BUDHA AND GAVISHTHIRA

SUKTA 1

1. Fire is awake by the kindling of the peoples, he fronts the dawn that comes to him like a fostering milch cow; like the mighty ones casting upward their branching his lustres spread towards heaven.

2. The Priest of the call is awake for sacrifice to the gods, Fire with his right thinking has stood up high ablaze. The red glowing mass of him is seen: a great god has been delivered out of the darkness.

3. When he put out the long cord of his troop, Fire in his purity reveals all by the pure herds of his rays; the goddess of understanding is yoked to her works, she supine he standing high, he has drunk from her breasts with his tongues of flame.

4. The minds of men who seek the godhead converge towards the flame even as their seeings converge in the sun; when two dawns of different forms give birth to this Fire the white Horse is born in front of the days.

5. He was born victorious in front of the days, established in established things, ruddy bright in the woodlands of our pleasure; in house and house founding the seven ecstasies the Fire took up his session as a Priest of the call strong for sacrifice.

6. Strength has taken his seat as the Priest of the offering mighty for sacrifice in the lap of the Mother, in that rapturous other world, the youth, the seer, manifold in his fixed knowledge, possessed of the Truth, the upholder of the peoples; in between too, is he kindled.

7. Men pray with their prostrations of surrender that illumined seer, who achieves perfection in the pilgrim sacrifices, Fire, the Priest of the call, for he has extended earth and heaven by the Truth, they rub bright with the Light the eternal Horse of power.

8. The purifier he is rubbed bright and pure, he who is proclaimed by the seers, one who is the dweller in his own house, and is our benignant guest; the bull of the thousand horns because thou hast the strength of That, O Fire, thou precedest in puissance all others.

9. At once thou goest forward, O Fire, and overpassest all others in whomsoever thou hast become manifest in all the glory of thy beauty; adorable, great of body, wide of light thou art the beloved guest of human beings.

10. To thee, O ever youthful Fire, all the worlds and their peoples bring the offering from near and from far; awake to that right-mindedness of man's happiest state: vast and great and happy is that peace of thee, [[Or, is thy house of refuge,]] O Fire.

11. Today, O luminous one, mount the luminous wholeness of thy car with the lords of sacrifice, thou knowest the wide mid world with all its paths, bring here the gods to partake of our sacrifice.

12. To the seer, the understanding one, we have uttered the word of our adoration, to the Bull, the male; the Steadfast in Light has taken refuge in his laud as in a far reaching mass of gold.

KUMAR ATREYA OR VRISHA JANA

SUKTA 2

1. The young Mother carries the boy suppressed in the secret cavern and she gives him not to the father; his force is undiminished, men see him in front established inwardly in the movement.

2. Who is this boy, O young mother, whom thou carriest in thyself when thou art compressed into form, but when thou art vast thou hast given him birth? Through many years grew the child in the womb, I saw him born when the mother brought him forth.

3. I saw him in a distant field, one golden- tusked and pure-bright of hue shaping his weapons: to him I am giving immortality in my several parts and what shall they do to me who possess not Indra and have not the word?

4. In that field I saw ranging apart what seemed a happy herd in its many forms of beauty; none could seize on them, for he was born, even those of them who were grey with age became young again.

5. Who were they that divorced my strength from the herds of light? Against them there was no protector nor any fighter in this war. Let those who seized them release them back to me, he has become aware and is driving back to me my herds of vision.

6. The hostile powers have hidden within in mortals the king of those who dwell in creatures in whom all creatures dwell; let the wisdom words of Atri release him, let the binders themselves become the bound.

7. Shunahshepa too was bound to the thousandfold post of sacrifice, him didst thou release and he attained to calm; [[Or, he achieved the work;]] so do thou take thy seat here in us, O conscious knower, O Priest of the call, and loose from us the cords of our bondage.

8. Mayst thou not grow wroth and depart from me: he who guards the law of working of the gods declared it to me; Indra knew and sought after and saw thee, and taught by him, O Fire, I have come to thee.

9. This Fire shines with the Vast Light and makes all things manifest by his greatness. He overpowers the workings of knowledge that are undivine and evil in their impulse, he sharpens his horns to gore the Rakshasa.

10. May the voices of the Fire be sharp weapons to slay the Rakshasa. In his ecstasy his angers break down, all the Maniktalab undivine obstructions that besiege us cannot hem him in.

11. O thou of the many births, I the sage, the thinker, the man of perfect works have fashioned for thee this laud like a chariot. If, indeed, O god, thou shouldst take an answering joy in it, by this we could conquer the waters that carry the light of the sun world.

12. The bull with the neck of might, whom no enemy can oppose, grows and comes driving from the foe the riches of knowledge. So have the immortals spoken to this Fire that he may work out peace for man when he prepares the sacred seat, work out peace for man when he brings the offering.

