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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. Page –222
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
Page –223 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. Page –224
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.
Page –225 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. Page –226
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.
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 Page –227 cross through the regions¹ 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 boldest 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 boldest in the secrecy that plane, awakening him to the consciousness of the great riches thou hast rescued Atri.
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
¹Or, breaks through his converging hunters Page –228 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.
Page –229 2. By his mouth, in his complete law, thou becomest greater in the self-glory and boldest 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.
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. Page –230
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.
SUKTA 19
1. State upon state is born, covering upon covering has become Page –231 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.
SUKTA 20
1. O Fire, O thou who art most strong to conquer the plenitudes, the wealth which thou boldest 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.
SUKTA 21
1. As the human we set thee within us, as the human we kindle Page –233 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.
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. Page – 234
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.
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, Page –235 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 him-self 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.
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, Page –236 thee for our comrades we desire that even now they may have the bliss and peace.
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. Page –237
5. The Will gives to the giver of sacrifice the Son¹ 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 Goddess² 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.
¹The 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. ²Aditi, the vast Mother. Page –238 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
1. 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.¹
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.
¹Or, "for the journeying" to the luminous world of the Truth, or "for the eating" of the oblations. Page –239
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-powers¹ take their seat and the Riders of the Horse² and
the Lord of Love³ and the Lord of Wideness,4
¹The Maruts. ²The twin Ashwins. ³Mitra. 4Varuna. Page –240
TRYARUNA TRAIVRISHNA, TRASADASYU
SUKTA 27
1. O Will, O Universal Power,¹ 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,² has awakened to knowledge with the ten thousands³ of his plenitude.
2. He gives to me the hundred and twenty4 of the cows of dawn; his two shining5 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.
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