SUKTA 1

1. I adore the Flame, the vicar, the divine Ritwik of the Sacrifice, the summoner who most founds the ecstasy.

2. The Flame adorable by the ancient sages is adorable too by the new. He brings here the Gods.

3. By the Flame one enjoys a treasure that verily increases day by day, glorious, most full of hero-power.

4. O Flame! the pilgrim-sacrifice on every side of which thou art with the environing being, that truly goes among the Gods.

5. The Flame, the summoner, the Seer-Will, true and most full of richly varied listenings, may he come a God with the Gods.

6. O Flame! the happy good which thou shalt create for the giver is that Truth and verily thine, O Angiras!

7. To thee, O Flame! we day by day, in the night and in the light, come, carrying by our thought the obeisance.

8. To thee, who reignest over our pilgrim-sacrifices, luminous guardian of the Truth, increasing in thy own home.

9. Therefore, be easy of access to us as a father unto his son, cling to us for our happy state.

MEDHATITHI KANWA

SUKTA 12

1. We choose Agni, the summoner, the all-knowing, the messenger, the will effective of this sacrifice.

2. To the Lord of the creatures, the bearer of our offerings, the beloved of Many, to every flame the sacrificers ever call with hymns that summon the Gods, One in whom are many dear things.

3. O Fire, thou being born hither bear the Gods for the sacrificer who spreads the holy seat, thou art our desirable summoning priest.

4. O Fire, when thou goest as our envoy, awaken them up who desire our offerings. Take thy seat with the Gods on the holy grass.

5. O Fire, thou who art called by the offerings of clarity, thou shining one, do thou oppose and burn down the haters that confine.

6. By the Fire is the fire perfectly kindled, the seer, the lord of the house, the youth, the bearer of offering whose mouth receives the offerings.

7. To the divine Flame, the seer, him whose law of being is the Truth, the shining one, the destroyer of all evils, approach and chant the hymn of praise.

8. O Flame, O divine messenger, the lord of the offerings who waits on thee, of him become the protector.

9. He who with the offerings approaches the divine force, for the Birth of the Gods, O Purifier, on him have grace.

10. O shining Flame, thou who purifiest, hither bear the Gods to our offerings and to our sacrifice.

11. Thou adored by our fresh Gayatri rhythms bring for us the felicity and force full of hero's strength.

12. O Fire, with thy lustres white, and all thy divine hymns that summon the Gods, come and accept this hymn that we affirm.

SUKTA 13

1. O Fire! perfectly kindled, bear the gods to him who has the offerings, O Thou who purifiest! Thou summoner! sacrifice to the gods.

2. O Son of the body! Now make the sacrifice honied for the gods (or full of honey among the gods) for their enjoyment, O seer.

3. Him, the beloved, I call hither to this sacrifice, he who creates the offerings, possessed of honied tongue.

4. O Fire! Thou who art adored, bring here the gods in thy happiest car; (for) thou art the summoner established by man.

5. O Thinkers! spread you the holy seat continuous and true in order, sprinkled with clear offerings (of clarified butter), to where is the vision of immortality.

SUKTA 14

1. With all these gods, O Agni, thou who art the activity of speech, arrive and do thy work.

2. On thee, O Agni, the Kanwas have called, for thee, O master of wisdom, their movements of understanding become articulate; arrive, O Agni, with the gods.

3. On Indra and Vayu, Brihaspati, on Mitra and Agni, Pushan, Bhaga, the Adityas and the Marut host.

4. For you the nectar streams are filled in, rapturous and maddening, dripping sweetness, into their vessel they settle down.

5. Thee the Kanwas protected adore, when they have manifested the Flame, hold the offering and have set their array.

6. Shining of flank, yoked to the mind, the bearers that bear thee and bear to us the gods to drink the Soma- wine,

7. make them active to the Yajna, O Agni, they increase by truth, they have with them their female powers; make them drink the sweetnesses, O keen of tongue.

8. Those that are active to Yajna, those that are adorable, let both of them drink with thy tongue, O Agni, the heady sweetness of the wine.

