1.
Missioned and strong to sacrifice, offer the sacrifice. Priest of the call; O
Fire, put away from us as if by the applied force of the Life-gods all that
opposes. Turn in their paths towards our offering Mitra and Varuna and the twin
Lords of the journey and Earth and Heaven.
2.
To us thou art our priest of the invocation, harmless and perfect in ecstasy;
thou art the god within in mortals that makes the discoveries of knowledge; thou
art the carrier with the burning mouth, with the purifying flame of oblation. O
Fire, worship with sacrifice thy own body.
3.
In thee the understanding is full of riches and it desires the gods, the divine
births, that the word may be spoken and the sacrifice done, when the singer, the
sage, wisest of the Angirasas chants his honey-rhythm in the rite.
4.
He has leaped into radiance and is wise of heart and wide of light; O Fire,
sacrifice to the largeness of Earth and Heaven. All the five peoples lavish the
oblation with obeisance of surrender and anoint as the living being Fire the
bringer of their satisfactions.
5.
When the sacred grass has been plucked with prostration of surrender to the
Fire, when the ladle of the purification full of the light-offering has been set
to its labour, when the home has been reached in the house of Earth and the
sacrifice lodged like an eye in the sun, —
6.
O Son of Force, O Fire, kindling with the gods thy fires, Priest of the call.
Priest with thy many flame-armies, dispense to us the Treasures; shining with
light let us charge beyond the sin and the struggle.
1.
In the midmost of the gated house Fire, the Priest of the call, the King of the
sacred seat and the whip of swiftness, to sacrifice to Earth and Heaven! This is
the Son of Force in whom is the Truth; he stretches out from afar with his light
like the sun.
2.
When a man sacrifices in thee, O King, O Lord of sacrifice? when he does well
his works in the wise and understanding Fire like Heaven in its all-forming
labour, triple thy session;
thy speed is as if of a deliverer, when thou comest to give the sacrifice whose
offerings are man's human fullnesses.
3.
A splendour in the forest, most brilliant-forceful is the speed of his
journeying; he is like a whip on the path and ever he grows and blazes. He is
like a smelter who does hurt to none; he is the Immortal who wakes of himself to
knowledge: he cannot be turned from his way mid the growths of the earth.
4.
Fire, the knower of all things born, is hymned by our paeans in the house as if
in one that walks on the way. He feeds on the Tree and conquers by our will like
a war-horse; this shining Bull is adored by us with sacrifice like a father.
5.
And now his splendours chant aloud and he hews with ease and walks along the
wideness of the earth. He is rapid in his race and in a moment is loosed
speeding to the gallop: he is like a thief that runs; his light is seen beyond
the desert places.
6.
O War-Horse, us from the bondage deliver, kindling, O Fire, with all thy fires;
for thou travellest to the Riches and scatterest the forces of affliction and
sorrow. May we revel in the rapture, strong with the strength of the Heroes,
living a hundred winters.
SUKTA
13
1. O felicitous Fire, of thee are all felicities and they grow wide from
thee like branches from a tree. For quickly come, in the piercing of the
Python adversary, the Riches and the desirable plenty and the Rain of Heaven
and the flowing of the Waters.
2. Thou art Bhaga of the felicities and thou pourest on us the ecstasy and
takest up thy house in us, a pervading presence and a potent splendour. O
divine Fire, like Mitra thou art a feeder on the vast Truth and the much joy
and beauty.
3. O Fire born of the Truth, O thinker and knower, when consenting with the
Child of the Waters thou takest pleasure in a man and speedest him with the
Treasure, he becomes a master .over beings and in his might slays the Python
adversary and becomes a seer and carries out with him the riches of the
Dweller in the Cave.
4. O Son of Force, the mortal who has reached to the intensity of thee by
the word and the utterance and the altar and the sacrifice, draws to him
sufficiency of every kind of wealth, O divine Fire, and walks on the way
with his riches.
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5. O Fire, O Son of Force, found for men that they may grow, happy riches of
inspiration with strength of its hero-keepers, — many herds, thy creation in
thy might, but now a food for the wolf and the foe and the destroyer.
6. O Son of Force, become the vast speaker within us; give us the Son of our
begetting, give us all that is packed with the plenitudes; let me enjoy by
my every word satisfaction of fullness. May we revel in the rapture, strong
with the strength of the Heroes, living a hundred winters.
SUKTA
14
1. When mortal man by his musings comes to take pleasure of work and thought
in the Fire, he shines with light and is one supreme; he receives the
impulsion that leads him to safety.
2. The Fire is the thinker and knower, the Fire is a mightiest disposer of
works and a seer. To Fire the Priest of the in-vocation the peoples of men
aspire in their sacrifices.
3. Of many kinds are they who seek thy safeguard and strive with the Fire
for his riches; men breaking through the
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Destroyer seek to overcome his lawless strength by the order of their
works.
4. The Fire gives to, man a Master of beings, a Warrior who overbears the
charge of the foe and wins the Waters; the enemies are afraid at his very
sight and scatter in panic from his puissance.
5. The Fire is the godhead who rescues mortal man by knowledge from the
Binder. A forceful thing is the treasure of his riches, unencircled by the
adversary, unbesieged in its plenitudes.
6. O Fire, O friendly Light, O Godhead turn to the Godheads, mayest thou
speak for us the true thought of Earth and Heaven; march in peace to the
happy abode and the Men of Heaven. Let us pass safe beyond the foe and the
sin and the
stumbling. Let us pass beyond these things, pass in thy keeping through them
safe.
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BHARADWAJA
BARHASPATYA OR VITAHAVYA ANGIRASA
SUKTA 15
1. Thou must crown with the word the
guest who wakes from sleep with the dawn. Master of all these peoples. He is
pure from his very birth and surely he comes to us from heaven in his time;
long too, a child from the womb, he feeds on all that is unfallen.
2. The Bhrigus set in the Tree the
godhead of our aspiration with his high flame of light like a friend
well-confirmed in his place. And now, O Wonderful, well-pleased in him who
has cast to thee the offering, thou art magnified by wordings of thy power
from day to day.
3. Be in us the one whom the wolf
cannot rend, the god who makes grow the discernment, makes grow the supreme
inner Warrior who delivers.¹ O Son of Force, extend in mortals the Riches,
the wide-spreading House, for the caster of the offering, for Bharadwaja the
wide-spreading House.
4. Crown must thou the guest shining
with light, the Male of the Sun-world, the Priest of man's invocation who
makes perfect the Rite of the Path. Crown with your acts of purification the
Seer whose speech has its home in the Light,² the Carrier of offerings, the
Traveller, the Godhead of Fire.
¹Or,
be our deliverer from the enemy beyond and within us.
²Or,
has its home in the Heaven, or, houses the Light,
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5. He shines with the light that makes pure, the light that awakens to
knowledge, shines in beauty on the earth as if with a splendour of Dawn. He
is as if one hewing his way in the march and battle of the shining Horse; he
is like one athirst and luminously blazing, the ageless Fire.
6. Fire and again Fire set to work with your fuel, chant with your speech
the dear, the beloved Guest. Approach and set the Immortal alight with your
words; a god he enjoys in the gods our desirable things, — a god, he enjoys
our works in the gods.
7. I chant the Fire that is kindled with the word for fuel, the Fire that is
pure and makes pure; Fire that is steadfast for ever and marches in front in
the Rite of the Path. We desire with his felicities the Illumined, the
Priest of the call, the harmless, rich with many blessings, the Seer who
knows all births that are.
8. O Fire, they have set thee here the Messenger, the Immortal in generation
after generation, the Carrier of offerings, protector of man and the Godhead
of his prayer. Gods alike and mortals sit with obeisance before the
all-pervading Master of the peoples, the ever-wakeful Fire.
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9. O Fire, according to the laws of thy works thou pervadest either race;
thou art the messenger of the Gods and rangest both the worlds. Since we
have accepted thy thinking and the right understanding that is thine, be to
us our triple armour of defence and benignant helper.
10. May we who know not come into touch with this great knower with his true
front and just walk and perfect vision. May he who knows all manifested
things¹ do sacrifice for us, may Fire voice our offering in the world of the
Immortals.
11. O heroic Fire, thou guardest and bringest safe to the other side the man
who has reached to the Thought for thee the Seer and achieved the intensity
of the sacrifice or its ascending movement; thou fillest him with might and
riches.
12. O Fire that hast the Force, guard us from fault, guard from one who
would subject us. May there come to thee along the path full of destructions
the thousandfold delectable treasure.
13. Fire, the Priest of the invocation, is a king and the Master in our
house; all the births he knows, he is of all things born the Knower. He is
strong to sacrifice and the Truth is in him; let him do sacrifice for gods
and mortals.
¹Or, all kinds of
knowledge
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14. O Fire, O Light that makest pure, O summoning Priest of man's sacrifice,
today when thou comest as a doer of worship, today when thou growest
all-pervading in thy greatness and offerest the things of the Truth for
sacrifice, today carry with thee our offerings, O ever-youthful Fire, even
the truths that are thine.
15. Open thy manifesting eye on our firm-based pleasant things; let a man
set thee within him to sacrifice to Earth and Heaven. Protect us, O King of
Riches, in our conquest of the plenitudes; O Fire, may we pass safe
through all the stumbling-places. Let us pass beyond these things, pass in
thy keeping through them safe.
16. O Fire with thy strong armies of flame, sit with the gods, first of them
all, in the wool-flecked lair where the Nest is ready and the
light-offering; lead for the doer of the rite, for the presser of the wine
rightly on its paths the sacrifice.
17. This is that Fire whom the ordainers of works churn out like Atharvan of
old; a Power unbewildered, they led him in his zigzag walk from the dusky
Nights.
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18.
Be born to us in our all-forming labour for the coming of the
Gods, for our peace. Bring the gods to us, the Immortals, the builders of
the growing Truth; give to our sacrifice touch on the gods.
19. O Fire, O man's master of the house, we have fed thee with our fuel and
made thee a vastness; let the works of the house-master be unhalting, make
us utterly keen with thy intense force of light.
Home
BHARADWAJA BARHASPATYA
SUKTA 16
1. O Fire, thou art set here in all as the Priest of the call in the
sacrifice, set by the gods in the human being.
2. Offer worship with thy rapturous tongues in the Rite of the Path to the
Great Ones. Bring the gods to us, do them sacrifice.
3. O ordainer of works, mighty of will, by thy revealing light¹ in the
sacrifice thou knowest the tracks of the gods and their highways.
¹Or, with thy straight
going
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4. Now has the Bringer of the Treasure with his horses of swiftness aspired
to thee for a twofold bliss; he has sacrificed in the sacrifices to the king
of sacrifice.
5. O Fire, for the Servant of Heaven¹ who presses the wine, for Bharadwaja
the giver of the offering, the multitude of these desirable things!
6. Thou art the Immortal messenger; lend ear to the laud of the seer and
bring the Divine People.
7. Men deeply meditating aspire to thee that the godheads may come to them;
mortals they aspire to the God in the sacrifice.
8. Bring into sacrifice thy perfect sight and thy will; rich are thy gifts
and in thee is the joy of all who desire.
9. Thou art the Priest of the call set here in thinking man, his carrier
with mouth of flame wiser in knowledge than he. O Fire, sacrifice to the
people of heaven.
¹Divodasa
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10. Come, O Fire, for the advent; voiced by the word, come for the gift of
the oblation: sit, the Priest of our invocation, on the grass of the altar.
11. O Angiras, we make thee to grow by our fuel and our offering of the
clarity; flame into a vast light, O ever-youthful Fire.
12. O God,
O Fire, thou illuminest towards us a wide light of inspired knowledge and the vastness of a perfect force.
13. O Fire, Atharvan churned thee out from the Lotus, from the head of every
chanting sage.¹
14. And Dadhyang too, the Seer, Atharvan's son, kindled thee a slayer of the
Python adversary and shatterer of his cities.
15. Thee the Bull of the paths set full alight, most mighty to slay the
Destroyers, a conqueror of riches in battle upon battle.
¹Or,
on Pushkara; or, the Lotus of the head of every chanting sage.
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16. Come to me and let me voice to thee, O Fire, true other words; for thou
growest by these moon-powers of the Wine.
17. Wheresoever is thy mind and thou plantest that higher discernment, there
thou makest thy house.
18. O Prince of Riches, the fullness of thy treasures meets not the eye and
it is for the few;¹ take then joy in our work.
19. Fire of the Bringers is approached by us, the slayer of the Python
adversary conscious with a multiple knowledge, the Servant of Heaven's Fire,
master of beings.
20. This is he that unconquered, unoverthrown shall by his greatness win and
give to us a treasure beyond all earthly things.
21. O Fire, by a new illumination like the old and joining it, thou hast
stretched out the Vast with thy light.²
¹Or, let not the fullness
of thy treasures meet the eye only of the few;
² Or, built the Vast with
thy light.
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22. O friends, offer to the impetuous violence of Fire the hymn and the
sacrifice; sing the illumining verse, chant to the Ordainer of works.
23. This is he that must sit through the human generations, man's Priest of
the call with the seer-will, the Messenger, the Carrier of the oblation.
24. O Prince of the Treasure, do worship here with sacrifice to the Two
Kings who are ever pure in their works, to the sons
of the Indivisible Mother, to the company of the Life-Gods, to Earth and
Heaven.
25. O Fire, O Child of Energy, full of riches is thy vision for the mortal,
the vision of the immortal, and it imparts to him its impulse.
26. Let the giver be the best by work of the will; today winning thee let
him become one overflowing with affluence: a mortal, he shall taste the
perfect purification.
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27. These are thy men whom thou guardest, O Fire, and they find the speed of
thy impulse and move to universal Life, fighters piercing through the armies
of the enemy, fighters conquering the armies of the enemy.¹
28. Let the Fire with his keen energy of light overwhelm every devourer;
Fire conquers for us the riches.
29. O wide-seeing Fire, God who knowest all births that are, bring to us the
treasure with its strength of the Heroes; O mighty of will, slay the
demon-keepers.
30. O God who knowest all births that are, guard us from sin and from him
that worketh calamity; O Seer of the Word, protect us.
31. The mortal of evil movements who gives us over to the stroke, guard us,
O Fire, from him and his evil.
32. O God, repulse on every side with thy tongue of flame that doer of
wickedness; oppose the mortal who would slay us.
¹Or, piercing through the
enemies who war against them, (bis).
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33. O forceful Fire, extend to Bharadwaja the peace¹ with its wideness;
extend to him the desirable riches.
34. Let Fire the seeker of the treasure kindled and brilliant and fed with
our offerings slay with his flame of illumination the encircling
Adversaries.
35. Let him become the father of the Father in the womb of the Mother; let
him break out into lightnings in the Imperishable, let him take his seat in
the native home of the Truth.
36. O wide-seeing Fire, God who knowest all births that are, bring us the
Word with its issue, the Word whose light shines in Heaven.
37. O thou who art made by our force, we come to thee of the rapturous
vision bringing our offerings for thy pleasure and let forth towards thee, O
Fire, our words.
38. Like men that take refuge in the shade, we have arrived to
¹Or, the wide-spreading
house of refuge
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the refuge of thy peace, there where thou blazest with light and art a
vision of gold, O Fire.
39. Thou art like a fierce fighter shooting arrows and like a sharp-horned
Bull; O Fire, thou breakest the cities.
40. They bring him like a beast of prey, like a new-born child they bear him
in their hands. Fire that effects the Rite of the Path for the peoples.
41. Bring to us this great discoverer of riches, bring the god for the
coming of the gods; let him take his seat in his own native home.
42. In the felicitous Fire that knows all things born the Master of your
House is born to you; sharpen to his intensity the beloved guest.
43. O God, O Fire, yoke those horses of thine that do well the work and can
bear thee sufficient for our passion.
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44. Come to us, bear towards us the Gods that they may eat of¹ our pleasant
offerings and drink our Soma-wine.
45. O Fire of the Bringers luminously lightening with thy incessant flame
upward burn; spread wide thy light, O ageless²
power.
46. Let the mortal who would serve with his works the God in the advent,
aspire bringing his offering to the Fire in the Rite of the Path; let him
with uplifted³ hands and with obeisance of surrender make shine the
summoning Priest of Earth and Heaven, the fire of true sacrifice.4
47.
We bring to thee, O Fire, by the illumining word an offering that
is shaped by the heart. Let there be born from it thy impregnating bulls and
thy heifers.
48. The Gods kindle, most strong to slay the Python adversary, the supreme
Fire, the Horse of swiftness by whom the Riches are brought and pierced the
demon-keepers.
¹Or, come to
²Or,
imperishable
³Or, outstretched
4Or,
who worships the Truth with sacrifice.
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