MANDALA FOUR
VAMADEVA GAUTAMA
SUKTA
1
1.
Thee, O Fire, ever with one passion the gods have sent inwards, the divine
Traveller;¹ with the will they sent thee in; O master of sacrifice, they
brought to birth the immortal in mortals, the divine who brings in the divinity,
the conscious thinker, they brought to birth the universal who brings in the
divinity, the conscious thinker.
2.
Then do thou, O Fire, turn towards the godheads with the right thinking Varuna,
thy brother who delights in the sacrifice, the eldest who delights in the
sacrifice, — even him who keeps the truth, son of the infinite Mother who
upholds seeing-men, the king who upholds seeing-men.
3.
O Friend, turn towards and to us in his motion the Friend as two rapid
chariot-horses turn a swift wheel, for us, O strong worker, like galloping
horses; O Fire, mayst thou be with us and find for us bliss in Varuna and in the
Life-powers who carry the universal light; for the begetting of the Son, O thou
flaming into lustre, create for us peace, for us, O strong worker, create the
peace.
¹Or, worker; this root
seems to have indicated originally any strong motion, action or work.
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4.
Do thou, O Fire, for thou knowest, labour away from us the wrath of divine
Varuna; flaming into lustre, strongest to sacrifice, mightiest to bear, unloose
from us all hostile powers.
5.
Do thou, O Fire, be most close to us with thy protection, be most near in the
dawning of this dawn: rejoicing in us put away from us Varuna¹ by the sacrifice;
reach the bliss, be ready to our call.
6.
Most glorious is the vision of this Godhead, most richly bright in mortals; as
if the pure and warm butter of the milch-cow that cannot be slain, her desirable
gift is the vision of the Godhead.²
7.
Three are they, his supreme truths, the desirable births of the divine Fire;
within in the infinite he is spread wide every-where and has come to us pure and
brilliant and noble,
¹i.e.
the pressure of the wrath of Varuna against our impurity.
The prayer to put Varuna sounds strange. But if
the inner sense is grasped it becomes cogent and apposite. The sacrificer — the
seeker — is praying Agni to be close to him, to protect him. He is aspiring that
the Divine Fire should be his protector when the Dawn of the higher light comes
to his soul, Varuna being the Lord of wisdom.
²Here
the connection between Fire and Ra-Cow and Aditi comes out; so also the
psychological nature of the clarified butter and its connection with the vision
of the Sun.
Who is this cow that “cannot be slain” if not the
cow Aditi — the Infinite Mother — the supreme Divine Consciousness
creativer of the cosmos, of the gods and the demons, of men and of all that is?
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shining in his beauty.¹ One who has spread wide within in the infinite; he in
his luminous beauty conies to us.
8.
He is a messenger, a, Priest of the call, whose yearning is towards all the
planes, golden is his chariot, red are his horses, ecstatic his tongue of flame,
beautiful his body,² wide his lustre, ever is he rapturous like a banquet hall
full of the wine.³
9.
He makes men conscious of the knowledge and is the friend of their sacrifice;
they lead him on with a mighty cord; he dwells in the gated house of the being
accomplishing his aims; divine, he accepts companionship in the riches of the
mortal.
10.
Let this Fire taking knowledge of all things lead us towards the ecstasy. That
is enjoyed by the Gods, which all the immortals created by the thought, and
Father Heaven was its begetter raining the truth.4
¹These
three births of Fire are not, as usually explained, its three physical forms —
which even if accepted (taken) shows the Vedic people far from the mere
primitive barbarian — His birth is connected with Truth — His births are “within
in the Infinite” — saccidananda. These are the three levels of the
earthly evolution on each of which this Divine Fire takes his birth,
parivītaḥ,
on the plane of matter and life and mind.
²Or,
great is his body, ³Or, well-stored
with food.
4This
joy — ratna — in its origin is created by the immortals with the help of
their “thought” — and it was the raining down upon the lower hemisphere of the
Truth that gave birth to the joy here.
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11.
He was born first and supreme in the Rivers,¹ in the foundation of the vast
mid-world, in his native seat; without head, without feet, concealing his two
ends he joins them in the lair of the Bull.²
12.
He came forth with a vibrancy of light, the first and supreme force, in the
native seat of Truth, in the lair of the Bull, desirable and young and beautiful
of body³ and wide in lustre; the seven Beloved brought him to birth for the
Bull.4
13.
Here, our human fathers went forward on their way towards the Truth desiring to
possess it; they drove upwards the luminous ones, the good milk-cows in their
stone (rocky) pen within the hiding cave, calling to the Dawns.5
14.