9. From the world of the lustre of the sun the seer, the priest of the offering bringeth the gods that wake to the dawn.

10. With all of them, O Agni, drink thou the sweetness of the Soma-wine, with Indra and Vayu and Mitra's lustres.

11. Thou, the priest of the oblation, thinker and friend, sittest, O Agni, at the Yajnas, therefore do thou set thyself to this action of sacrifice of ours.

12. Yoking, O God, in thy chariot the rosy and the green and the crimson, by these bear hither the gods.

KANWA GHAURA

SUKTA 36

l. The master of many peoples who labour towards the godhead, we seek for you with words of perfect expression, Agni whom others also everywhere desire.

2. Men hold Agni in them as the increaser of strength. With offerings we dispose the sacrifice for thee, do thou then become today to us perfect- minded and our keeper here in our havings, O thou who art of the truth of being.

3. Thee we choose out for our messenger, the priest of offering who hast universal knowledge; when thou art greatened in thy being thy flames range wide, thy lustres touch the heavens.

4. The gods even Varuna and Mitra and Aryaman light thee utterly, the ancient messenger; all wealth that mortal conquers by thee, O Agni, who to thee has given.

5. Thou art the rapturous priest of the sacrifice and master of this house and the envoy of creatures; in thee are met together all the steadfast laws of action which the gods have made.

6. It is in thee, O Agni, young and mighty, because thou art rich in joy that every offering is cast, therefore do thou today and hereafter, perfect of mind, offer to the gods perfected energies.

7. He it is, whom as the self-ruler men who have attained submission adore; by the greatness of the oblation men light entirely Agni when they have broken through their opposers.

8. They smite Vritra the coverer and pass beyond the two firmaments, and they make the wide kingdom their home. May the mighty One become in Kanwa a luminous energy fed with the offerings, the Steed of Life neighing in the pastures (stations) of the kine.

9. Take thy established seat; wide art thou, shine in thy purity revealing utterly the godhead; pour forth, O thou of the sacrifice, thy red active smoke of passion, thou wide-manifested, that full of vision.

10. Even thou whom the gods have set here for man most strong for the sacrifice, O bearer of the offering, whom Kanwa Medhyatithi has established as a seizer for him of his desired wealth, whom the mighty Indra and all who establish him by the song of praise;

11. even that Agni whom Medhyatithi Kanwa has kindled high upon the Truth, may his impulses blaze forth, him may these fulfilling Words, him, even Agni, may we increase.

12. Complete our felicities, O thou who hast the self-fixity; for with thee, O Agni, is effectivity in the gods; thou rulest over the wealth of inspired knowledge. Show thou then favour to us, great art thou.

13. Utterly high uplifted stand for our growth, like the god Savitri; it is from these heights that thou becomest the saviour of our store when we call on thee...

14. High-raised protect us from the evil by the perceiving mind, burn utterly every eater of our being; raise us too on high for action, for life; distribute among the gods our activity.

15. Protect us, O Agni, from the Rakshasa, protect us from the harm of the undelighting, protect us from him who assails and him who would slay us, O Vast of lustres, O mighty and young.

16. As with thick falling blows scatter utterly (or scatter like clouds to every side) all the powers of undelight, O devourer of their force (or destroyer of affliction), and him who would do us harm; whatsoever mortal being exceeds us by the keenness of his actions, may he not as our enemy have mastery over us.

17. Agni has won perfected energy for Kanwa and has won perfected enjoyment; Agni protects for him all friendly things, Agni keeps ever in safe being Medhyatithi who has confirmed him by the song of praise.

18. By Agni we call Turvasha and Yadu from the upper kingdoms; Agni has led to a new dwelling Brihadratha and Turviti (or Turviti of wide delight), a power against the foe.

19. Man establisheth thee within, O Agni, as a light for the eternal birth; mayest thou burn brightly in Kanwa manifested in the Truth and increased in being, thou to whom the doers of action bow down.

20. Impetuous, O Agni, and forceful are thy flames, terrible and not to be approached; always thou do burn utterly the powers who detain and the powers who are vessels of suffering, yea, every devourer.

NODHAS GAUTAMA

SUKTA 59

A HYMN OF THE UNIVERSAL DIVINE FORCE AND WILL

1. Other flames are only branches of thy stock, O Fire. All the immortals take in thee their rapturous joy. O universal Godhead, thou art the navel-knot of the earths and their inhabitants; all men born thou controllest and supportest like a pillar.