VASUSHRUTA

SUKTA 3

1. Thou art Varuna, O Fire, when thou art born, thou becomest Mitra when thou blazest high; in thee are all the gods, O son of Force, thou art Indra for the mortal giver.

2. O holder of the self law, thou becomest Aryaman when thou bearest the secret name of the Virgins; they reveal thee with the Rays as Mitra firmly founded when thou makest of one mind the Lord of the house and the Spouse.

3. For the glory of thee, O Rudra, the life powers make bright thy birth into a richly manifold beauty. When that highest step [[The supreme plane of the three.]] of Vishnu is founded within, thou guardest by it the secret name of the Ray cows.

4. By the glory of thee who hast the true seeing, the gods hold a multiple completeness and taste [[Or, touch]] immortality; men take up their session with Fire, the Priest of the call, aspiring, making a gift of the self expression of the human being.

5. There is none who precedes thee as priest of the call, O Fire, none mightier for sacrifice, there is none supreme over thee in the seer wisdoms, O master of the self law, and of what soever man thou becomest the guest, he conquers by sacrifice, O godhead, those who are mortals.

6. May we who seek the Riches win them by the offering, we guarded by thee and awakened, O Fire, we in the clash of the battle, in our discoveries of knowledge through days, we by the Treasure overcome mortal men, O son of Force.

7. He who brings sin and transgression upon us, on him who gives expression to evil, on himself may there be put that evil; O thou who art conscious, slay this hostile assault, O Fire, even him who oppresses us with the duality. [[The division or the twofoldness of the nature divided between good and evil.]]

8. Thee in the dawning of this night, O godhead, the ancients made their messenger and gave sacrifice with their oblations; for thou art the godhead kindled by mortals who have the light [[Or, the riches]] and thou travellest to the House of the Treasures.

9. Rescue thy father, in thy knowledge keep him safe, thy father who becomes thy son and bears thee, O son of Force. O conscious knower, when wilt thou look upon us? When with thy Truth Consciousness wilt thou set us to our journey?

10. The father adores and establishes the mighty name because thou, O shining one, bringest him to accept and take pleasure in it; once and again, the Fire increases and desiring the bliss of the godhead he conquers it by force.

11. O youthful god, thou, indeed, carriest safe thy adorer beyond all stumblings, O Fire; for the hostile beings are seen, the thieves, even they who know not the light of intuitive knowledge and turn to crookedness.

12. These journeys have turned towards thee, that evil in us has been declared to the Shining One, O this Fire as he grows will not deliver us to the assailant and the hurter.

SUKTA 4

1. O Fire, O king, towards thee the Wealth master of the riches I turn and delight in thee in the pilgrim sacrifice, replenishing thee may we conquer the plenitude, may we overcome the battle hosts of mortals.

2. The ageless Fire that carries the offering is the father of us, he in us is pervasive in his being, extended in light, perfect in vision. Accomplished in the works of the master of the house blaze out thy forces, form and turn towards us thy inspirations.

3. The seer, the master of men, lord of the human peoples, Fire, pure and purifying with its back of light set within you as the omniscient priest of the call; he shall win our desirable things in the godheads.

4. Of one mind with the goddess of revelation take pleasure in us, O Fire, labouring with the rays of the sun; accept with pleasure our fuel, O knower of all things born, and bring the gods to us to partake of our sacrifice.

5. A cherished guest domiciled in our gated house come to this sacrifice of ours as the knower; O Fire, slaying all who assail us bring to us the enjoyments of those who make themselves the enemy.

6. Drive away from us the Destroyer with thy stroke making free space for thy own body; when thou carriest the gods over safe, O son of Force, us, O Fire, strongest godhead, guard in the plenitude.

7. O Fire, may we worship thee with our words, thee with our offerings, O purifier, O happy light; into us bring the treasure in which are all desirable things, in us establish substance of every kind of riches.

8. Accept our pilgrim sacrifice, O Fire, accept, O son of Force, O holder of the triple world of thy session, our offering. May we be doers of good deeds before the godheads, protect us with a triple armour of peace.

9. O knower of all things born, carry us through all difficult passages, through all calamities as a ship over the ocean. O Fire, voiced by us with our obeisance even as did Atri, awake and be the guardian of our bodies.

10. I think of thee with a heart that is thy bard and mortal I call to thee immortal; O knower of all things born, establish the glory in us, by the children of my works, O Fire, may I win immortality.

11. The doer of great deeds for whom thou shalt make that happy other world, O knower of all things born, reaches in peace a wealth in which are the Horses of swiftness, the Ray Cows, the Son, the Heroes.

