KUTSA ANGIRASA
SUKTA
94
1. This is the omniscient who knows the
law of our being
and is sufficient to his works; let us build the song of his
truth by our thought and make it as if a chariot on which
he shall mount. When he dwells with us, then a happy
wisdom becomes ours. With him for friend we cannot
come to harm.
2. Whosoever makes him his priest of
the sacrifice, reaches the
perfection that is the fruit of his striving, a home on a
height of being where there is no warring and no enemies; he confirms in himself an ample energy;
he is safe in his
strength, evil cannot lay its hand upon him.
3. This is the fire of our sacrifice!
May we have strength to
kindle it to its height, may it perfect our thoughts. In
this all that we give must be thrown that it may become a
food for the gods; this shall bring to us the godheads
of the infinite consciousness who are our desire.
4. Let us gather fuel for it, let us
prepare for it offerings, let us
make ourselves conscious of the jointings of its times and
its seasons. It shall so perfect our thoughts that they shall
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extend our being and create for us a larger life.
5. This is the guardian of the world
and its peoples, the shepherd of all these herds; all that is born moves by his rays
and is compelled by his flame, both the two-footed and the
four-footed creatures. This is the rich and great thought-awakening of the Dawn within.
6. This is the priest who guides the
march of the sacrifice, the
first and ancient who calls to the gods and gives the
offerings; his is the command and his the purification; from his birth he stands in front the
vicar of our sacrifice.
He knows all the works of this divine priesthood, for he is
the Thinker who increases in us.
7. The faces of this God are everywhere
and he fronts all things
perfectly; he has the eye and the vision: when we see him
from afar, yet he seems near to us, so brilliantly he shines
across the gulfs. He sees beyond the darkness of our
night, for his vision is divine.
8.
O you godheads, let our chariot be
always in front, let our
clear and strong word overcome all that thinks the falsehood. O you godheads, know for us, know in us that Truth,
increase the speech that finds and utters it.
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9. With blows that slay cast from our
path, O thou Flame, the
powers that stammer in the speech and stumble in the
thought, the devourers of our power and our knowledge
who leap at us from near and shoot at us from afar. Make
the path of the sacrifice a clear and happy journeying.
10. Thou hast bright red horses for thy
chariot, O Will divine, who are driven by the storm-wind of thy passion; thou
roarest like a bull, thou rushest upon the forests of life, on its
pleasant trees that encumber thy path, with the smoke of
thy passion in which there is the thought and the sight.
11. At the noise of thy coming even
they that wing in the skies
are afraid, when thy eaters of the pasture go abroad in their
haste. So thou makest clear thy path to thy kingdom that
thy chariots may run towards it easily.
12. This dread and tumult of thee, is
it not the wonderful and
exceeding wrath of the gods of the Life rushing down on
us to found here the purity of the Infinite, the harmony of
the Lover? Be gracious, O thou fierce Fire, let their minds
be again sweet to us and pleasant.
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13. God art thou of the gods, for thou
art the lover and friend;
richest art thou of the masters of the
Treasure, the founders
of the home, for thou art very bright and pleasant in the
pilgrimage and the sacrifice. Very wide and far-extending
is the peace of thy beatitude; may that be the home of our abiding!
14. That is the bliss of him and the
happiness; for then is this
Will very gracious and joy-giving when in its own divine
house, lit into its high and perfect flame, it is adored by
our thoughts and satisfied with the wine of our delight.
Then it lavishes its deliciousness, then it returns in treasure
and substance all that we have given into its hands.
15.
O thou infinite and indivisible
Being, it is thou ever that
formest the sinless universalities of the spirit by our sacrifice; thou compellest and inspirest thy favourites by thy
happy and luminous forcefulness, by the fruitful riches of
thy joy. Among them may we be numbered.
16. Thou art the knower
of felicity and the increaser here of our
life and advancer of our being! Thou art the godhead!...
SUKTA
97
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1. Bum away from us the sin, flame out
on us the bliss. Burn
away from us the sin!
2. For the perfect -path to the happy
field, for the exceeding
treasure when we would do sacrifice, — burn away from us
the sin!
3. That the happiest of all these many
godheads may be born
in us, that the seers who see in our thought may multiply,
—burn away from us the sin!
