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Parashara’s Hymns to the Lord of the Flame
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He hides himself like a thief with the Cow of vision in the secret cavern of being taking to himself and bearing thither our adoration. The thinkers nurse a common joy in him in their hearts and follow in his way by her footprints. All the Masters of sacrifice come to thee, O Flame, in the secrecy.
The Gods follow after him the ways and works of the Truth. He shall stand encompassing the earth like heaven. The Waters increase by their toil growing in his bulk the Flame because he was born perfect in their womb in the house of Truth.
He is like delightful increase and like the wide earth our dwelling-place. He is enjoyable like a hill and bliss-giving like fast-running water. He is like a horse in the battle-charge urged to the gallop and like a rushing river, and who then shall hedge in his course?
Page – 576 He is the close comrade of the Rivers as a brother of his sisters. He devours Earth’s pleasant woods as a king devours his enemies. When driven by the breath of the wind he stands about in all the woodland, the Flame tears asunder the hairs of earth’s body.
He breathes in the Waters like a seated swan. Awake 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 nectar-wine and born of Truth and a creator. He is like the Cow with her child. He is all-pervading and his light is seen from a far distance.
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He is the conqueror in the forests, he is the friend in mortals. He chooses for himself inspired knowledge as a king an unaging councillor. He is like a perfect good, he is like a happy will just in its thoughts. He has become to us the priest of our sacrifice and the carrier of our offerings.
He holds in his hands all mights: sitting in the secret cave of being he founds the gods in strength. And it is there that men who hold the thought in their minds, when they have given utterance to its sacred words carved into shape by the heart, discover the god.
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He holds like one unborn the wide earth our dwelling-place and pillars heaven with the truth of the sacred words of his thinking. O Flame, thou art universal life; guard the pleasant footholds of the Cow of vision; watch over the herd of the rays in the secrecy of the secret cavern.
He who has known him in the secret cave, he who has come to the stream of the Truth, all who touch and penetrate into the things of the Truth, to such he speaks the word of his treasures.
This is the Flame who besieges us with his greatness in all the growths of the earth and who is all the children of the worlds and who is within in all the mothers. He is knowledge in the house of the Waters and he is universal life. The thinkers have measured and constructed him like a mansion.
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The Carrier of our gifts speeds on his way and reaches up towards heaven. He unravels out of the nights all that is stable and all that moves. This is he that becomes the one God who is around all the gods in his greatness.
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All serve with gladness thy will to works when, O God, thou art born as the living being from a dry matter. All by thy movings get touch of the Truth and touch of immortality and they enjoy the Name, the Godhead.
He is the missioned impulse of Truth and the thinking of the Truth. He is the universal life and all do in him their works. To him who gives to thee and to him who takes of thee be knower of the knowledge and give him his portion of thy treasure.
He is the priest of the sacrifice who is seated in the Son of Man: he is the lord of these riches. The wise desire mutually his seed in their bodies and they come altogether to know him by their own discerning minds.
Those who listen to his word of instruction, those who are swift to the journey, serve gladly his will as sons the will of a father. He is the house of a multitude of riches and flings wide the door of his felicitous treasure. He is the dweller in the home and gives form to Paradise by the light of his stars.
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He is as if a marvellous shining riches and like the wide seeing of the sun. He is as if life and the breath of our existence and he is as if our eternal child. He is like a galloper that bears us. He fastens on the woodlands. He gives of his substance as the cow its milk. He is wide and lustrous, he is very bright and pure.
He is pleasant like a home and holds all our good. He is to us like ripe corn. He is a conqueror of men and like a chanting Rishi; the word of him is among the folk. He is like an exulting steed and he lays on us our birth to knowledge.
He is light in a house difficult to inhabit.1 He is as an eternal will that acts in us; he is like a wife in our chamber and sufficient to every man. When he burns out wonderful and manifold, he is as if the white horse in the peoples. He is like a chariot made of gold: he is like a keen flame in the battles.
1 Or, “He is a light difficult to kindle.”
Page – 580 He is like an army running to the charge and puts strength in us: he is like the flaming shaft of the Archer that has a keen burning face. He is the twin that is born and the twin who is that which is to be born. He is the lover of the virgins and the husband of the mothers.