They rent the hill, they made themselves bright and pure, others around them
proclaimed that work of theirs; drivers of the herd,6 they sang the
chant of illumination to the Doer of the work; they found the Light, they shone
with their thoughts.7
¹Or in our habitations,
²The
same Fire joins his two extremities of the superconscient and the spirit and the
inconscient matter — in the lair of the Bull. This is the Bull. Which
represents the Purusha …The lair of the Bull is the originals status of Him
called at other places, viṣṇoḥ
paramam padam, sadāpaśyanti sūrayaḥ.
³Or, great in body
4Or, brought to birth the Bull (but the case is Dative)
5This Rik makes
the connection between the hidden cows and the Truth, also the Cows and the
Dawn.
6Literallty,
having the control over the animal or animals, or, the “instruments of control”,
7Or, they did
work by their thoughts. This is Sayana’s interpretation.
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15.
By a mind seeking the Rays they rent the firm massed hill which encircled and
repressed the shining herds; men desiring laid open the strong pen full of the
Ray-Cows by the divine word.
16.
They meditated¹ on the first name of the Milk-cow, they discovered the thrice
seven supreme planes² of the mother; That knowing the herds lowed towards it,
the ruddy Dawn became manifest by the glory of the Cow of Light.
17.
The darkness was wounded and vanished. Heaven shone out, up arose the light of
the divine Dawn, the Sun entered into the fields of the Vast, looking on the
straight and crooked things in mortals.
18.
Then, indeed, they awoke and saw³ all behind and wide around them, then, indeed,
they held the ecstasy that is enjoyed in heaven. In all gated houses were all
the gods. O Mitra, O Varuna, let there be the Truth for the Thought.
19.
May my speech be towards the upblazing Fire, the Priest of the call, the bringer
of all things, strong to sacrifice. It
¹Or, held in their
thought ²Or, names ³Then,
indeed, and after waking they wholly saw
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is
as if one drank from the pure udder of the cows of light, the purified juice of
the Plant of Delight poured on all sides.
20.
The indivisibility of all the gods, the guest of all human beings, may the Fire
draw to us the protection of the gods and be blissful to us, the knower of all
things born.
SUKTA
2
1.
He who is immortal in mortals and with him is the Truth, who is the God in the
gods, the Traveller,¹ has been set within as the Priest of the call, most strong
for sacrifice, to blaze out with the might of his flame, to give men speed on
the way by the power of their offerings.
2.
O Son of Force, here today art thou born for us and movest as a messenger
between those born of both the Births, yoking, O sublime Flame, thy males
straight and massive and bright in lustre.
3.
I hold in thought with my mind thy two red gallopers of the Truth, swiftest,
raining increase, raining light; yoking the ruddy-shining pair thou movest
between you Gods and the mortal peoples.
¹Or, fighter or worker,
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4.
Aryaman for them and Mitra and Varuna, Indra, Vishnu and the Maruts and the
Ashwins do thou well-horsed, well-charioted, great in the joy of achievement,
bring now, O Fire, for the giver of good offerings.
5.
O Fire, ever inviolable is this sacrifice and with it is the Cow, the Sheep and
the Horse, it is like a human friend,¹ and with it, O mighty Lord, are the word
and the offspring; it is a long felicity of riches with a wide foundation, and
with it is the hall.
6.
To him who brings to thee thy fuel with the sweat of his labour and heats his
head with thee, be a protector in thy self-strength, O Fire, and guard him from
all around that would do him evil.
7.
He who when thou desirest thy food brings thy food to thee, who whets thy flame
and sends upwards the rapturous guest, he who as seeker of the godhead kindles
thee in his gated house, in him may there be the abiding and bounteous riches.
8.
He who in the dusk, he who in the dawn would give expression to thee, or
bringing his offering makes thee a beloved
¹Or, it is a comrade with whom are the gods,
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friend, as the Horse with golden trappings in his own home mayst thou carry that
giver beyond the evil.
9.
He who gives, to thee, O Fire, to the Immortal, and does in thee the work
outstretching the Ladle, may he not in his labour be divorced from the riches,
let not the sin of one who would do evil surround him.
10.
He in whose pilgrim-rite thou takest pleasure and, divine, takest delight in the
well-founded work of a mortal, may the Power of the Call be pleased with him, O
most young Fire, of whom worshipping may we bring about the increase.
11.
Let the knower discriminate the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the straight open
levels and the crooked that shut in mortals; O God, for the riches, for the
right birth of the Son,¹ lavish on us the finite and guard the Infinite.²
12.
Seers unconquered proclaimed the seer, they established him³ within in the gated
house of the human being. Then, O Flame, mayst thou reach with thy journeying
feet and, exalted, see those transcendent4 ones who must come into
our vision.5
¹Or, for the riches with
the fair offspring,
²Diti and Aditi, the divided and the undivided Consciousness, the Mother of
division and the Indivisible Mother
³Or, commanded the seer, they upheld him
4Or,
wonderful
5Or, made visible; the world means either “visible” or “to be
seen”.
