GRITSAMADA BHARGAVA

SUKTA 8

1. As if to replenish³ him chant now the chariots of Fire and his yokings, Fire the lavish and glorious Godhead.

2. He brings his perfect leading to the man who has given; he is invulnerable and wears out with wounds the foe. Fair is the front of him fed with the offerings.

3. He is voiced in his glory and beauty at dusk and dawn in our homes. Never impaired is the law of his working.

³ Or, as one seeking for plenitude

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4. He shines rich with diverse lustres like the heavens of the Sun¹ in his illumining splendour, shines wide with his ray, putting forth on us a revealing light with his ageless fires.

5. Our words have made the Fire to grow, made the Traveller to grow in the way of self-empire; he holds in himself all glory and beauty.

6. May we cleave to the safeguardings of the Fire and Soma and Indra and of the Gods, meeting with no hurt overcome those that are embattled against us.

SUKTA 9

1. The Priest of the call has taken his seat in the house of his priesthood; he is ablaze with light and vivid in radiance, he is full of knowledge and perfect in judgment. He has a mind of wisdom whose workings are invincible and is most rich in treasures: Fire with his tongue of purity is a bringer of the thousand.

2. Thou art the Messenger, thou art our protector who takest us to the other side; O Bull of the herds, thou art our leader on the way to a world of greater riches. For the shaping of

¹ Or, like the Sun

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the Son and the building of the bodies¹ awake in thy light, a guardian, and turn not from thy work, O Fire.

3. May we worship thee in thy supreme Birth, O Fire; may we worship thee with our chants in the world of thy lower session: I adore with sacrifice thy native lair from which thou hast arisen. The offerings have been cast into thee when thou wert kindled and ablaze.

4. O Fire, be strong for sacrifice, do worship with my oblation; swiftly voice my thought towards the gift of the Treasure. For thou art the wealth-master who hast power over the riches, thou art the thinker of the brilliant Word.

5. Both kinds of wealth are thine, O potent Godhead and because thou art born from day to day, neither can waste and perish. O Fire, make thy adorer one full of possessions; make him a master of the Treasure and of wealth rich in progeny.

6. O Fire, shine forth with this force² of thine in us, one perfect in knowledge, one who worships the Gods and is strong for sacrifice. Be our indomitable guardian and our protector to take us to the other side; flame in us with thy light, flame in us with thy opulence.

¹ Or, in the offspring of the son of our bodies ²Or, form

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SUKTA 10

1. Fire is to us as our first father and to him must rise our call when he is kindled by man in the seat of his aspiration. He puts on glory and beauty like a robe; he is our Horse of swiftness full of inspiration to be groomed by us, he is the immortal wide in knowledge.

2. May Fire in the rich diversity of his lights, the immortal wide in knowledge, hearken to my cry in all its words. Two tawny horses bear him or two that are red or ruddy in glow: one widely borne has been created.

3. They have given him birth in one laid supine who with happy delivery bore him; the Fire became a child in mothers of many forms. This thinker and knower by the greatness of his lights dwells¹ even in the destroying Night unenveloped by the darkness.

4. I anoint the Fire with my oblation of light, where he dwells fronting all the worlds; wide in his horizontal expansion and vast, he is most open and manifest by all he has fed on, seen in the impetuosity of his force.²

¹ Or, shines ²Or, in the violence of his rapture.

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5. I anoint him where he moves fronting all things on every side; let him rejoice in That with a mind that withholds not the riches.¹ None can touch the body of the Fire where he plays in his desire of the hues of light,² in his strong and glorious beauty.

6. Mayst thou take knowledge of thy portion putting forth thy force with thy supreme flame; may we speak as the thinking human being with thee for Messenger. I am one who would conquer the Treasure and I call to the Fire with my power of speech and my flame of offering. Fire in whom is no insufficiency, and he brings to us the touch of the sweetness.³

¹ Or, with a mind without the will to injure. ² Or, with his desire-waking hue,

³ Or, he fills us with the wine of sweetness.

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