2. The Flame is the head of heaven and the navel of the earth and he is the power that moves at work in the two worlds. O Vaishwanara, the gods brought thee to birth a god to be a light to Aryan man.

3. As the firm rays sit steadfast in the Sun, all treasures have been placed in the universal godhead and flame. King art thou of all the riches that are in the growths of the earth and the hills and the waters and all the riches that are in men.

4. Heaven and Earth grow as if vaster worlds to the Son. He is the priest of our sacrifice and sings our words even as might a man of discerning skill. To Vaishwanara, for this most strong god who brings with him the light of the sun-world, its many mighty waters because his strength is of the truth.

5. O universal godhead, O knower of all things born, thy excess of greatness overflows even the Great Heaven. Thou art the king of the toiling human peoples and by battle madest the supreme good for the gods.

7. This is the universal godhead who by his greatness labours in all the peoples, the lustrous master of sacrifice, the Flame with his hundred treasures. This is he who has the word of the Truth.

PARASHARA SHAKTYA

SUKTA 65

1. He hides himself like a thief with the cow of vision in the secret cavern, he takes to himself our adoration, and thither he carries it. [[Or better, he takes to himself our surrender, he carries with him our surrender.]] The thinkers take a common joy in him, they follow him by his footprints; all the Masters of sacrifice come to thee, O Flame, in the secrecy.

2. The Gods follow after him the law of the workings of Truth. He stands encompassing all as heaven the earth. The Waters make him grow increasing in his bulk by their toil, [[Or, by their chant,]] the Flame well-born in their womb, in the abode of the Truth.

3. He is as if a delightful thriving, he is like the earth our wide dwelling-place. He is enjoyable like a hill and bliss-giving like fast-running water. He is like a charger in the battle rushing to the gallop and like a flowing river; [[Or, like a sea in its motion,]] who shall hedge in his course?

4. He is the close comrade of the Rivers as is a brother of his sisters. He devours the earth's forests as a king his enemies. When driven by the breath of the wind he ranges around the forests, the Flame tears asunder the hairs of Earth's body.

5. He breathes in the Waters like a seated swan. Waking in the dawn he has power by the will of his works to give knowledge to the peoples. He is like the God of the Wine, born of the Truth and a creator. He is like a cow with her newborn. He is wide-spreading and his light is seen from afar.

SUKTA 66

1. He is like a wealth richly diverse and like the all-seeing of the Sun. He is as if life and the breath of our existence, he is as if our eternal child. He is like a galloper bearing us. He clings to the forests: he is like a cow with her milk. He is pure-bright and wide is his lustre.

2. He holds all our good like a pleasant home; he is like ripe corn. He is a conqueror of men and like a chanting Rishi; there is word of him among the folk: he is as if our exultant steed of swiftness; he upholds our growth.

3. He is light in a house difficult to inhabit; [[Or, he is a light difficult to kindle;]] he is as a will ever active in us; he is like a wife in our abode and sufficient to every man. When he blazes wonderfully manifold, he is like one white in the peoples: he is like a golden chariot; he is a splendour in our battles.

4. He is like an army running to the charge and puts strength in us: he is like the flaming shaft of the Archer with its keen burning front. A twin he is born, a twin he is that which is to be born: he is the lover of the virgins and the husband of the mothers.

5. We by your movement, we by your staying, come to him when his light is kindled as the cows come home to their stall. He is like a river running in its channel and sends in his front the descending Waters: the Ray-Cows move to him in the manifesting of the world of the Sun. [[Or, when the Sun appears.]]

SUKTA 67

1. He is the conqueror in the forests; in mortals he is a friend: he chooses inspiration as a king an unaging councillor. He is as if our perfect welfare; [[Or, a perfecting good;]] he is like a happy will just in its thinking and becomes to us our Priest of the call and the bearer of our offerings.

2. He holds in his hands all mights: sitting in the secret cave he upholds [[Or, establishes]] the gods in his strength. Here men who hold in themselves the Thought come to know him when they have uttered the Mantras formed by the heart.

