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THE TWENTY-SEVENTH HYMN TO AGNI
A HYMN OF THE STRENGTH AND ILLUMINATION
The Rishi under the figure of the demigod, Traivrishna Tryaruna Trasadasyu, and the seer Ashwamedha, symbolises the
fulfilment in the human mentality of the illumination of the
God-Mind Indra, and the power of the God-Will, Agni in the
vitality. The Mind-Soul, destroyer of the demons, awakened to
knowledge as the human-born Indra, has given to the seer his
two cows of light that draw his wain, his two shining horses that
draw his chariot and the ten times twelve cows of the dawn of
knowledge. He has assented to and confirmed the desire with
which the Life-Soul has given the sacrifice of the Life-Horse to
the gods. The Rishi prays that this Mind-Soul, lord of the triple
dawn, may give to the journeying Life that seeks the truth, the
mental intelligence and power of possession needed and may
itself in return receive from Agni the peace and bliss. The Life-
Soul on the other hand has given the hundred powers, the vital
strength needed for the upward journey; the Rishi prays that
this Life-Soul may attain to that vast strength which is the power
of the Sun of Truth on the superconscient plane.]
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O Will, O Universal Power,¹the mighty One supreme in
vision, master of his being, lord of his plenitudes has given
me his two cows of the Light that draw his wain. He of the
. triple dawn, son of the triple Bull,² has awakened to know-
ledge with the ten thousands³
of his plenitude.
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He gives to me the hundred and twenty4 of the cows
of
¹Or, "Godhead".
²
The Triple Bull is Indra, lord of the three luminous realms of Swar, the Divine Mind;
Tryaruna Trasadasyu is the half-god, man turned into the Indra type; therefore he is described
by all the usual epithets of Indra, "Asura", "Satpati", "Maghavan". The triple dawn is the
dawn of these three realms on the human mentality.
³Thousand symbolises absolute completeness, but there are ten subtle powers of the
illumined mind each of which has to have its entire plenitude.
4 The symbolic figure of the illuminations of divine knowledge as the series of dawns
(cows) of the twelve months of the year and twelve periods of the sacrifice. There are again
ten times twelve to correspond to the ten subtle sisters, powers of the illumined mentality.
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dawn; his two shining¹ horses he gives, yoked to the car,
that bear aright the yoke. O Will, O Universal Power, do
thou rightly affirmed and increasing extend peace and bliss
to the lord of the triple dawn.
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For thus has he done desiring thy grace of mind, new-given
for him new-manifested, — he, the disperser of the des-
troyers,² the lord of the triple dawn who with attentive mind
gives response to the many words of my many births.³
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May he who answers to me with assent give to the illumined
giver of the Horse-sacrifice,4 by the word of illumination
possession of the goal of his journey; may he give power of
intelligence to the seeker of the Truth.
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A hundred strong bulls of the diffusion5
raise me up to joy;
the gifts of the sacrificer of the steed are as outpourings of
the wine of delight with their triple infusions.6
¹The two shining horses of Indra identical probably with the two cows of light of the
first verse; they are the two vision-powers of the supramental Truth-Consciousness, right-
hand and left-hand, probably direct truth-discernment and intuition. As cows symbolising
light of knowledge they yoke themselves to the material mind, the wain; as horses symbolising
power of knowledge to the chariot of Indra, the liberated pure mind.
²Trasadasyu; in all things he reproduces the-characteristics of Indra.
³The seer by this self-fulfilment on the higher plane is born, as it were, into many realms
of consciousness and from each of these there go up its words that express the impulses in it
which seek a divine fulfilment. The Mind-Soul answers to these and gives assent, it supplies to
the word of expression the answering word of illumination and to the Life that seeks the Truth
it gives the power of intelligence that finds and holds the Truth.
4 The Horse-sacrifice is the
offering of the Life-power with all its impulses, desires, enjoyments to the divine existence. The Life-Soul (Dwita) is itself the giver of the sacrifice which it
performs when by the power of Agni it attains to vision on its own vital plane, when it becomes,
in the figure of the hymn, the illumined seer Ashwamedha.
5 The complete hundred powers of the Life by whom all the abundance of the vital plane
is showered upon the growing man. The vital forces being the instrument of
desire and enjoyment, this diffusion is like the outpouring of the wine of delight that raises the soul to new and
intoxicating joys.
6 The delight extracted from existence is
typified by the honey-wine of the Soma; it is
mixed with the milk, the curds and the grain, the milk being that of the luminous cows, the
curds the fixation of their yield in the intellectual mind and the grain the formulation of the
light in the force of the physical mind. These symbolic senses are indicated by the double
meaning of the words used, go, dadhi and yava.
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May the God-Mind and the God-Will uphold in the sacrificer of the Horse and giver of his hundred a perfect energy
and a vast force of battle even as in heaven the Sun of Light
indestructible.¹
¹Perfect and vast energy in the vital being corresponding to the infinite and immortal
light of the Truth in the mental being.
Page – 418
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