4. That thy seers,
O
Flame divine, may multiply and we be
new-born as thine,—burn away from us the sin!
5. When the naming rays of thy might
rush abroad on every
side violently, — burn away from us the sin!
6. God, thy faces are everywhere! thou
besiegest us on every
side with thy being. Burn away from us the sin!
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7. Let thy face front the Enemy
wherever he turns; bear us in
thy ship over the dangerous waters. Burn away from us the
sin!
8. As in a ship over the ocean, bear us
over into thy felicity.
Burn away from us the sin!
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PARUCHCHHEPA DAIVODASI
SUKTA
127
1. I meditate on the Fire, the priest of
the call, the giver of the Treasure, the son of force, who knows all things
born, the Fire who is like one illumined and knowing all things born.
The Fire who perfect in the
pilgrim-sacrifice, a God with his high-lifted longing¹
hungers with his flame for the blaze of the offering of light, for its current
poured on him as an oblation.
2. Thee most powerful for sacrifice, as
givers of sacrifice may we call, the eldest of the Angiras, the Illumined One,
call thee with our thoughts, O Brilliant Fire, with our illumined
¹Or,
high-uplifted lustre seeking for the Gods
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thoughts, men's priest of the call,¹
who encircles all like heaven, the Male with hair of flaming-light whom may
these peoples cherish for his urge.
3. Many things illumining with his
wide-shining energy he becomes one who cleaves through those who would hurt us,
like a battle-axe he cleaves through those who would hurt us, he in whose shock
even that which is strong falls asunder, even what is firmly fixed falls like
trees; overwhelming with his force he toils on and goes not back, like warriors
with the bow from the battle he goes not back.
4. Even things strongly built they give to
him as to one who knows: one gives for safeguarding by his movements of
flaming-power, gives to the Fire that he may guard us. Into many things he
enters and hews them with his flaming light like trees, even things firmly fixed
he tears by his energy and makes his food by his energy even things firmly
fixed.
5. We meditate on² that fullness of him on
the upper levels, this Fire the vision of whom is brighter in the night than in
¹Or,
the priest of the call for men who see, ²or, we hold
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the day, for his undeparting life brighter
than in the day. Then does his life grasp and support us like a strong house of
refuge for the Son, — ageless fires moving towards the happiness enjoyed and
that not yet enjoyed, moving his ageless fires.
6. He is many-noised like the army of the
storm-winds hurrying over the fertile lands full of our labour, hurrying over
the waste lands.¹
He takes and devours the offerings, he is the eye of intuition of the sacrifice
in its due action; so all men follow with pleasure the path of this joyful and
joy-giving Fire, as on a path leading to happiness.
7. When in his twofold strength, bards
with illumination upon them, the Bhrigu-flame-seers have made obeisance and
spoken to him the word, when they have churned him out by their worship, — the
Flame-Seers, the Fire becomes master of the riches, he who in his purity holds
them within him, wise he enjoys the things laid upon him and they are pleasant
to him, he takes joy of them in his wisdom.
¹Or, in the esoteric sense, the army
of the Life-Powers moving with fertilising rain over our tilled and our waste
lands.
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8. We call to thee, the Lord of all
creatures, the master of the house common to them all for the enjoying, the
carrier of the true words for the enjoying, — to the Guest of men in whose
presence stand as in the presence of a father, all these Immortals and make our
offerings their food — in the Gods they become their food.
9. O Fire, thou art overwhelming in thy
strength, thou art born most forceful for the forming of the Gods, as if a
wealth for the forming of the Gods; most forceful is thy rapture, most luminous
thy will. So they serve thee, O Ageless Fire, who hear thy word serve thee, O
Ageless Fire!
10. To the Great One, the Strong in his
force, the waker in the Dawn, to Fire as to one who has vision, let your hymn
arise. When the giver of the offering cries towards him in all the planes, in
the front of the wise he chants our adoration, the priest of the call of the
wise who chants their adoration.
11. So, becoming visible, most near to us
bring, O Fire, by thy perfect consciousness, the Riches that ever accompany the
Gods, by thy perfect consciousness the Great Riches. O most strong Fire, create
for us that which is great for vision,
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for the enjoying; for those who hymn thee,
O Lord of plenty, churn out a great hero-strength as one puissant by his force.