3. As the unborn he has held the wide earth, he has up-pillared heaven with his Mantras of truth. Guard the cherished footprints of the Cow of vision; O Fire, thou art universal life, enter into the secrecy of secrecies. [[Or, the secrecy of the secret Cave.]]

4. He who has perceived him when he is in the secret cave, he who has come to the stream of the Truth, those who touch the things of the Truth and kindle him, -- to such a one he gives word of the Riches.

5. He who in the growths of earth holds up his greatnesses, both the progeny born and what is in the mothers, he is Knowledge in the house of the Waters, and life universal; the thinkers have measured and constructed him like a mansion.

SUKTA 68

1. The carrier, burning, he reaches heaven. He unravels the nights and uncovers the stable and the moving; for this is the one God who envelops with himself the grandeurs of all the Gods.

2. All cleave to [[Or, take joy in]] thy will of works when, O God, thou art born a living being from dry matter. All enjoy the Name, the Godhead; by thy movements they touch Truth and Immortality.

3. He is the urgings of the Truth, the thinking of the Truth, the universal life by whom all do the works. He who gives to thee, he who gains from thee, [[Or, learns from thee,]] to him, for thou knowest, give the Riches.

4. He is the priest of the sacrifice seated in the son of Man: he verily is the lord of these riches. They desire the seed mutually in their bodies; the wise by their own discernings come wholly to know.

5. Those who listen to his teaching, those who are swift to the journey, serve gladly his will as sons the will of a father. He houses a multitude of riches and flings wide the doors of the Treasure. He is the dweller within who has formed heaven with its stars.

SUKTA 69

l. Blazing out brilliant as the lover of the Dawn, filling the two equal worlds [[Or, the two companions]] like the Light of Heaven, thou art born by our will and comest into being all around us; thou hast become the father of the Gods, thou who art the Son.

2. The Fire having the knowledge is a creator [[Or, ordainer of things]] without proud rashness; he is as if the teat of the Cows of Light, the sweetener [[Or ,taster of all foods]] of the draughts of the Wine. He is as one blissful in a man, one whom we must call in; he is seated rapturous in the middle of the house.

3. He is born to us as if a son rapturous in our house; like a glad horse of swiftness he carries safe through their battle the peoples: when I call to the beings who dwell in one abode with the Gods, [[Or, with men,]] the Flame attains all godheads.

4. None can impair the ways of thy workings when for these gods [[Or, these men]] thou hast created inspired knowledge. This is thy work that yoked with the Gods, thy equals, thou hast smitten, [[Or, that thou hast slain,]] that thou hast scattered the powers of evil.

5. Very bright and lustrous is he like the lover of Dawn. May his form be known and may he wake to knowledge for this human being, may all bear him in themselves, part wide the Doors and move into the vision of the world of the Sun. [[Or, come to the seeing of the Sun.]]

SUKTA 70

1. May we win the many Riches, may the Fire, flaming high with his light, master by the thinking mind, take possession of all things that are, he who knows the laws of the divine workings and knows the birth of the human being.

2. He is the child of the waters, the child of the forests, the child of things stable and the child of things that move. Even in the stone he is there for man, he is there in the middle of his house, -- he is as one universal in creatures; he is the Immortal, the perfect thinker.

3. The Fire is a master of the nights, he gives of the Riches to him who prepares for him the sacrifice with the perfect words. O thou who art conscious, guard, as the knower, these worlds, and the birth of the Gods, and mortal men.

4. Many nights of different forms have increased him, the Fire who came forth from the Truth, who is the stable and the moving: the Priest of the call, he is achieved for us, seated in the sun-world, [[Or, the sun,]] making true all our works.

5. Thou establishest word of thee in the Ray-Cow and in the forests; it is as if all were bringing the sun-world as offering. Men in many parts serve thee and gather in knowledge as from a long-lived father.

6. He is like one efficient in works and hungry to seize, heroic like one shooting arrows, terrible like an assailant charging, he is a splendour in our battles.

SUKTA 71

1. The Mothers who dwell in one abode, desiring came to him who desired them and gave him pleasure as to their eternal spouse: the sisters took joy in him as the Ray-Cows in the Dawn when she comes dusky, flushing red, then shining out in rich hues.