SUKTA 5

1. On the high kindled flame pour as offering a poignant clarity, to Fire, the knower of all things born.

2. The spokesman of the godhead, the inviolable hastens the sacrifice on its way, for this is the seer who comes with the wine of sweetness in his hands.

3. O Fire, we have sought thee with our adoration, bring hither Indra the rich in light, the beloved with his happy chariots to protect us.

4. Spread wide, O seat, soft as wool the songs of illuminations sound high; O bright one, be with us for the conquest.

5. Swing wide, O divine doors; be easy of approach that you may be our guard: lead further further and fill full our sacrifice.

6. Dawn and night we seek with desire the two mighty Mothers of the Truth with their fair front to us who increase our being's space.

7. O worshipped twain, O divine priests of man's call, arrive on the path of the wind to this our sacrifice.

8. May Ila, Saraswati, and Mahi, [[Ila, goddess of revelation; Saraswati, goddess of inspiration; Mahi, goddess of the Vast Truth, Mahas or rtam brhat.]] the three goddesses who create the bliss sit on the sacred seat, they who never err.

9. O maker of forms, hither benignant arrive all pervading in thy fostering to us and in thyself; in sacrifice on sacrifice us upward guard.

10. O Tree, [[Or, O master of delight,]] there where thou knowest the secret names of the gods make rich our offerings.

11. Swaha to the Fire and to Varuna, Swaha to Indra and the Life powers, Swaha to the gods be our offering.

SUKTA 6

1. I meditate on the Fire who is the dweller in things, [[Or, who is the Shining One,]] to whom the milch cows go as to their home, to their home the swift war horses, to their home the eternal steeds of swiftness. [[Or, steeds of the plenitude.]] Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

2. This is the Fire who is the dweller in things voiced by me, in whom meet the milch cows, and in him the swift galloping war horses and in him the illuminates who have come to the perfect birth. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

3. The all seeing Fire gives the steed of the plenitude to man, Fire the horse that comes swiftly to him for the riches; when he is pleased he journeys to the desirable good. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

4. O Fire, we kindle thy luminous and ageless flame; when the fuel of thee becomes more effective in its labour, it blazes up in heaven. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

5. O Fire, O Master of the brilliant Light, the offering is cast to thee with the word of illumination, O bearer of the offering, O master of the creature, achiever of works, O delightful Flame. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

6. In thy fires those greater fires of thee nurse every desirable good; they, they race, they run, they drive on in their impulse without a break. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

7. O Fire, those rays of thine, thy steeds of plenitude greaten the Vast; they gallop with tramplings of their hooves to the pens of the ray cows. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

8. Bring to us who laud thee, O Fire, new impelling forces that lead to happy worlds; may we be of those who with thee for their messenger sing the hymn of illumination in home and home. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

9. O delightful Flame, thou turnest both the ladles of the streaming clarity towards thy mouth; then mayst thou carry us high beyond in the utterances, O Master of might. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

10. Thus have they driven and controlled the Fire without a break by their words and their sacrifices; may he found in us the perfect hero might and the perfect power of the Horse. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

ISHA

SUKTA 7

l. O comrades, in you an integral force and complete laud to Fire the most powerful among the peoples, to the mighty child of energy.

2. Whom wheresoever they come into contact with, him men who have the power rapturously set alight in this house of man and all beings born strive to bring to birth.

3. Whenso we win completely the impulsions of force, completely the offerings human beings must give, then he gathers to himself the Ray of the light and the might and the Truth.

4. Yea, he creates the light of intuition even for one who is far off in the night, the purifying and imperishable Fire ravages the trees of the forest.

5. When in his service men cast down their sweat on the paths, they ascend to a self born ground as if to wide levels.

6. Him mortal man must come to know as one who holds the multitude of his desires so that he may establish in him all; he moves towards the sweet taste of the draughts of the wine and to the building of the house for man.

7. Pure and bright, verily, is he and he tears our desert dwelling place, [[Or, the solid ground on which we dwell,]] like a beast who tears, a beast with golden beard and tusks of bright purity, he is like a smith whose force is unafflicted by the heat of the Fire.

8. Yes, he is pure and bright and he is as one whose axe is like an eater and ever enters deeper; with a happy delivery his mother bore him, for he is an achiever of the work and wins enjoyment of the bliss.

9. O Fire, to whom is poured the running stream of the offering of light, the man who is a happy ground for establishing thee, in such mortals found the light, and the inspiration and the knowledge.

10. Even so, irresistible born, I receive the force of mind, the cow of vision given by thee. O Fire, then may Atri overcome the destroyers who satisfy thee not, may he overcome forces and men.

SUKTA 8

1. O Fire, created by our force, thee the Ancient One, the ancient seekers of Truth set blazing for their guard the master of sacrifice with his many delights who establishes all, Fire who dwells in the house, master of the house, the supremely desirable.

