THE SIXTEENTH HYMN TO AGNI

A HYMN TO THE BRINGER OF ALL DESIRABLE GOOD

[The Rishi affirms the Divine Will in man as the offering and representative priest who brings light and strength and inspired knowledge and every desirable good; for he is the aspirer by works in whom is the puissance of all the gods and the full plenitude of their force.]

1. Sing thou out by the word a vast manifestation for the shining Light, for the divine, for the Will whom mortals by their expressions of his godhead as the Friend¹ put in their front.

2. The Will is the priest of offering of the peoples; by the illuminations of the discerning mind he bears abroad in both his arms the continuous order² of their offerings and as the divine enjoyer³ he moves to his good.

3. In the affirmation of him and in his comradeship when he has increased his flame of purity are all the lords of the plenitude;⁴ for all things are in the sound of his many voices and on him, the aspirer in his works, they have laid the burden of their strength.

4. Even now, O Will, may there be the full plenitude of their

¹Mitra. Agni contains and is all the gods. Mortals have to discover in the action of the divine Will the light, love and harmony of the true knowledge and true existence, the Mitra- power; it is in this aspect that he has to be set in front of the human consciousness as the representative priest in the sacrifice.

²As the Purohita, the representative priest in the sacrifice and the leader in the van of its march. He stands in front of our consciousness, leader of all our powers, to guide and carry on our Godward work, so that there shall be no interruption, no gap in the order of the sacrifice, the right stages of its march to the gods, the right placing of its works according to the times and seasons of the Truth.

³The Divine Will becomes the Enjoyer Bhaga, brother power of Mitra, who enjoys all delight of existence but by Mitra's power of pure discernment and according to the light, truth and harmony of the divine living.

⁴The gods; the Divine Force contains and sustains all the other divine powers in their working; in him resides therefore the power of all the other godheads.

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utter force. Around this mighty Will earth and heaven have become as if one voice of inspired knowledge.¹

5. Even now come to us, O Will, hymned by our words and bring to us our desirable good. May we who are here and those luminous masters of knowledge together found that blissful state of our being. March with us in our battles that we may grow.

¹The whole physical and the whole mental consciousness become full of the knowledge which streams into them from the supramental plane and they, as it were, turn into the supra- mental light and action around the divine Seer-Will as he moves about in them at his work of transfiguration.  

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