When his light is kindled, we come to him as the herds come to their home: we come to him by your journeying, O gods, and we come to him by your sitting still. He is like a river running in its channel and sends in front the downward Waters: the herd of the Rays move to him in the seeing of the world of the Sun.
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He burns out bright as if the lover of Dawn and fills the two equal worlds like the light of heaven. He is born by our will to works and he comes into being all around us. He is the son and becomes the father of the Gods.
This is the Fire that has perfect knowledge and is a creator whom none can rend asunder. He is as if the teat of the cows of light and the sweetness of the draughts of the wine. He is as if one happy in the creature and must be laid hands on where he sits blissful in the middle of the house.
Page – 581 He is as if our rapturous son born to us in the house and he is like a courser pleased and glad that carries to safety the peoples. When I call to the Nations who dwell in one lair with the Strong Ones, the Flame enjoys all the godheads.
None can impair the ways of thy works when thou hast created inspired knowledge for the Strong Ones. This is thy work that yoked with the equal Gods thou smitest and scatterest the powers of evil.
Very bright and lustrous is he like the paramour of Dawn. Let his form be known and his knowledge awake for this human being, let all bear him in themselves, swing wide the gates and walk in the vision of the world of the Sun.
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Men battling by our mind of thought may we make conquest of many powers and Agni burning brightly enjoy and possess in us all things that are, know the divine workings and know the births of the human creature.
Page – 582 He is the child of the waters and the child of the forests and the child of things stable and the child of things that move. He is there for man in the stone of the mountain and within in the house. He is one universal to the peoples and the Immortal and the right-thinking One.
The Fire is master of the nights and imparts to man sufficiency of his treasures by the power of perfect words. O knower, who hast knowledge of the births of the gods and knowledge of mortals, guard these earths.
Many nights that are different in form increase one who is the moving and the stable, one who has come from the Truth. He is a priest of sacrifice and enriches us where he sits in the world of the sun making our works things of truth.
Thou thinkest out thy hymn of utterance in the rays and in the forests and all the gods carry to us the light of the sun-world as a sacrifice. Men do thee service in the manifoldness and come bringing from thee riches of knowledge as from an aged father. He is like a perfecter of works, one who is a hungry seizer.
He is like a hero shooting arrows and like a terrible assailant in the battle.
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The Mothers desire and are desired by him, sisters dwelling in one mansion, and come to him with joy as to their eternal husband, even as the rays to the Dawn, —Dawn dusk and flushing and breaking into rich lustres.
Our fathers by their word, the Angiras seers, broke the strong and stubborn places, our fathers burst by their cry the rock of the mountain, made within us the path to the Great Heaven, discovered the Day and the sun-world and thought-vision and the herds of light.
Then the battling and thinking peoples held the Truth and enriched the thought of the human being and bore it in all its breadth; unthirsting, doers of the work increasing the divine birth by the delight-offering, their walk is towards the gods.
When Matarishwan the Breath borne variously within us churned him into being, the Lord of Fire became the white and blissful one in every house. Man was a seer and kindler of the divine Fire and he dwelt with him like a companion and sent him on his messages like an envoy to a powerful king.
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When he had made this sap of essence for the great Father Heaven, he came down, one close in touch, one who has knowledge. The Archer loosed violently on him his arrow of lightning, but the god set the keen lustre in his own daughter.
O Fire, increase, twofold in thy mass, the birth into knowledge of every one who is luminous to thy flame in thy own house or gives thee worship to thy desire day by day. Whomsoever thou makest to haste in one chariot with thee, travels with felicity of thy riches.
All satisfying things join themselves to the Fire as the seven mighty rivers join themselves to the ocean. Our birth to knowledge was not discovered by the companion lords of life: but thou knowest it; impart thy mind of wisdom to the gods.
When flaming force comes to the King of men to give him strength, when Heaven is cast before him as a pure seed, the Fire begets faultless, right-thinking, young the gods of life and hastens their armies.