2. Thee, O Fire, men seated within as the ancient guest, the master of the house with his tresses of light, vast is his intuition, many are his forms, he brings out the riches, he is a giver of perfect peace and protection and a destroyer of the foe.

3. Thee the human people pray, O Fire, who knowest the word of invocation, who hast the just discernment, who art strong est to found the ecstasy, thee who dwellest in the secret cave, O happy Flame, and hast the vision of all things, the perfect sacrificer with the multitude of thy voices and the glory and beauty of thy light.

4. Thee, O Fire, who upholdest all things in every way we voicing thee with our words have approached with obeisance; so do thou accept us, O Angiras, a godhead kindled by the glory of a mortal and by his high illuminings.

5. O Fire, thou takest many forms for man and man and thou foundest for him his growth as of old, O thou lauded by many voices; many are the things on which thou feedest and thou illuminest them all with thy force, and none can do violence to the fury of thy blaze when thou blazest up in thy might.

6. Thee, O youthful Fire, in thy high kindling the gods have made a messenger and a carrier of the offerings; thee of whom light is the native seat and wide are the spaces through which thou movest, they have set when thou hast received the offerings as a keen burning eye that urges the thought.

7. Thee, O Fire, fed with offerings of light from the higher heaven the seekers of bliss [[Or, from of old; or, the ancient seekers of bliss]] kindled with an entire kindling, so now growing on the herbs to thy full might thou spreadest over wide earth spaces.

GAYA

SUKTA 9

1. Thee, O Fire, men bringing offerings pray, mortals the godhead; I meditate on thee as the knower of all things born and as such thou carriest our offerings without a break.

2. Fire is the priest of the call in the house of the giver who has plucked the grass for the seat of sacrifice and in him our sacrifices meet and our plenitudes of inspired knowledge.

3. Verily, the two tinders have brought to birth as if a new born infant Fire who does aright the pilgrim sacrifice, to be the upholder of the human beings.

4. Verily, thou art hard to seize like a son of crookednesses; many are the trees of the forest thou consumest, O Fire, like a beast in his pasture.

5. Now, verily, his rays with their smoke meet perfectly together when Trita, the triple one, blows upon him in heaven like a smelter, it is as if in the smelter that he whets his flame.

6. I by thy guardings, O Fire, and by thy utterances as the friend like men beset by hostile powers so may we pass beyond the stumbling places of mortals.

7. O forceful Fire, bring to us, to men, the treasure; may he cast his shafts, may he foster us, may he be with us for the conquest of the plenitude. Be with us in our battles that we may grow.

SUKTA 10

1. O Fire, bring to us a light full of energy, O unseizable Ray; for us by thy opulence pervading on every side cut out in our front a path to the plenitude.

2. O Fire, O Wonderful, come to us with thy will and the growth of the judgment; in thee the sacrificial Friend, achiever of the work can climb to almightiness.

3. Increase for us, O Fire, the acquisition and the growth of these who are men that are illuminates and by their laudings of thee have attained to the plenitudes of the riches,

4. who, O delightful Fire, have achieved the power of the horse and make beautiful their words of thee, strong men with their strength whose is the Vast that is greater even than heaven, for in them that glory by itself awakes.

5. These are those flaming rays of thine, O Fire, and they go blazing and violent, like lightnings that run over all quarters, like the voice of a chariot seeking the plenitude.

6. Soon, O Fire, may alike those of us who are opposed and obstructed attain to protection and the giving of the riches and our illuminates break through all directions and beyond.

7. Thou, O Fire, O Angiras, after and during the laud bring to us riches of a far reaching force, O Priest of the call, for those who laud thee and for our further laud. Be with us in our battles that we may grow.

SUTAMBHARA

SUKTA 11

1. Fire the guardian of men has been born, wakeful and discerning for a new happy journey; luminous is his front and with his heaven touching vast he shines out full of light and brilliant in his purity for the Bringers.

2. Fire the supreme intuition of the sacrifice, the representative priest, men have kindled high in the triple world of his session; let him come in one chariot with Indra and the gods and take his seat on the sacred grass, the Priest of the call, strong in will to sacrifice.

3. Unoppressed thou art born brilliant pure from the mothers twain, a rapturous Priest of the call thou hast risen up from the sun; they have increased thee with the offering of light, O Fire, fed with the oblation and thy smoke has become a ray of intuition lodged in heaven.

4. May the Fire come to our sacrifice with power to accomplish, men carry the Fire severally in house and house; the Fire has become the messenger and carrier of our offering; when men accept the Fire it is the seer will that they accept.

5. For thee, O Fire, this word most full of the honey sweetness, for thee this Thinking, let it be a happiness to thy heart; thee our words fill with force as the great rivers fill the sea and make thee grow.

