The gods and sages appeal to Brahma to restore Agni
With Agni absent, all sacrifices have stopped, and the three worlds are in crisis. The desperate sages and gods appeal to Brahma, the creator, who summons Agni and offers a solution: only his sacred sacrificial flames will devour offerings, thus technically fulfilling the curse without taint.
The crisis was total. Without fire, the three worlds were confounded, their cycle of sacrifices broken. In great anxiety, the sages went to the gods. “O faultless beings!” they said. “Because of the loss of fire, the worlds have lost their sacrifices. Without losing more time, please decree what is to be done.”
The gods and sages went together to Brahma, the creator. They told him everything: Bhrigu’s curse, and Agni’s withdrawal. “O illustrious one!” they said. “Agni has been cursed for some unknown reason. How can he, who is the mouth of the gods, the receiver of the first share of every offering, the acceptor of oblations in all the worlds, ever become an omnivore?”
Brahma listened. Then he summoned Agni to his presence. He addressed the fire god, who was also a creator, eternal like himself, in gentle words. “You are the creator of all the worlds and you are their destroyer. You preserve the three worlds and ensure all sacrifices and ceremonies are preserved. Therefore, O lord of the worlds! Act so that the rites may thrive.” He then addressed Agni’s dilemma. “O eater of the sacrificial ghee! How are you thus deluded? You are always pure in this universe. You are the refuge of all living creatures. With your entire body, you cannot become an omnivore.”
Brahma offered a resolution. “O Fire, with a crest of flames! Only the flames that are meant for accepting oblations will devour everything.” It was a matter of designation. The flames consecrated for sacrifice would be the instrument. “Just as everything touched by the sun’s rays is rendered pure, anything burnt in your flames will become pure. O Agni! You are the supreme energy. You have issued forth from your own energy. Through your own lustrous power, make the sage’s curse come true. Accept the gods’ share, and your own, when they are offered into your mouth.”
Agni replied to the grandfather, “Let it be that way.” He agreed to obey the instruction. He returned to his duties.
In great delight, the gods and sages went back the way they had come. The sages resumed their sacrifices and ceremonies as before. The gods rejoiced in heaven, and the many living beings on earth were happy. Agni himself, freed from the taint of the curse, was extremely happy. The sacred fire burned once more, its flames consuming the offerings, its purity intact.