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13.
O Fire, ever most young, mayst thou giving thy good leading to the singer of the
word who has pressed the wine and performed the sacrifice, bring to him in his
labour, luminous one, an ecstasy wide in its delight, filling the seeing man for
his safeguard.
14.
O Fire, as we have done with our hands, with our feet, with our bodies in our
desire of thee, like men who make a chariot with the toil of their two arms, so,
the wise thinkers have laboured out the Truth and possess it.¹
15.
Now may we be born as the seven illumined seers of the Dawn, the mother, supreme
creators creating the Gods within us; may we become the Angirasas, sons of
Heaven and, shining with light, break the hill that has within it the riches.
16.
Now, too, O Fire, even as our supreme and ancient fathers, desiring to possess
the Truth, speakers of the word, reached the very purity, reached the splendour
of the Light;² as they broke through the earth and uncovered the ruddy herds.
17.
Perfect in action, perfect in lustre, desiring the godhead,
¹Or desiring to possess it. ²Or,
entered into meditation and reached the very purity;
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becoming gods, they
smelted and forged the Births as one forges iron, flaming with light they made
the Fire to grow, surrounding Indra they reached the wide mass of the Ray-Cows.
18.
There was seen as if herds of the Cows in an opulent place, that which, seen
near, was the birth of the gods,¹ O Forceful Fire; they both illumined² the
widenesses of mortals and were aspirants for the growth³ of the higher being.
19.
For thee we worked and became perfect in our works, the Dawn shone out and
illumined the Truth; we lit the unstinted Fire in the multitude of its kinds, in
the fullness of his delight, brightening the beautiful eye of the Godhead.
20.
These are the utterances, O creator, O Fire, we have spoken to thee the seer, in
them take pleasure. Flame upwards, make us move full of possessions; O thou of
many boons, give us the Great Riches.
SUKTA
3
¹Or, there was seen like herds of the Cow in an opulent place that which is
near to the birth of the godheads,
²Or, achieved the wide
illuminations of mortals ³Or,
warriors for the growth
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1.
Create for yourselves the King of the pilgrim-rite, the Terrible, the Priest of
the invocation who wins by sacrifice the Truth in earth and heaven¹ create Fire
golden in his form for your protection before the outspreading of the
Ignorance.²
2.
This is thy seat which we have made for thee, even as, desiring, a wife richly
robed for her lord; thou art turned towards us and wide-extended around, sit
here within: O once far distant Fire, these are fronting thee, O Fire, perfect
in wisdom.
3.
O ordinant of sacrifice, to Fire that hears, inviolate, the strong in vision,
the happy, the immortal Godhead speak the Thought, the word expressing him, whom
I pray as with the voice of the stone of the pressing when it presses out the
honey-wine.
4.
Thou, too, O Fire, turn towards our labour, become aware of this word, in
perfect answer of thy thought, Truth-Conscious, become aware of the Truth. When
shall there be thy utterances that share in our ecstasy, when thy acts of
cornpanionship in the house?
¹Or, who worships with
sacrifice the Truth for earth and heaven,
²Or, before the thunder-crash from the unknown.
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5.
How dost thou blame it, O Fire, to Varuna, to Heaven, what is that sin we have
done ? How wouldst thou speak of us to Mitra, the bountiful, how to earth? What
wilt thou say to Aryaman, what to Bhaga?
6.
What, O Fire, growing in thy abodes, wouldst thou say for us, what to the wind
most forceful, to the seeker of the Good, the all-pervading, to the lord of the
journey, to the earth ? What, O Fire, to Rudra the slayer of men?
7.
How wilt thou speak of us to Pushan, the mighty bringer of increase, what to
Rudra great in sacrifice, giver of the offering? What seed of things to
wide-striding Vishnu, or what, O Fire, to vast doom?
8.
How when they question thee wouldst thou answer to the host of the Life-Gods in
their Truth, or to the Sun in his vastness, to the mother indivisible, to the
swift traveller? O knower of all things born, thou knowest the Heaven, for us
accomplish.
9.
I ask for the truth governed by the Truth, together the unripe things of the Cow
of light and that of her which is sweet and ripe, O Fire. Even black of hue, she
nourishes with a luminous supporting, with a kindred milk.¹
¹The Cow (the Vedic symbol of knowledge) even in the Ignorance
where it is black still nourishes us with a truth which is still luminous and
governed by the Greater truth which is hers on higher levels where she is the
radiant Cow of Light.
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10. For the Fire the Bull, the Male, is inundated with the
Truth, with milk of the heights: unstirred he ranges abroad establishing the
wideness, the dappled Bull has milked out the bright udder.
11.