6. Thee, O Fire, the Angiras sought and found hidden in the secrecy lodging in tree and tree; by our pressure on thee thou art born a mighty force, the Son of Force they call thee, O Angiras!

SUKTA 12

1. To Fire, the vast sacrificial Flame, to the Bull of the Truth, to the mighty lord I bring my thought as if the offering of light in the sacrifice, purified in the mouth I bring the word turned to meet him for the master of the herds.

2. O thou conscious of the Truth, of the Truth alone be conscious, cut out in succession many streams of the Truth; I know not how to travel by force or by division to the Truth of the shining lord.

3. By what thought of ours seeking the Truth by the Truth shalt thou become for us, O Fire, a new discoverer of the word? The god who is guardian of the order and laws of the Truth knows me but I know him not, the master of the conquering riches.

4. O Fire, who are these that are binders of the Adversary, who are the guardians, the luminous ones that shall possess and conquer? who keep the foundation of the Falsehood, O Fire? who are the guardians of the untrue Word?

5. These were thy comrades, O Fire, who have turned away from thee, they were benignant and have become malign; they have done violence to themselves by their words speaking crooked things to the seeker after straightness.

6. But he, O Fire, who desires with obeisance the sacrifice, guards the Truth of the luminous lord; let there come to him his wide and perfect habitation, the last state of man as he advances on his journey.

SUKTA 13

1. Singing the word of illumination we call to thee, singing the word of illumination we kindle, singing the word of illumination, O Fire, that thou mayst be our guard.

2. Seekers of the riches we meditate today the all achieving laud of the divine, heaven touching Fire.

3. May Fire accept our words, he who is the priest of the call in men; may he sacrifice to the divine kind.

4. Great is thy wideness, O Fire, our priest of the call, beloved and supremely desirable; by thee men carry out the sacrifice.

5. Thee high lauded, O Fire, the strong conqueror of the plenitudes, the illumined wise increase; so do thou give us the gift of a complete hero might.

6. As the rim of a wheel the spokes, so dost thou encompass the gods; thou shalt arrange for us our rich achievement.

SUKTA 14

1. Awake by the laud the Fire, let the immortal be kindled and let him set our offerings in the godheads.

2. Him they pray in the pilgrim sacrifices, mortals the divine and immortal who is strong for sacrifice in human kind.

3. Him, the divine Fire, the perpetual generations pray with the ladle dripping the clarity for the carrying of their offerings.

4. Fire at his birth has shone out slaying the destroyers, darkness by the light, he found the Ray Cows, the Waters, the Sun World.

5. Serve Fire the supremely desirable, the seer with his back of Light; may he come, may he hear my call.

6. The Fire they have made to grow by the light, the all seeing by their lauds that place rightly the thought, that seek for the word.

DHARUNA ANGIRASA

SUKTA 15

1. I bring my word to the creator and seer, him whom we must know, the glorious, the ancient one; Fire the Mighty One seated in the light, full of bliss, the holder of the Treasure, the continent of the Riches.

2. By the Truth they held the Truth that holds all, in the might of the sacrifice, in the supreme ether, they who reached the gods seated in the law that is the upholder of heaven, reached by the godheads born the unborn.

3. They weave bodies that reject evil, they weave a vast expansion hard to cross for the ancient one; he new born can cross through the regions [[Or, breaks through his converging hunters]] though they stand around him as around an angry lion.

4. When growing wide thou bearest like a mother birth after birth for firm foundation, for vision, when thou holdest and wearest out manifestation after manifestation, taking many forms thou encompassest all things with thyself.

5. May thy plenitude guard the last limit of thy force, the wide continent of the riches that milks out its abundance, O godhead: like a thief thou holdest in the secrecy that plane, awakening him to the consciousness of the great riches thou hast rescued Atri.

PURU

SUKTA 16

1. Create by the illumining word a wide expansion for the Light, for the divine Fire, whom mortals by their proclaimings of him set in their front as Mitra the friend.

2. He is men's priest of the call who by his illuminations carries in his two arms of the Understanding the offerings wholly in a continuous order; as Bhaga, the enjoyer, he reaches our desirable good.

3. In the lauding of this master of plenty, in his friendship as his light grows, for all things are in this Fire of the many voices, men have founded their strength in him, the Noble One.

4. Now, indeed, O Fire, these have reached a plenitude of heroic strength, around him as around one mighty, earth and heaven have become an inspired knowledge.

5. Now, voiced by our word, come to us and bring to us our desirable good; we here and the illumined seers, let us together found our blissful state. And do thou be with us in our battles that we may grow.

SUKTA 17

1. Mortal man should pray thee, O God, by the sacrifices because thou hast the right strength for his guard; when well- done is the pilgrim sacrifice man must pray the Fire that he may protect him.

