-17_Vasishtha Maitravaruni.htm

MANDALA SEVEN

VASISHTHA MAITRAVARUNI

SUKTA 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

²Or, the lords of the riches

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹Or, where no remainder is left.

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

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

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

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

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

¹Or, given offering

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

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

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

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

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

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SUKTA 2

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

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

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

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

¹Or, blaze out vastly

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

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

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

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

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

¹Or, be with us for our happy journey.

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

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

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

SUKTA 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹Or, like the light of the Sun.

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

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

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

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

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

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SUKTA 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUKTA 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUKTA 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUKTA 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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SUKTA 8

1. The King, the Noble One is kindled high with prostrations of surrender, he whose front receives the oblation of the Light; men oppressed and opposed pray with offerings and the Fire is born in front of the dawns.

2. He verily is that great one whom one knew, the rapturous Priest of man, the mighty one, the Fire; he has found wide his lustres when he is let loose on the wide earth, black is the rim of his wheel when he is declared by her growths.

3. By what law of thee, O Fire, dost thou illumine our purification? To what self-law of thee dost thou move when thou art proclaimed aloud? O great giver, when may we become the lords and conquerors of a wealth that is all-accomplishing¹ and unassailable?

4. The voice of the Fire of the bringer is heard more and more when he shines like a sun, a vast light; Fire who stands over man in his battles has broken flaming into a blaze, the divine guest.

¹Or, perfect

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5. In thee were our many callings and thou becamest right-thoughted with all thy flame-forces. When thou art proclaimed by the word, thou hearest, O Fire; perfect in thy birth, thyself increase thy body.

6. This is the word that rose into birth for the Fire it is a conqueror of the hundreds and with it are the thousands, it is twofold in its greatness when it creates the bliss for those who laud him for the friend; it is luminous, a driver away of evil, a slayer of the Rakshasa.

SUKTA 9

1. He awoke from the lap of the dawns, their lover, the rapturous Priest of the call, the great seer, the purifying Fire; he founds the ray of intuition for both kinds of being born, the offerings in the gods, the riches in the doers of good.

2. Strong in will this is he who has flung wide the doors of the Traffickers purifying for us the illumining ray which gives

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the many enjoyments; the rapturous Priest of the call, who dwells in the house of men, is seen through the darkness of the nights.

3. The seer free from ignorance, the boundless, the luminous, a friend happily met,¹ our benignant guest, rich in his lustres he shines in front of the dawns, a child of the waters he enters into his mothers.

4. One to be prayed by you in the generations of man, equal in his rays shone out the knower of all things born, Fire who dawns with his light of perfect vision, the rays woke into his high blazing.

5. O Fire, go on thy embassy and fail not towards the gods with the company of those who fashion the Word: sacrifice to Saraswati and the life-powers, and two riders of the horse and the waters and to all the gods for the giving of the ecstasy.

6. Vasishtha kindles thee, O Fire, slaying the destroying demon, sacrifice for the Wealth to the many-thoughted goddess :² many are the roads of thy approach, O knower of all things born. Do you always guard us with all kinds of weal.

¹Or, happy in thy sessions, our friend, ²Or, to her who is the tenant of the city:

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SUKTA 10

1. As the lover of dawn he has reached to a wide strength shining, flaming out with his play of lightnings; the Bull pure and resplendent he shines on us, illumining with his light our thoughts he wakes our dawnings.

2. It is as if the sun-world shone out from the day and the dawns; they are forming the sacrifice as aspirants the Thought: Fire the godhead knowing the births runs wide to his goal, the Messenger, the Traveller to the godheads, strong to conquer.

3. Our words are thoughts seeking for godhead. Come to the Fire asking for the Treasure, Fire the carrier of offerings, fair of front, perfect in vision, true in movement, the traveller of the ways for men.

4. O Fire, companioning the shining ones bring to us Indra, companioning the Rudras bring vast Rudra, with the Adityas bring the boundless and universal Mother, with those who have the illumined word bring the master of the word in whom are all desirable things.

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5. Men who are aspirants pray in the pilgrim-rites to Fire the youthful and rapturous Priest of the call; for he has become the ruler of the earth and the Riches, a sleepless messenger for sacrifice to the gods.

SUKTA 11

1. Thou art the great conscious perception of the pilgrim-sacrifice, without thee the immortals have no rapture; come in one chariot with all the gods, take thy seat within, O Fire, as the supreme Priest of the call.

2. Men who bring the offering ever pray for thee, the swift in movement, for their envoy: when thou sitst with the gods on a man’s seat of sacrifice, happy for him become the days.

3. Even thrice in the night within thee they woke to the knowledge of the Riches for the mortal giver; as the human here sacrifice to the gods, become our messenger and protector from the assailant.

4. The Fire has power for a vast pilgrim-sacrifice. Fire is a master of every offering made, for to his will cleave the Shining Ones, so the gods established him as the

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carrier of the offerings.

5. O Fire, bring the gods to eat of the offerings, may they with Indra as their eldest take here their rapture, establish this sacrifice in heaven in the gods. Do you always guard us with all kinds of weal.

SUKTA 12

1. We have come with a great prostration of surrender to the ever-young Fire who has shone out blazing in his own home rich of lustre between the wide firmaments and filled with the offerings cast in him he moves facing every side.

2. He overcomes all evils by his mights: the Fire is affirmed by the lauds in the home, the knower of all things born; may he guard us from stumbling and from blame, us when we speak the words and us when we are lords of the plenty.

