Agni, thou eternal flame born anew with the coming of each dawn, who dost perish not though thou consumest all things, who art ever young yet ancient beyond the reckoning of mortal years—we see thy majesty inscribed upon the heavens themselves.

Each morning, when the darkness giveth way before the rising sun, thou art kindled afresh. Each evening, when the ritual fire is lit upon the altar, thou returnest in thy glory. Thou art the eternal wheel turning ever round and round, the cycle that knows neither beginning nor ending, the pattern woven into the very fabric of existence itself. As the day dieth and the night cometh forth, as the seasons turn and the years pass into the deep past, so too dost thou cycle eternal through thy manifestations.

In the sun thou blazest forth across the vault of heaven, warming the earth and ripening the grain. In the stars thou dwellest as a distant fire, burning in realms beyond mortal ken. In the lightning thou flashest brilliant and terrible. In the hearth-stone thou dwellest as a humble companion to the household. Yet all these are but one flame, one eternal essence expressing itself in myriad forms.

Thou hast burned in the ritual fires of the ancients, in the sacred groves of the Ṛṣis, in the hearts of those who love thee. Thou shalt burn in fires yet unlit by mortals not yet born, in eras that lie hidden in the lap of Time. Thou art the witness to all that hath been, all that is, and all that shall come to pass.

O Agni, eternal cycle, infinite turning wheel of fire and time—grant unto us a portion of thy deathlessness. Though our lives are brief as the spark, let us kindle something of thy eternal flame within our hearts, that when we pass from this realm, our light might endure forever in the memory of those who come after.