2. By his mouth, in his complete law, thou becomest greater in the self glory and holdest in mind that rapturous heaven manifoldly brilliant in its light beyond the thinking mind.

3. This, indeed, is he who by the ray of this Fire has become possessed of the force and the word and whose rays by the seed of heaven blaze into a vast light.

4. By the will of this completely conscious achiever of works the riches are there in his car; so now is the Fire the one to be called and he is proclaimed in all the peoples.

5. Now, indeed, by the mouth of the Fire, can the luminous seers cleave to that desirable good; O son of energy, protect us that we may enter in, have power for the happy state. And do thou be with us in our battles that we may conquer.

DWITA MRIKTAWAHAS

SUKTA 18

1. Let the Fire with his multitude of delightful things, the guest of man, receive the laud at dawn, he who is immortal in mortals and takes joy in all their offerings.

2. The plenitude of his own understanding for the twofold power that carries the purified offering; he holds uninterruptedly the moon wine and he too who lauds thee, holds it, O immortal.

3. I call him by the word who is the light of long extended life for you the lords of plenty, you whose chariot goes abroad without hurt, O giver of the Horse,

4. in whom is the richly brilliant light of thought and they guard the utterances in their mouths; spread is the sacred seat and they found the inspirations all around it in the Godhead of the sun world.

5. They who have given me in the moment of the laud the fifty steeds of swiftness create for those lords of plenty a great and luminous inspired knowledge, create for those gods the Vast, with its gods, O Immortal, O Fire.

VAVRI

SUKTA 19

1. State upon state is born, covering upon covering has be come conscious and aware, in the lap of the mother he sees.

2. Awaking to an entire knowledge they have called and guard a sleepless strength, they have entered the strong fortified city.

3. Creatures born, men who people the earth have increased the luminosity of the son of the white mother; his neck wears the golden necklace, he has the utterance of the Vast, and with his honey wine he is the seeker of the plenitude.

4. He is as if the delightful and desirable milk of the mother, he is that which is uncompanioned abiding with the two companions; he is the blaze of the light, and the belly of the plenitude, he is the eternal invincible and the all conqueror.

5. O Ray, mayst thou be with us and play with us, unifying thy knowledge with the shining of the breath of life; may those flames of him be for us violent and intense and keenly whetted, strong to carry and settled in the breast.

PRAYASWATS

SUKTA 20

1. O Fire, O thou who art most strong to conquer the plenitudes, the wealth which thou holdest in mind that make full of inspiration by the words and set it to work in the gods as our ally.

2. They have grown on thy forceful strength, O Fire, yet impel us not on the way, they fall away and cleave to the hostility, cleave to the crookedness of one who has a law alien to thine.

3. Thee, O Fire, the ancient one, we choose in our sacrifices as the Priest of the call, one who accomplishes a discerning knowledge, and bringing the pleasant offering we call thee by the word.

4. So rightly make it that we may live in thy protection and that we may grow towards the Truth day by day, O forceful Fire, O strong in will, together rejoicing in the light of the Ray Cow, together rejoicing in the strength of the Heroes.

SASA

SUKTA 21

1. As the human we set thee within us, as the human we kindle thee; O Fire, O Angiras, as the human offer sacrifice to the gods for the seeker of the godheads.

2. O Fire, thou art kindled in the human being and well- satisfied; unceasing ladles go to thee, O perfect in thy birth, O thou who receivest as oblation the stream of his clarities!

3. Thee all the gods with one mind of acceptance made their envoy; men serving thee pray thee as the godhead in their sacrifices, O seer.

4. Let mortal man with will to the divine sacrifice to you, pray to the divine Fire; O brilliant Flame, high kindled shine; mayst thou take thy seat in the native home of the Truth, take thy seat in the native home of the peace.

VISHWASAMAN

SUKTA 22

1. O thou of the universal peace, as the Atri sing the word of illumination to Fire of the purifying light who is to be prayed in the pilgrim sacrifices, the Priest of the call, most rapturous in man.

2. Set within you Fire, the knower of all things born, as the divine ordinant of the rite; let your sacrifice march forward today most strong to bring the epiphany of the gods.

3. Mortals we fix our minds on thee the godhead who hast the mind of conscious knowledge for the protection as we journey, for the guardian supremely desirable.

4. O Fire, become conscious of this in us, this is our word, O forceful Flame: O strong-jawed master of the house this is thou whom the Atris magnify with their lauds, whom the Atris glorify with their words.

DYUMNA VISHWACHARSHANI

SUKTA 23

1. O Fire, bring by the force of the light a forceful wealth which shall overcome by thy mouth in the plenitudes all the peoples.

2. O forceful Fire, bring that wealth which overcomes armies, for thou art the true, the wonderful, the giver of the plenitude of the Ray Cows.

