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Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 546:
546. To give is a divine attribute. The inexhaustibility of giving is found in varying degrees in all of nature. But fire is the element in which giving is most apparent. The very principle of Fire is transmutation and constant giving. Fire cannot exist without the sacrifice of giving; likewise the fiery seed of the spirit exists through giving. But the sacrifice is a true one only when it has become the very nature of a man. A mental and compulsive sacrifice is neither natural nor divine. Only when sacrifice becomes an inalienable attribute of life does it become inseparable from the consciousness. Thus, by its qualities Fire teaches us during ascent. Let each one who wishes to attain cognizance say to himself, "I will be like Agni." One must grow to love fiery sacrifice as the closest means of communion with the Fiery World. Without this self-sacrificial striving it is not easy to rise above the claws of evil. Like Fire, which is elusive, the consciousness becomes mobile when united with Agni. One must approach sacrifice not by the path of despondency but by that of fiery splendor. One cannot define Fire by any other term than splendor. Likewise, the Fiery World cannot be thought of as other than a manifestation of grandeur.
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