Page – 585 One who goes immediately on the paths and alone like the mind, the Sun, ever is master of the treasure. The kings Mitra and Varuna with their beautiful hands are guarding delight and immortality amid the rays.
O Flame, violate not our ancestral comradeship; be still to us a knower and a seer. Age wastes the form of man like a cloud: know before that assault on our being.
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He creates within us the poet-wisdoms of the eternal Creator and holds in his hand many strengths of the gods. The Fire becomes to us a master of riches, creating together all immortal things.
All the limitlessly wise immortals desired and found the Child within us who is everywhere around us. The gods who put thought in us toiling and travelling in his footing-places stood in the supreme seat and they came to the delightful house of the Flame.
Page – 586 When for three years they had served thee, O Fire, with the clear-offering and were pure to thy purity, then they held the sacrificial names, they sped their bodies come to perfect birth.
The Masters of sacrifice discovered the vast Earth and Heaven and gathered to man the powers of the Violent One, and now the mortal knows and discovers by the founder of the hemisphere the Flame where he stands in the world of his supreme session.
The gods and their wives altogether knew him and they came to him kneeling and bowed to the one who must be adored; and they exceeded themselves and made their own divine bodies and each friend was guarded in the gaze of his friend.
The Masters of sacrifice found hidden in thee the thrice seven secret seats and with one common will in their hearts they guard by them the immortality. O Fire, keep the herds and all that stand and all that moves.
O Fire, thou knowest all the revelations of knowledge of the dwellers upon earth; hold their strengths to uninterrupted continuity that they may live. And thou knowest the roads between, the paths of the gods, and thou art the sleepless messenger and the bearer of sacrifice.
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The seven right-thinking mighty Rivers of Heaven that know the Truth knew the doors of the felicitous treasure: Sarama discovered the strong fortified place, the largeness, the herded mass of the rays, and now the human creature enjoys by that wideness of the light.
The great gods set their steps on all things that have fair issue, making our path to immortality. Earth stood wide in her greatness by the great Ones and the Mother Infinite came with her sons to uphold her.
The Immortals set in him splendour and beauty when they made the two eyes of heaven. The rivers of Truth are flowing, they have been let loose to their courses; their downward waters shone and knew, O Fire.
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A divine Fire was the treasure discovered by our fathers: he sets on us our birth to knowledge and is as if the excellent leading of a wise teacher, and he is like a guest well pleased lying happy in our house, and he is like a priest come to our house of session and brings to safety those that do him worship.
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He is like the god that creates, the Sun; his thought is truth and he guards all strengths by his will. He is a true force that is expressed by many and is to be pondered on like a blissful self. He is as if the Godhead that foundeth all things lodging on the wide earth like a king with many loving friends.
He is like a band of heroes marching in our front, marching to the house of bliss. He is like a woman faultless and beloved of her lord.
Therefore men cling to thee, O Fire, kindled eternal in the house, in the abiding worlds of thy habitation; for they have placed in thee a great light. Be our universal life; be the hold of our treasure.
O Fire, let the masters of the wealth enjoy thy satisfying things and the illumined seers, the givers the universal life. Warriors in the clashes of the battle, let us conquer plenitude, let us set our portion in the gods for an inspired knowledge.
The cows of the Truth, the cows enjoyed in heaven, have given us to drink lowing with happy udders; its rivers have flowed
Page – 589 evenly over the mountain and claim right thinking as an alms from the Truth’s supreme region.
O Fire, praying in thee for right thinking as for an alms from on high, the masters of sacrifice set inspired knowledge in the heavens: they made night and day of two different forms and joined together the black and the rosy hue.
The mortals whom thou makest to haste to felicity, make us of them, even us and the masters of riches. Fill earth and air and heaven; cling to the whole world like a shadow.
O Fire, give us thy protection; may we vanquish their war-horses by our war-horses, their strong men by our strong men, their heroes by our heroes: may the seers have the mastery of the riches discovered by our fathers and may they enjoy them living a hundred winters.
O creator, O Fire, may these words be pleasant to thy mind and to thy heart. Let our yoke be firm and our strength control the reins of thy opulence; let us hold the inspired knowledge that is enjoyed by the gods.
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