3. All men who have plucked the sacred grass with one mind of acceptance approach thee, the beloved Priest of the call in their houses and reach in thee the multitude of desirable things.

4. This is the labourer in all man's works and he holds in himself an all besieging force. O pure brilliant Flame, shine out full of joy and opulence in these our habitations, shine out full of light, O our purifier.

GAUPAYANAS OR LAUPAYANAS

SUKTA 24

1 2. O Will, become our inmost inmate, become auspicious to us, become our deliverer and our armour of protection. Thou who art the lord of substance and who of that substance hast the divine knowledge, come towards us, give us its most luminous opulence.

3 4. Awake! hear our call! keep us far from all that seeks to turn us to evil. O shining One, O Flame of purest Light, thee for our comrades we desire that even now they may have the bliss and peace.

VASUYUS

SUKTA 25

1. Raise thy song towards the Will, towards the divine for thy increasing, for he is our lord of substance and he lavishes; he is the son of the seekers of knowledge; he is the keeper of the Truth who ferries us beyond the surge of our destroyers.

2. This is the true in his being whom the seers of old kindled, yea, the gods too kindled him with perfect outshinings into his wide substance of the light, the Priest of the oblation with his tongue of ecstasy.

3. O Flame supremely desirable, so by our supreme thinking, by our brightest perfected mentality, by its utter cleaving away of all evil, let thy light give unto us the bliss.

4. The Will is that which shines out in the gods, the Will is that which enters with its light into mortals, the Will is the carrier of our oblation; the Will seek and serve in all your thoughts.

5. The Will gives to the giver of sacrifice the Son [[The Son of the sacrifice is a constant image in the Veda. Here it is the godhead himself, Agni who gives himself as a son to man, a Son who delivers his father. Agni is also the War-Horse and the steed of the journey, the White Horse, the mystic galloping Dadhikravan who carries us through the battle to the goal of our voyaging.]] born of his works who teems with the many inspirations and many voices of the soul, the highest, the unassailable, the Master of things who opens our ears to the knowledge.

6. Yea, 'tis the Will that gives to us the Lord of existences who conquers in the battle by souls of power; Will gives to us our swift galloping steed of battle ever conquering, never conquered.

7. That which is strongest in us to upbear, we give it to the Will. Sing out the Vast, O thou whose wide substance is its light. Thy opulence is as if the largeness of the Goddess [[Aditi, the vast Mother.]] herself; upward is the rush of thy plenitudes.

8. Luminous are thy flaming radiances; there rises from thee a vast utterance like the voice of the pressing stone of delight; yea, thy cry of itself rises up like a thunder chant from the heavens.

9. Thus, desiring substance, we adore the Will who is forceful to conquer. May he who has the perfect power of his workings, carry us beyond all the forces that seek to destroy us, like a ship over the waters.

SUKTA 26

l. O Flame, O purifier, bring to us by thy tongue of rapture, O god, the gods and offer to them sacrifice.

2. Thou who drippest the clarity, thou of the rich and varied luminousness, we desire thee because thou hast the vision of our world of the Truth. Bring to us the gods for their manifesting. [[Or, "for the journeying" to the luminous world of the Truth, or "for the eating" of the oblations.]]

3. O Seer, we kindle thee in thy light and thy vastness in the march of our sacrifice who carriest the offerings on their Journey.

4. Come, O Will, with all the godheads for the giving of the oblation; thee we accept as the Priest of the offering.

5. For the sacrificer who presses the wine of his delight, bring, O Flame, a perfect energy. Sit with the gods on the seat of the soul's fullness.

6. O Flame, thou burnest high and increasest the divine laws and art the conqueror of a thousandfold riches; thou art the messenger of the gods who hast the word.

7. Set within you the Flame who knows the births, bearer of the offering, youngest vigour, divine sacrificer in the seasons of the Truth.

8.Today let thy sacrifice march forward unceasingly, thy sacrifice that shall bring the whole epiphany of the godheads. Strew the seat of thy soul that there they may sit.

9. There let the Life powers [[The Maruts.]] take their seat and the Riders of the Horse [[The twin Ashwins.]] and the Lord of Love [[Mitra.]] and the Lord of Wideness, [[Varuna.]] even the gods with all their nation.

TRYARUNA TRAIVRISHNA, TRASADASYU PAURUKUTSA, ASHWAMEDHA BHARATA

SUKTA 27

1. O Will, O Universal Power, [[Or, Godhead,]] the mighty One supreme in vision, master of his being, lord of his plenitudes has given me his two cows of the Light that draw his wain. He of the triple dawn, son of the triple Bull, [[The Triple Bull is Indra, lord of the three luminous realms of Swar, the Divine Mind; Tryaruna Trasadasyu is the half-god, man turned into the Indra type; therefore he is described by all the usual epithets of Indra, "Asura", "Satpati", "Maghavan". The triple dawn is the dawn of these three realms on the human mentality.]] has awakened to knowledge with the ten thousands [[Thousand symbolises absolute completeness. But there are ten subtle powers of the illumined mind each of which has to have its entire plenitude.]] of his plenitude.

