Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 25
आह्वयामास वह्निं च प्रत्यक्षो भव देव मे । एवं मन्त्रेण कृत्वा तं संमुखं ज्वलनं ततः
āhvayāmāsa vahniṃ ca pratyakṣo bhava deva me | evaṃ mantreṇa kṛtvā taṃ saṃmukhaṃ jvalanaṃ tataḥ
അവൻ അഗ്നിയെ ആഹ്വാനിച്ചു—“എൻ ദേവാ, എന്റെ മുമ്പിൽ പ്രത്യക്ഷനാകുക.” ഇത്തരമന്ത്രബലത്തിൽ ജ്വലിക്കുന്ന അഗ്നി അവന്റെ സമക്ഷത്തിൽ പ്രത്യക്ഷമായി.
Narrator (speaker not explicit in the snippet)
Scene: At the climax of the rite, the fire surges and takes on a vivid, almost person-like presence; the practitioner stands steady, hands joined or holding the ladle, as Agni appears ‘face-to-face’.
FAQs
Purāṇas portray mantra and devotion as making the unseen sacred power (Agni) directly present for dharmic rites.
The verse belongs to a Nāgara-khaṇḍa Tīrthamāhātmya context, but the tīrtha is not named in this line.
A direct invocation of Agni to become pratyakṣa (manifest) for the rite.