make him grow increasing in his bulk by their toil,¹ the Flame well-born in their womb, in the abode of the Truth.

3. He is as if a delightful thriving, he is like the earth our wide dwelling-place. He is enjoyable like a hill and bliss-giving like fast-running water. He is like a charger in the battle rushing to the gallop and like a flowing river;² who shall hedge in his course?

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

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

SUKTA 66

1. He is like a wealth richly diverse and like the all-seeing of the Sun. He is as if life and the breath of our existence, he

¹ Or, by their chant, ² Or, like a sea in its motion,

Page – 52

is as if our eternal child. He is like a galloper bearing us. He clings to the forests: he is like a cow with her milk. He is pure-bright and wide is his lustre.

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

3. He is light in a house difficult to inhabit;¹ he is as a will ever active in us; he is like a wife in our abode and sufficient to every man. When he blazes wonderfully manifold, he is like one white in the peoples: he is like a golden chariot; he is a splendour in our battles.

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

5. We by your movement, we by your staying, come to him when his light is kindled as the cows come home to their stall. He is like a river running in its channel and sends in his front the descending Waters: the Ray-Cows move to him in the manifesting of the world of the Sun.²

¹ Or, he is a light difficult to kindle; ² Or, when the Sun appears.

Page – 53

SUKTA 67

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

2. He holds in his hands all mights: sitting in the secret cave he upholds² the gods in his strength. Here men who hold in themselves the Thought come to know him when they have uttered the Mantras formed by the heart.

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

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

¹ Or, a perfecting good; ² Or, establishes ³ Or, the secrecy of the secret Cave.

Page – 54

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

SUKTA 68

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

2. All cleave to¹ thy will of works when, O God, thou art born a living being from dry matter. All enjoy the Name, the Godhead; by thy movements they touch Truth and Immortality.

3. He is the urgings of the Truth, the thinking of the Truth, the universal life by whom all do the works. He who gives to thee, he who gains from thee,² to him, for thou knowest, give the Riches.

4. He is the priest of the sacrifice seated in the son of Man: he

¹ Or, take joy in ² Or, learns from thee,

Page – 55

verily is the lord of these riches. They desire the seed mutually in their bodies; the wise by their own discernings come wholly to know.

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

SUKTA 69

1. Blazing out brilliant as the lover of the Dawn, filling the two equal worlds¹ like the Light of Heaven, thou art born by our will and comest into being all around us; thou hast become the father of the Gods, thou who art the Son.

2. The Fire having the knowledge is a creator² without proud rashness; he is as if the teat of the Cows of Light, the sweetener³ of the draughts of the Wine. He is as one blissful in a man, one whom we must call in; he is seated rapturous in the middle of the house.

3. He is born to us as if a son rapturous in our house; like a

¹ Or, the two companions ² Or, ordainer of things ³ Or, taster of all foods

Page – 56

glad horse of swiftness he carries safe through their battle the peoples: when I call to the beings who dwell in one abode with the Gods,¹ the Flame

attains all godheads.

4. None can impair the ways of thy workings when for these gods² thou hast created inspired knowledge. This is thy work that yoked with the Gods, thy equals, thou hast smitten,³ that thou hast scattered the powers of evil.

5. Very bright and lustrous is he like the lover of Dawn. May his form be known and may he wake to knowledge for this human being, may all bear him in themselves, part wide the Doors and move into the vision of the world of the Sun.⁴

SUKTA 70

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

¹ Or, with men, ² Or, these men ³ Or, that thou hast slain, ⁴ Or, come to the seeing of the Sun.

Page – 57

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

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

4. Many nights of different forms have increased him, the Fire who came forth from the Truth, who is the stable and the moving: the Priest of the call, he is achieved for us, seated in the sun-world,¹ making true all our works.

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

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

¹ Or, the sun,

Page – 58

SUKTA 71

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

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

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

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

Page – 59

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

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

7. All satisfactions cleave to the Fire as the seven mighty rivers join the ocean. Our growth of being has not been perceived by thy companions, but thou who hast perceived, impart to the gods thy knowledge.¹

8. When a flame of energy came to this King of men for impelling force, when in their meeting Heaven was cast in him like pure seed, the Fire gave birth to a might,² young and faultless and perfect in thought and sped it on its way.

¹ Or, gain for us knowledge in the Gods.

² Or, a host. It may mean the army of the life-gods, marutām śardhaḥ.

Page – 60

9. He who travels the paths suddenly like the mind, the Sun, ever sole is the master of the treasure: Mitra and Varuna, the Kings with beautiful hands, are there guarding in the Rays¹ delight and immortality.

10. O Fire, mayst thou not forget² ancient friendships, thou who art turned towards us as the knower and seer. As a mist dims a form, age diminishes us; before that hurt falls upon us, arrive.³

SUKTA 72

1. He forms within us the seer-wisdoms of the eternal Creator holding in his hand many powers⁴ of the godheads. May Fire become the treasure-master of the riches, ever fashioning all immortal things.⁵

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

¹ Goṣu, in the Ray-Cows, the shining herds of the Sun ² Or, neglect or wipe out

³ Or, give heed, before that assault comes upon us. ⁴ Or, many Strengths

⁵ Or, fashioning together all immortal things.

Page – 61

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

4. The masters of sacrifice discovered and in their impetuous might bore the Vast Earth and Heaven, then the mortal knew them and by his holding of the upper¹ hemisphere perceived the Fire, standing in the supreme plane.

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

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

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

¹ Nema, the half, referring apparently to the Great Heaven, “bṛhad dyauḥˮ, the upper half beyond which is the supreme plane.

Page – 62

the carrier of the offerings.

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

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

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

SUKTA 73

1. He is like an ancestral wealth that founds our strength, perfect in his leading like the command¹ of one who knows, he is like a guest lying happily well-pleased, he is like a priest of invocation and increases the house of his worshipper.

¹Or, the teaching

Page – 63

2. He is like the divine Sun true in his thoughts and guards by his will all our strong places; he is like a splendour manifoldly expressed, he is like a blissful self and our support.¹

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

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

5. O Fire, may the masters of wealth enjoy thy satisfactions, the illumined wise Ones givers of the whole of life: may we conquer the plenitude from the foe in our battles² holding our part in the Gods for inspired knowledge.

6. The milch-cows of the Truth, enjoyed in heaven,³ full-

¹ Or, he is one to be meditated on (upheld in thought), blissful like the self.
² Or, warriors in the battles may we conquer the plenitude
³ Or, shared by heaven,

Page – 64

uddered, desiring us, have fed us with their milk: praying for right-thinking from the Beyond the Rivers flowed wide over the Mountain.

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

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

9. O Fire, safeguarded¹ by thee may we conquer the war-horses by our war-horses, the strong men by our strong men, the heroes by our heroes; may our illumined wise ones become masters of the treasure gained by the fathers, and possess them living a hundred winters.

10. O ordainer of things, O Fire, may these utterances be acceptable to thee, to the mind and to the heart; may we have strength to control with firm yoke thy riches, holding in thee the inspired knowledge enjoyed by the gods.²

¹ Or, upheld ² Or, distributed by the gods.

Page – 65