2. Our fathers by their words broke the strong and stubborn places, the Angiras seers shattered the mountain rock with their cry; they made in us a path to the Great Heaven, they discovered the Day and the sun-world and the intuitive ray and the shining herds.

3. They held the Truth, they enriched the thought of this human being; then, indeed, had they mastery and understanding bearing wide the Flame, the powers at work go towards the gods making the Birth to grow by delight.

4. When the Life-Breath borne pervadingly within has churned him out in house and house he becomes white and a conqueror. Then, indeed, he becomes the Flaming Seer and companioning us goes on an embassy as for a powerful king.

5. When he had made this sap of essence for the great Father Heaven, he came slipping downward, one close in touch, having knowledge. The Archer loosed violently on him his arrow of lightning, but the god set the flaming energy in his own daughter.

6. He who kindles the light for thee in thy own home and offers obeisance of surrender day by day and thy desire is towards him, mayst thou in thy twofold mass, increase his growth, he whom thou speedest in one car with thee, may he travel with the riches.

7. All satisfactions cleave to the Fire as the seven mighty rivers join the ocean. Our growth of being has not been perceived by thy companions, but thou who hast perceived, impart to the gods thy knowledge. [[Or, gain for us knowledge in the Gods.]]

8. When a flame of energy came to this King of men for impelling force, when in their meeting Heaven was cast in him like pure seed, the Fire gave birth to a might, [[Or, a host. It may mean the army of the life-gods, marutam sardhah.]] young and faultless and perfect in thought and sped it on its way.

9. He who travels the paths suddenly like the mind, the Sun, ever sole is the master of the treasure: Mitra and Varuna, the Kings with beautiful hands, are there guarding in the Rays [[Gosu, in the Ray-Cows, the shining herds of the Sun]] delight and immortality.

10. O Fire, mayst thou not forget [[Or, neglect or wipe out]] ancient friendships, thou who art turned towards us as the knower and seer. As a mist dims a form, age diminishes us; before that hurt falls upon us, arrive. [[Or, give heed, before that assault comes upon us.]]

SUKTA 72

1. He forms within us the seer-wisdoms of the eternal Creator holding in his hand many powers [[Or, many Strengths]] of the godheads. May Fire become the treasure-master of the riches, ever fashioning all immortal things. [[Or, fashioning together all immortal things.]]

2. All the immortals, the wise ones, desired but found not in us the Child who is all around; turning to toil on his track, upholding the Thought, they stood in the supreme plane, they reached the beauty of the Flame.

3. When for three years, O Fire, they worshipped thee, the pure ones thee the pure, with the clarity of the light, they held too the sacrificial Names, their bodies came to perfect birth and they sped them on the way.

4. The masters of sacrifice discovered and in their impetuous might bore the Vast Earth and Heaven, then the mortal knew them and by his holding of the upper [[ Nema, the half, referring apparently to the Great Heaven, "brhad dyauh", the upper half beyond which is the supreme plane.]] hemisphere perceived the Fire, standing in the supreme plane.

5. Utterly knowing him they with their wives came and knelt before him and adored with obeisance the adorable. They made themselves empty and formed their own bodies guarded in his gaze, friend in the gaze of friend.

6. When the masters of sacrifice have found hidden in thee the thrice seven secret planes, by them they guard with one mind of acceptance Immortality. Protect the Herds, those that stand and that which is mobile.

7. O Fire, thou art the knower of our knowings, ordain for the people an unbroken succession of strengths that they may live. The knower within of the paths of the journey of the gods, thou hast become a sleepless messenger and the carrier of the offerings.

8. The seven mighty Rivers from Heaven, deep-thinking, knowers of the Truth, knew the doors of the treasure; Sarama discovered the mass of the Ray-Cow, the strong place, the wideness, and now by that the human creature enjoys bliss.

9. These are they who set their steps on all things that have fair issue, making a path towards immortality. Earth stood wide in greatness by the Great Ones, the Mother infinite with her sons came to uphold her.

10. When the immortals made the two eyes of Heaven, they set in him the splendour and the beauty. Then there flow as if rivers loosed to their course; downward they ran, his ruddy mares, and knew, O Fire.