2. He gives to me the hundred and twenty [[The symbolic figure of the illuminations of divine knowledge as the series of dawns (cows) of the twelve months of the year and twelve periods of the sacrifice. There are again ten times twelve to correspond to the ten subtle sisters, powers of the illumined mentality.]] of the cows of dawn; his two shining [[The two shining horses of Indra identical probably with the two cows of light of the first verse; they are the two vision-powers of the supramental Truth-Consciousness, right-hand and left-hand, probably direct truth-discernment and intuition. As cows symbolising light of knowledge they yoke themselves to the material mind, the wain; as horses symbolising power of knowledge to the chariot of Indra, the liberated pure mind.]] horses he gives, yoked to the car, that bear aright the yoke. O Will, O Universal Power, do thou rightly affirmed and increasing extend peace and bliss to the lord of the triple dawn.

3. For thus has he done desiring thy grace of mind, new-given for him, new-manifested, -- he, the disperser of the destroyers, [[Trasadasyu; in all things he reproduces the characteristics of Indra.]] the lord of the triple dawn who with attentive mind gives response to the many words of my many births. [[The seer by this self-fulfilment on the higher plane is born, as it were, into many realms of consciousness and from each of these there go up its words that express the impulses in it which seek a divine fulfilment. The Mind-Soul answers to these and gives assent, it supplies to the word of expression the answering word of illumination and to the Life that seeks the Truth it gives the power of intelligence that finds and holds the Truth.]]

4. May he who answers to me with assent give to the illumined giver of the Horse-sacrifice, [[The Horse-sacrifice is the offering of the Life-power with all its impulses, desires, enjoyments to the divine existence. The Life-soul (Dwita) is itself the giver of this sacrifice which it performs when by the power of Agni it attends to vision on its own vital plane, when it becomes, in the figure of the hymn, the illumined seer, asvamedha.]] by the word of illumination, possession of the goal of his journey; may he give power of intelligence to the seeker of the Truth.

5. A hundred strong bulls of the diffusion [[The complete hundred powers of the Life by whom all the abundance of the vital plane is showered upon the growing man. The vital forces being the instrument of desire and enjoyment, this diffusion is like the outpouring of the wine of delight that raises the soul to new and intoxicating joys.]] raise me up to joy; the gifts of the sacrificer of the steed are as outpourings of the wine of delight with their triple infusions. [[The delight extracted from existence is typefied by the honey-wine of the Soma; it is mixed with the milk, the curds and the grain, the milk being that of the luminous cows, the curds the fixation of their yield in the intellectual mind and the grain the formulation of the light in the force of the physical mind. These symbolic senses are indicated by the double meaning of the words used,go, dadhi, yava.]]

6. May the God-Mind and the God-Will uphold in the sacrificer of the Horse and giver of his hundred a perfect energy and a vast force of battle even as in heaven the Sun of Light indestructible. [[Perfect and vast energy in the vital being corresponding to the infinite and immortal light of the Truth in the mental being.]]

VISHWAWARA

SUKTA 28

1. The Flame of Will burning high rises to his pure light in the heaven of mind; wide he extends his illumination and fronts the Dawn. She comes, moving upward, laden with all desirable things, seeking the gods with the oblation, luminous with the clarity.

2. When thou burnest high thou art king of immortality and thou cleavest to the doer of sacrifice to give him that blissful state; he to whom thou comest to be his guest, holds in him self all substance and he sets thee within in his front.

3. O Flame, put forth thy battling might for a vast enjoyment [[The Vedic immortality is a vast beatitude, a large enjoyment of the divine and infinite existence reposing on a perfect union between the Soul and Nature; the soul becomes King of itself and its environment, conscious on all its planes, master of them, with Nature for its bride delivered from divisions and discords into an infinite and luminous harmony.]] of bliss, may there be thy highest illumination; create a well-governed union of the Lord and his Spouse, set thy foot on the greatness of hostile powers.

4. I adore, O Flame, the glory of thy high- blazing mightiness. Thou art the Bull with the illuminations; thou burnest up in the march of our sacrifices.

5. O Flame that receivest our offerings, perfect guide of the sacrifice, high-kindled offer our oblation to the godheads; for thou art the bearer of our offerings.

6. Cast the offering, serve the Will with your works [[Or, set the Will to its workings]] while your sacrifice moves forward to its goal, accept the carrier of our oblation.