Simple as it sounds the conceptual model of ‘Agni-Soma' provides a very effective framework for understanding and managing human behavior. The Vedic concept of 'Agni-Soma' forms the most basic foundation for all Vedic knowledge, be it Yoga or Ayurveda or Swara or Tantra. There is nothing more practical than a good theoretical concept. After nearly three decades of multidisciplinary studies and research this author believes that the ‘Agni-Soma' model can be fleshed out from its scattered rudiments into a practical working model that can be applied across many fields, ranging from psychology to healing and spirituality to management. While Western science has tended to reduce complex phenomena into smaller units and go cellular, the ancient Indian approach looked for fundamental systemic principles that are possibly more organizational.
Agni-Soma & Modern Behavioural Sciences
The next two articles will explore the significance of ‘Agni-Soma' as intra-psychic and systemic forces, this time through different lenses-that of evolutionary neurosciences, Attachment theory and Family systems. There is a theory in modern psychotherapy that posits a very similar concept as the ‘Agni-Soma' model- Bowen theory. Bowen Family Systems theory (BFST) is the only modern western theory that can rub shoulders with the ancient ‘Agni-Soma' model in some ways. Though other constructs such as emotional intelligence and social intelligence share parts of the Agni-Soma approach, only BFST comes remarkably close to the Vedic/Yogic ‘Agni-Soma' model in the initial conceptualization. Thereafter they differ in their method.