SUKTA 73

1. He is like an ancestral wealth that founds our strength, perfect in his leading like the command [[ Or, the teaching]] of one who knows, he is like a guest lying happily well-pleased, he is like a priest of invocation and increases the house of his worshipper.

2. He is like the divine Sun true in his thoughts and guards by his will all our strong places; he is like a splendour manifoldly expressed, he is like a blissful self and our support. [[Or, he is one to be meditated on (upheld in thought), blissful like the self.]]

3. He is like a God upholding the world and he inhabits earth like a good and friendly king: he is like a company of heroes sitting in our front, dwelling in our house; he is as if a blameless wife beloved of her lord.

4. Such art thou, O Fire, to whom men cleave, kindled eternal in the house in the abiding worlds of thy habitation. They have founded within upon thee a great light; become a universal life holder of the riches.

5. O Fire, may the masters of wealth enjoy thy satisfactions, the illumined wise Ones givers of the whole of life: may we conquer the plenitude from the foe in our battles [[Or, warriors in the battles may we conquer the plenitude]] holding our part in the Gods for inspired knowledge.

6. The milch-cows of the Truth, enjoyed in heaven, [[Or, shared by heaven,]] full uddered, desiring us, have fed us with their milk: praying for right-thinking from the Beyond the Rivers flowed wide over the Mountain.

7. O Fire, in thee praying for right- thinking, the masters of sacrifice set inspired knowledge in heaven: they made night and dawn of different forms and joined together the black and the rosy hue.

8. The mortals whom thou speedest to the Treasure, may we be of them, the lords of riches and we. Filling earth and heaven and mid-air thou clingest to the whole world like a shadow.

9. O Fire, safeguarded [[Or, upheld]] by thee may we conquer the war- horses by our war-horses, the strong men by our strong men, the heroes by our heroes; may our illumined wise ones become masters of the treasure gained by the fathers, and possess them living a hundred winters.

10. O ordainer of things, O Fire, may these utterances be acceptable to thee, to the mind and to the heart; may we have strength to control with firm yoke thy riches, holding in thee the inspired knowledge enjoyed by the gods. [[Or, distributed by the gods.]]

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 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.

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.

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

1. Burn 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 flaming 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!

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!

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 longing [[Or, high-uplifted lustre seeking for the Gods]] 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 thoughts, men's priest of the call, [[Or, the priest of the call for men who see,]] 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 on [[or, we hold]] that fullness of him on the upper levels, this Fire the vision of whom is brighter in the night than in 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. [[Or, in the esoteric sense, the army of the Life-Powers moving with fertilising rain over our tilled and our waste lands.]] 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.

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, for the enjoying; for those who hymn thee, O Lord of plenty, churn out a great hero-strength as one puissant by his force.

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 bright [[Or, white; sukra, a white brightness.]] 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 one [[Or, with his tongue in the presence of the one]] he is the strong master and enjoyer, with the other he engirdles and crushes in his embrace [[Mrs is used of the sexual contact; varanah from vr to cover, surround.]] 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 child [[Or, following their child]] for his tongue is lifted upward, he destroys and rushes swiftly through and should be chosen, increasing his father. [[Expl. 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.]]

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 on [[Or, speed and pervade]] 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. [[Mahimavanim might mean the vast earth, but avani and even prthivi are not used in the Veda invariably, the former not usually, to mean earth, but stray or return to their original sense -- sapta avanayah]]

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 bodies [[Or, he makes blissful the forms of things]] and like a fierce beast hard to seize he tosses his horns. [[Babhrusu, the cows, arunayah of a later verse -- knowledge in the mortal mind.]]

7. He whether contracted in being or wide-extended seizes on them utterly; he knowing, they knowing the eternal Agni enjoys [[Or, lies with]] them, then again they increase and go to the state 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; [[Mamrusih is uncertain. It may be dead or dying. Rebhire = delight, is here perfectly proved.]] 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. [[Rihan, rerihat are uncertain.]]

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. [[Svasi is the Greek Kasis and an old variant of svasr, wife or sister. Therefore it is coupled with vrsa like patni.]]

11. This, O Agni, is that which is well-established upon the ill 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.