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DIRGHATAMAS AUCHATHYA
SUKTA
140
1. Offer like a secure seat that womb to
Agni the utterly bright who sits upon the altar and his abode is bliss; clothe
with thought as with a robe the slayer of the darkness who is pure and charioted
in light and pure bright¹
of hue.
2. The twice-born Agni moves (intense)
about his triple food;
it is eaten and with the year it has grown
again; with the tongue and mouth of the one²
he is the strong master and enjoyer, with the other he engirdles and crushes in
his embrace³
his delightful things.
3. He gives energy of movement to both his
mothers on their dark path, in their common dwelling and both make their way
through to their child4
for his tongue is lifted upward, he destroys and rushes swiftly through and
should be chosen, increasing his father.5
¹Or,
white; śukra, a white brightness.
²Or,
with his tongue in the presence of the one
³Mṛś
is used of the sexual contact;
vāraṇaḥ
from vṛ
to cover, surround.
4Or, following their child
5Expl. Heaven and Earth, Mind
and Body dwelling together in one frame or in one material world move in the
darkness of ignorance, they pass through it by following the divine Force which
is born to their activities. Kupaya is of doubtful significance. The
father is the Purusha or else Heaven in the sense of the higher spiritual being.
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4. For the thinker becoming man his swift
hastening impulsions dark and bright desire freedom; active, rapid, quivering,
they are yoked to their works, swift steeds and driven forward by the Breath of
things.
5. They for him destroy and speed lightly
on¹
creating his dark being of thickness and his mighty form of light; when reaching
forward he touches the Vast of Being, he pants towards it and, thundering, cries
aloud.²
6. He who when he would become in the
tawny ones, bends down and. goes to them bellowing as the male to its mates, —
putting out his forces he gives joy to their bodies³
and like a fierce beast hard to seize he tosses his horns.4
7. He whether contracted in being or
wide-extended seizes on them utterly; he knowing, they knowing the eternal Agni
enjoys5
them, then again they increase and go to the state
¹Or,
speed and pervade
²Mahīmavanim
might mean the vast earth, but avanī and pṛthivī
are not used in the Veda invariably, the former not usually, to mean
earth, but stray or return to their original sense — sapta avanayaḥ.
³Or,
he makes blissful the forms of things
4Babhṛūsu,
the cows, aruṇayaḥ
of a later verse — knowledge in
the mortal mind.
5Or, lies with
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divine; uniting, another form they make
for the Father and Mother.
8. Bright with .their flowing tresses they
take utter delight of him, they who were about to perish, stand upon high once
more for his coming;¹ for he loosens from them their decay and goes to them
shouting high, he creates supreme force and unconquerable life.
9. Tearing about her the robe that
conceals the other he moves on utterly to the Delight with the creatures of pure
Being who manifest the Force; he establishes the wideness, he breaks through to
the goal for this traveller, even though swift-rushing, he cleaves always to the
paths.²
10. Burn bright for us, O Agni, in our
fullnesses, henceforth be the strong master and inhabit in us with the sisters;
casting away from thee those of them that are infant minds thou shouldst burn
bright encompassing us all about like a cuirass in our battles.³
11. This, O Agni, is that which is
well-established upon the ill-
¹Mamruṣīḥ
is uncertain. It may be dead or dying. Rebhire == delight, is here
perfectly proved.
²Rihan,
rerihat are uncertain.
³Śvasi
is the Greek Kasis and an old variant of śvasṛ
wife or sister. Therefore it is coupled with vṛṣā
like patnī.
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placed; even out of this blissful
mentality may there be born to thee that greater bliss. By that which shines
bright and pure from thy body, thou winnest for us the delight.
12. Thou givest us, O Agni, for chariot
and for home a ship travelling with eternal progress of motion that shall carry
our strong spirits and our spirits of fullness across the births and cross the
peace.
13. Mayest thou, O Agni, about our Word
for thy pivot bring to light for us Heaven and Earth and the rivers that are
self-revealed; may the Red Ones reach to knowledge and strength and long days of
light, may they choose the force and the supreme good.
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