By the Truth the Angiras-seers broke the hill, they parted it asunder, they
moved¹ together with the Ray-Cows; men sat happily around Dawn, the Sun-world²
was manifested when the Fire was born.
12.
By the Truth, divine, immortal and inviolate, the Waters with their honied
floods, Fire, like a steed of swiftness pressing forward³ in its gallopings,
raced ever on to their flow.
13.
Mayst thou never pass over to the Power4 of one who is a thief, or of
a neighbour or one intimate who would do us injury,5 mayst thou not
incur the debt of a brother who is crooked, may we not suffer by evil thought
from6 friend or foe.
¹Or, came ²Or, the Sun ³Or,
urged forward
4The word means supernatural or occult Power which captures the
force of Agni, the lord of Tapasya, to use it for harm.
5Or, diminishes us,
6Or, by the skill of; here, again, it is skill in an occult
working, or an occult and hostile direction of thought that is feared.
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14.
O Fire, strong in sacrifice, protect us ever guarding us with thy keepings,
taking pleasure in us; burst out in flame, break the strong evil, slay the
(Rakshasa) demon even when he is increasing into greatness.
15.
O Fire, become great of mind by these hymns of illumination, by our thinkings
touch these plenitudes, O heroic Flame, so take joy in the words of knowledge, O
Angiras, let our speech expressing thee come close to thee, enjoyed by the gods.
16.
Thus have I, an illumined sage, by my thoughts and utterances spoken to thee,
who knowest, O Fire, O creator, secret words of guidance, seer-wisdoms that
speak out their sense to the seer.¹
SUKTA
4
1.
Make thy mass like a wide marching, go like a king full of strength with his
following, running in the rapid passage of thy march; thou art the Archer,
pierce the demons with thy most burning shafts.
¹Or,
all these in my thoughts and utterances I have spoken to thee, I, an illumined
sage, to thee the knower, O Fire, O creator, words of guidance, secret words,
seer-wisdoms that speak out their meaning to the seer.
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2.
Swiftly rush thy wanderings; blazing up follow and touch with thy violence; O
Fire, spread by thy tongue thy burning heats and thy winged sparks; unleashed,
scatter on every side thy meteors.
3.
Swiftest to act, spread abroad thy scouts to their places, and become the
indomitable protector of this being: he who would bring evil by speech against
us from afar or one from near, let not any such bringer of anguish do violence
to thee, O Fire!
4.
Arise, O Fire, spread out towards us, consume utterly the unfriendly, O
sharp-missiled Flame; O high-kindled! whoever has done enmity against us burn
him down like a dry log.
5.
High-uplifted be, piercing through reveal in us the things divine, O Fire; lay
low what the demon forces¹ have established : companion or single, crush the
foe.
6.
He knows thy right-mindedness, O youngest of the Gods, who hastens the journey²
for the Word in its march. For him
¹Or, demon impulsions ²Or,
who drives the path
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the high doer of works
has made to shine about his doors all brightness of the day, all treasures and
splendours of the light.
7.
May he, O Fire, be fortunate and munificent who with the eternal offering, who
with his utterances, seeks to satisfy thee in his own life, in his gated house;
may there be for him all brightnesses of the day, may such be his sacrificing.¹
8.
I make to shine thy right thought in me, may this word diffused in its peal
approach close to thee. Rich in horses and chariots may we make all bright and
pure for thee, mayst thou hold up thy mights in us from day to day.
9.
Here in this world should one largely act from one's self in the presence of
thee as day by day thou shinest out in morn and in dusk: right-minded may we
touch thee as we play, taking our stand on the luminous inspirations² of men.
10.
He who comes to thee, O Fire, with strong horses, with fine gold, with his
chariot full of riches, thou becomest his deliverer, his friend and comrade, —
he who takes joy in thy uninterrupted guesthood.
¹Or,
may all that sacrifice of his be bright in its days.
²Or,
luminous energies
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11.
I break great ones by my words, by my friendship with thee; that came down to
me from Gotama, my father: domiciled in the house do thou become conscious of
this word of ours, O youngest God! O Priest of the call! O strong Will!
12.
Undreaming, ever in movement, blissful, undrowsing, imtorn, untired may thy
guardian powers sitting linked together guard us, O thou untouched by ignorance,
O Fire!
13.
Thy guardian powers, O Fire, which protected the son of Mamata from evil, for
they saw and he was blind, omniscient guarded them in their good work; the foe
who would have hurt them could not hurt.
14.
By thee as thy companions, guarded by thee, by thy leading, may we win the
plenitudes; impel to their way both annunciations, O builder of Truth:
straightaway, confident, create.
15,
With the fuel may we do thee worship, O Fire, accept the hymn which we utter,
burn the demons who speak not the word of blessing, guard us from the doer of
harm, from the censurer and his blame, O friendly Light!
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