3. Thou art Varuna and thou art Mitra, O Fire, thee the Vasishthas make to grow by their thoughts, in thee may the riches be easily won. Do you always guard us with all kinds of weal.

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SUKTA 13

1. To Fire all-illumining, founder of the thought, slayer of the Asuras, bring your thinking and the thought formed; glad I bring to our sacrificial seat the offering for the universal godhead who has mastery over minds.

2. Thou, O Fire, illumining with thy light fillest earth and heaven even in thy birth: thou hast released the gods from the Assailant by thy might, thou the universal godhead, the knower of all things born.

3. When born, O Fire, thou lookest on the world as a herdsman on his cattle, one to be missioned, pervading everywhere, as the universal godhead thou foundest the Path for the Lord. Do you always guard us with all kinds of weal.

SUKTA 14

1. To the godhead knower of all things born, by our fuel, by our invocations of the god, by our offerings may we give making prostration, to the Fire of the brilliant light.

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2. May we worship thee, O Fire, with the fuel, may we give to thee with the laud, O master of sacrifice, we with the oblation, O Priest of the call of the pilgrim-sacrifice, we with the offerings, O god of the happy flame.

3. Come, O Fire, with the gods to our invocation of the gods taking pleasure in the cry "Vashat", to thee, O god, may we be givers of the offerings. Do you guard us always with all kinds of weal.

SUKTA 15

1. To the bounteous, one to be approached with worship, cast in the mouth the offering, who brings to us closest alliance.

2. He who comes to the five peoples of seeing men and takes his seat within in house and house, the seer, the master of the house, the youth.

3. May that Fire guard the knowledge that is our inmate from every side, may he protect us from evil.

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4. Now have I brought forth a new laud to Fire, the Hawk of Heaven; he wins for us repeatedly the Riches.

5. He whose glories are desirable for vision and are like the Riches with their hero-powers, for he flames in front of the sacrifice.

6. May he take knowledge of this cry of "Vashat", may the Fire cleave to¹ our words who is the carrier of the offerings and most strong for sacrifice.

7. O Lord of the peoples to whom we must reach, to whom the offerings are cast, we have set thee within luminous in thy hero-force, O godhead, O Fire.

8. Shine through the nights and the days, by thee may we be well-armed with fire; a hero-force art thou and thy desire is towards us.

9. To thee men illumined come with their thinkings for the conquest, to thee the imperishable One with her thousands.

¹Or, take pleasure in

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10. The Fire repels the Rakshasas, the immortal with its brilliant light, one to be prayed, the pure and purifying flame.

11. Bring us our effectuations for thou hast the mastery, O son of force, and may the lord of enjoyment give us the object of our desire.

12. Thou, O Fire, givest us heroic glory and the divine Creator-Sun and Lord of enjoyment and the Mother of the finite gives us the object of our desire.

13. O Fire, guard us from evil, against the doer of harm protect us, O god; imperishable, burn him with thy most afflicting fires.

14. Now unviolated become to us a mighty iron city hundred fortressed for the protection of men.

15. Do thou guard us from evil in dusk and in dawn from the. bringer of calamity — thou art by day and night inviolable.

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SUKTA 16

1. With this prostration I invoke for you Fire the son of Energy, the beloved, the traveller most awake to knowledge who carries out well the pilgrim-sacrifice, the immortal messenger of every man.

2. He yokes the two shining steeds that bring all enjoyments, well-fed with the offerings swiftly may he run; to be worshipped-shipped with sacrifice he of the perfect Word, accomplisher of the riches, the divine achievement of men.

3. Up stands the flame of light of this bounteous One when to him are cast the offerings, his ruddy smoke goes up and touches heaven; men kindle high the Fire.

4. Thou art that most glorious messenger whom we create, bring to us the advent of the gods, O son of force, give us all mortal enjoyments, give us that which from thee we desire.

5. Thou, O Fire, art the master of the house, thou art the Priest of the call in our pilgrim-sacrifice, thou art the purifying Priest, he in whom are all desirable things, the conscious

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thinker; sacrifice and reach the object of our desire.

6. O strong in will, create the ecstasy for the doer of the sacrifice for thou art the founder of ecstasy: sharpen in the Truth for us every doer of the rite and whosoever is perfect in expression and skilful in thought.

7. O Fire fed with the offerings, let them abide in thee, the beloved, the illumined wise and those lords of plenty among men who are they that travel to and allot to us the widenesses of the Rays.

8. Those within whose gated house the goddess of Revelation with her hands of light sits filled with her fullnesses, them deliver from the doer of harm and the Censurer,¹ O forceful Fire; give to us the peace that hears the Truth from afar.

9. Do thou then with thy rapturous tongue, for thou art the bearer of the oblation with thy mouth and great is thy knowledge, bring to our lords of the plenty the riches and hasten on its way our gift of the offering.

¹Or from betrayal and from bondage,

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10. They who give to us the achieving plenitudes of the power of the Horse because of our desire of the great inspired knowledge, them, O most young godhead, bring safe out of all evil by thy hundred fortresses of rescue.

11. The divine giver of your Treasure desires from you the full pouring of the oblations; pour out and fill: then the godhead carries you on your way.¹

12. The gods have made him the Priest of the call of the pilgrim-sacrifice, the conscious thinker, the carrier of flame; Fire founds the ecstasy and the heroic strength for the man who performs the sacrifice for the giver.

SUKTA 17