam hotarum
ratna dhatamam.” This is how the Rig Veda starts. [Chants:] “Hotarum ratna dhatamam”.
‘He brings you wealth. He brings you gold.’ Later on in the Rig Veda itself, where do
you get money from? [Chants:] “Agnina rayim ashnavat, Agnina rayim ashnavat poshameva
devam divedive ashasam viravattamam.” It is through Agni that you get money. Gold is
real money (not dollar or pound or rupees). How does Agni, the God, create gold? He converts
mud or carbon atoms into gold atoms with intense heat. Who knows the technology? The technology
is known to Agni, the God of Fire. He can convert carbon atoms into gold, changing the
atomic numbers. This is technology. What happens to the person — the priest as soon as he
begins to chant the hymns invoking Gods and Goddesses? What happens to the priest’s
brain? And also, what happens to the brain of the listeners? We can contrast and we can
see how the brain waves change. What is happening here is that you are elevated through visible
changes in the Brain that put you in a frame of intelligence; that enables you to act better
and then create more things and be productive. Homa is not just a religious activity that
the Hindus are involved in, but it is a technology. It is a Fire Technology. That’s why I call
it a Fire Lab, wherein you can go and work with different forms of energy. You know,
you can do fire rituals for different Gods and Goddesses, for the Planets, and whose
help you need to fix your life. If you want to remove obstacles—which everyone needs
to work on—we do a fire Ritual, or Fire Lab, for Ganesha because he is the one who
is going to come and activate your von Economo Neurons in the Anterior Cingulate. He is
also the one who is associated with the Thalamus and then he will activate the Thalamus. So,
our Fire Lab is a lab where both the priest and the clients who sponsor the ritual will
both be benefited. And you find this knowledge also with Krishna. Krishna in the Bhaghavad
Gita, for instance, talks about the purpose of a Homa. When Arjuna asks Krishna, ‘How
can I make money very quickly?’ He says, ‘Yes, you can do a Fire Lab, the Homa. Then
you’ll be able to access these Divine Beings and then Divine Beings will come and bless
you with money. This is the Bhagavad Gita which is in line with the Rig Veda — it
is in Karma Yoga, Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita.