MANDALA SEVEN

VASISHTHA MAITRAVARUNI

 

SUKTA  1

1. Men have brought to birth from the two tinders by the hands' fall the Fire voiced by the light of their meditations ;¹ Fire that sees afar the flaming master of the house.

2. The Shining Ones² have set within in our dwelling-house closely regarding all to guard us from whatever side — that Fire which in his home sits eternal and all-discerning.

3. Verily shine out in front of us, O Fire, with thy perpetual radiance; to thee continuous come plenitudes. 

4. Fires come blazing out supremely from thy Fires, luminous, full of hero-might, there where are assembled men born to the perfect birth.

5. Give us, O Fire, O Forceful One, by the thought the wealth 

    ¹Or, by the scintillations of their thought the Fire voiced by them;

    ²Or, the lords of the riches

Page – 287

    full of hero-power, full of progeny high-proclaimed which the Assailant with his demon magic cannot pierce.

6. He to whom there comes in the light and in the dusk the young Damsel, luminous bearing the offering — it is his own dynamic thought that comes to him desiring the Riches.

7. O Fire, burn away from us all hostile powers with the consuming flames with which thou didst burn the afflicting demon, destroy Pain so that no voice of her is left.

8. O bright and most opulent, O Fire, who shinest and purifiest, as with whosoever kindles thy flame-forces, so with us too, by those lauds abide.

9. As with those who have turned to thy flame-force, mortal men, our forefathers in many lands, with us too by these lauds in thy right-mindedness abide.

10. May these men, heroes in the slayings of the Coverer, who work out the thought I have voiced, overcome all undivine mage-knowledge.

Page – 288

11. O Fire, may we not dwell in the emptiness, nor in houses of men where there is no son¹ and the hero is not, but around thee may we dwell in homes where there is good progeny, O dweller in the home.

12. This is the eternal sacrifice to which there comes the Rider of the Horse, to our house full of progeny and good off-spring, our house increasing with the self-born Son.

13. Protect us, O Fire, from the abhorred Rakshasa, protect from the harm of one who would war against us and do us evil; with thee as ally may we overcome those who would battle against us.

14. May that Fire go beyond all other fires where is the Horse and the Son with the strong hand; traveller of the thousand paths reaches the imperishable things.

15. This is that Fire who guards those who would conquer, he protects from evil the man who sets him ablaze; the heroes of the perfect birth move around him.

    ¹Or, where no remainder is left.

Page – 289

16. This is that Fire who is called¹ in many lands, whom the giver of the offering sets ablaze and has lordship, round whom moves the Priest of the call in the rites of the path.

17. In thee, O Fire, we cast many offerings gaining, lordship, creating in the sacrifice both the eternal Travellers.

18. O Fire, these offerings most desired, incessantly bring to our formation of the godhead; to us may there come all delightful Powers.

19. Deliver us not, O Fire, to strengthlessness, nor to the ill-clad mindlessness, nor to hunger, nor to the Rakshasa, O thou with whom is the Truth, lead us not astray in the house or in the forest.

20. Now, O Fire, teach to us the Words, do thou, O God, speed them to the lords of plenty, may both we and they abide in thy grace, do you protect us ever with all kinds of weal.

    ¹Or, given offering

Page – 290

21. Thou, O Fire, art swift to our call and rapturous is thy vision; O son of force, shine with a bright light. Burn us not since in thee and with thee is the eternal Son, let not the strength of the hero in us break us to pieces.

22. Mayst thou not, who art with us in these god-kindled fires, denounce us for difficulty to bear thee; may not wrong thinkings from thee, O son of force, even by error come to us.

23. O Fire, O thou with thy flame-force, rich with Treasure, become the mortal who casts his offerings in the immortal;  that godhead founds in him the conquest of the riches to whom comes questioning the illumined seer, the seeker.

24. O Fire, thou art the knower of the great and happy path, bring to the illumined seers the vast Treasure by which, O forceful one, with a life unwasting, heroic in strength we may take rapture.

25. Now, O Fire, teach to us the Words, do thou, O God, speed them to the lords of plenty, may both we and they abide in
thy grace, do you protect us ever with all kinds of weal.

Page – 291

SUKTA  2

1. Cleave to our fuel, O Fire, today, illumine .the vast¹ pouring thy smoke of sacrifice, touch the peak celestial with thy up-piled masses, then stretch them out to unite with the rays of the Sun.

2. Let us invoke, by the sacrifices of the lord of sacrifice who voices the godheads, the greatness of these who are pure, who are perfect in will, who are founders of the Thought-gods, they take the taste of both kinds of offerings.

3. Fire who is to be prayed by you the mighty, the wise of understanding, the messenger between earth and heaven, whose speech is truth kindled as the human by the thinking man, let us greaten ever for the pilgrim-sacrifice.

4. Desiring to serve, bringing the offering, kneeling with prostration they pluck the sacred grass; O priests of the pilgrim-sacrifice, casting it into the Fire speckled, with luminous back, brighten him with the offering.

    ¹Or, blaze out vastly

Page – 292

5. The seekers of the godhead perfected in their thinking have come with yoked chariots and flung wide open the doors in their formation of the godheads, they have anointed him as if the two ancient Mothers caressing their child, as if rivers moving through level spaces.

6. May too dawn and night, matrons great and divine, like good milch-cows, queens of sacrifice, queens of plenty called by many seekers, sit on the sacred grass and lodge with us for our happiness.¹

7. I meditate on you, O ye two illumined Seers, doers of the work in our human sacrifices, knowers of all things born, for sacrifice; make high our pilgrim-sacrifice when we call: you win our desirable things in the gods.

8. In unison may Bharati with her Muses of invocation, Ila with gods and men, and Fire, Saraswati with her powers of inspiration come down to us, the three goddesses sit upon this seat of sacrifice.

9. O divine maker of forms who hast the utter rapture, cast upon us that supreme transcendence, cause of our growth, from which is born in us the hero ever active with wise

    ¹Or, be with us for our happy journey.

Page – 293

discernment, the seeker of the gods who sets to work the stone of the wine-pressing.

10. O tree, release thy yield to the gods; Fire the achiever of the work speeds the offering on its way. It is he who does worship as the Priest of the call, the more true in his act because he knows the birth of the gods.

11. Come down to us, O Fire, high-kindled, in one chariot with Indra and swiftly journeying gods; let Aditi, mother of mighty sons, sit on the sacred grass, let the gods, the immortals, take rapture in Swaha.

SUKTA  3

1. Create for yourselves in the sacrifice with a common joy in him the divine Fire along with all the fires, the strong for sacrifice, the messenger who is in mortals the possessor of Truth, inwardly permanent, whose food is Light, with his head of burning flame, the purifying Fire.

2. He neighs in his desire like a horse in his pasture, when he breaks out from a mighty encirclement the wind blows in the wake of his flame; now black is thy marching. 

Page – 294

3. O Fire, when are kindled the imperishable flames of thee, the new-born Bull, and they journey upwards, thy smoke mounts ruddy to heaven, for thou travellest, O Fire, as a messenger to the gods.

4. The might of thee moves wide over earth, when swiftly thou tearest thy food with thy jaws, the movement of thy march is like a charging army; O strong doer, with thy tongue of flame thou art like one sifting-grain of barley.

5. Him in the dusk, him in the dawn, the ever youthful Fire men groom like a horse whetting the strength of the guest in his native seat; when the offerings are cast to him there shines out the light of the Bull.

6. O thou of the bright flame-force, fair to vision is thy front when nearest thou shinest out like gold, thy strength moves like the thunder of heaven, rich in thy brilliance thou showest thy light like a Sun.¹

7. So that we may give for you with Swaha, to the Fire, we 

    ¹Or, like the light of the Sun.

Page – 295

    stand around him with the words of revelation and luminous offerings; do thou, O Fire, guard us with those measureless greatnesses, with thy hundred iron cities. 

8. The inviolate powers which are there for the giver, the Words with which thou guardest the powers that are human, with these protect us, at once illumined seers and thy adorers, O son of force, O knower of all things born!

9. When he goes out pure like a bright axe shining with his own light for his body, he who was born from two mothers for sacrifice to the gods, strong of will, the desirable purifying Fire.

10. O Fire, light up for us these happinesses; let us wake to an understanding of thy perfectly conscious will; let all be there for those who laud thee, for him who utters thee; may you protect us always with all kinds of weal.

1. Bring forward for the Fire, for the brilliant Light, thy mind and thy purified offering, the Fire who travels with knowledge between all the divine and human births.

Page – 296

SUKTA  4

2. May Fire be the wise one and the deliverer when he is born the youngest from the mother, he who pure-bright of tooth clings to the forests, many foods he devours in a moment.

3. In the rendezvous of this god in his flame-force, one whom mortals have seized, a white flame, and he has proclaimed that strong human grasp, Fire has illumined that which is ill-lit to the human being.

4. This is the seer, the conscious thinker in those who are not seers, Fire has been set as the Immortal in mortals; then lead us not here astray, O forceful Fire, may we be ever right-minded in thee.

5. He who has come to his native seat made by the gods. Fire delivered the gods by his will; the plants and the trees and the earth bear him who is the foundation of all.

6. Fire has power for a large Immortality, he is master of a wealth bounteous and full of hero-strength; O thou who hast strength with thee, let us not sit around thee shapeless, actionless, without hero-force.

Page – 297

7. To be rejected is the abundance of the riches that bring no delight, let us be the masters of a wealth that is eternal; that which is born from another is not the Son; O Fire, turn not to wrong the, paths of one who knows not.

8. Not to be accepted even though blissful is the son of another womb, not to be thought of even by the mind, for he brings with him no delight, soon even he returns to his home, let rather the new Horse come to us, the all-conquering.

9. Do thou, O Fire, protect us from one who would conquer us, protect us thou, too, O forceful Fire, from blame; may there come to thee on a path full of destruction, come utterly a wealth thousandfold and desirable.

10. O Fire, light up for us these happinesses; let us wake to an understanding of thy perfectly conscious will; let all be there for those who laud thee, for him who utters thee; may you protect us always with all kinds of weal.

SUKTA  5

Page – 298

1. Bring to the Fire in his strength a Word for the traveller of earth and heaven who, in the lap of all the Immortals, the universal godhead, grows by those who are ever wakeful.

2. Fire, sought for, was set in heaven and in earth, the leader of the rivers, the Bull of things that are stable; he shines upon the human peoples, the universal godhead growing by that which is supreme.

3. In fear of thee the black Tribe, creatures unharmonious, came away casting behind them their enjoyments, when O Fire, O universal godhead, thy light shone upon man when thou torest them and flamedst forth in his front.

4. O Fire, O universal godhead, earth and heaven and the mid-realm clove to the triple law of thy workings; shining with thy uninterrupted flame thou hast spread out the two firmaments by thy light.

5. To thee, O Fire, the Words, thy shining horses, impetuous and luminous cleave in their desire, to the universal godhead, lord of the peoples, charioteer of the Riches, ray of intuition of the dawns and the days.

Page – 299

6. Into thee, the Shining'Ones¹ cast the Mightiness, for they clove to thy will, O friendly Light; O Fire, thou threwest the Destroyers out from the house bringing to birth a wide Light for the Aryan.

7. As thou earnest to birth in the supreme ether at once as Vayu thou didst guard the path, thou criest aloud bringing to birth the worlds, according them as a gift to the Son, O knower of all things born!

8. O Fire, O universal godhead, O knower of all things born, send into us that luminous impulsion by which, O thou in whom are all desirable things, thou nourishest the achievement of a wide inspired knowledge for the mortal giver.

9. O Fire, join to us within, to us made masters of the riches a plenitude of the knowledge inspired wide in its store; O universal godhead, do thou in union with the Rudras and the Vasus extend to us a vast peace.²

SUKTA  6

1. I adore the Render, adoring I proclaim by my speech the 

    ¹Or, the Lords of the riches      ²Or, a vast refuge.

Page – 300

    deeds of the all-ruler, the almighty, the male, as Indra strong and to be rejoiced in by the peoples.

2. Him they send the seer, the ray of intuition, the foundation, the light on the hill, the kingdom of peace in earth and heaven; I illumine with my words the great and ancient laws of working of Fire who rends the cities.

3. The traffickers who have not the will for the work, the binders in knots, who have the speech that destroys, who have neither faith nor growth in the being, nor sacrifice, these the Destroyers Fire has scattered before him; supreme he has made nether in their realm those who will not to do sacrifice.

4. The powers that rejoice in the darkness behind, he most mighty in his godhead has made by his energies powers in front; that Fire I proclaim, lord of the Treasure, who is never bowed, who tames those that make battle against him.

5. He bent down the walls by his showering blows, he who has made the dawns wives of the Noble Ones; he the mighty Fire has put his restraint upon men and made the peoples bringers to him of his taxes by his forceful mights.

Page – 301

6. He to whose peace all beings come by their movements praying for a right mind, the universal godhead came to that which is supreme above earth and heaven, Fire to the lap of the father and mother.

7. The god took to him the riches of the Foundation, the universal godhead in the rising of the Sun gathered wealth from the nether and the upper ocean, Fire took to him the riches of earth and heaven.

SUKTA  7

1. Even though a god putting forth his force, I drive him forward as my steed of swiftness by my prostrations of surrender ; become the messenger of our pilgrim-sacrifice, one who has knowledge; of himself in the gods he becomes known in his measured race.

2. O Fire, come to us along thy own paths, rapturous, taking pleasure in the comradeship of the gods; making the high plateaus of earth to roar with his rushing strengths, with his tusks of flame he burns the woodlands, all he burns in his desire.

Page – 302

3. In front is the sacrifice, well-placed is the sacred grass, pleased is the Fire; one prayed, thou art like a Priest of the call, calling to the two mothers in whom are all desirable things, whence thou art born most young and blissful.

4. Men accomplished in conscious knowledge have brought at once into birth the charioteer who has been set as master of the peoples in their house. Fire the rapturous, the sweet of speech, one who has with him the Truth.

5. He has come and taken his seat in the house of Man, the chosen bearer of the offering, Fire, the Priest of the Word, he who upholds all things, he whom earth and heaven increase, to whom the Priest of the call sacrifices for in him are all desirable things.

6. These have crossed beyond all by their lights, the men of strength who have fashioned excellently the Word, human beings who have gone forward eager to hear and have illumined for me something of this Truth.

7. Now we desire thee, O Fire, O son of force, as the master of the Riches, we the Vasishthas; thou hast obtained the impulsion for those who laud thee, those who have the plenty. Do you always guard us with all kinds of weal.

Page – 303

CONTINUE

HOME