VASUSHRUTA

SUKTA 3

1. 1. Thou art Varuna, O Fire, when thou art born, thou becomest Mitra when thou blazest high; in thee are all the gods, O son of Force, thou art Indra for the mortal giver.

2. O holder of the self-law, thou becomest Aryaman when thou bearest the secret name of the Virgins; they reveal thee

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with the Rays as Mitra firmly founded when thou makest of one mind the Lord of the house and the Spouse.

3. For the glory of thee, O Rudra, the life-powers make bright thy birth into a richly manifold beauty. When that highest step¹ of Vishnu is founded within, thou guardest by it the secret name of the Ray-cows.

4. By the glory of thee who hast the true seeing, the gods hold a multiple completeness and taste² immortality; men take up their session with Fire, the Priest of the call, aspiring, making a gift of the self-expression of the human being.

5. There is none who precedes thee as priest of the call, O Fire, none mightier for sacrifice, there is none supreme over thee in the seer-wisdoms, O master of the self-law, and of whatsoever man thou becomest the guest, he conquers by sacrifice, O godhead, those who are mortals.

6. May we who seek the Riches win them by the offering, we guarded by thee and awakened, O Fire, — we in the clash of the battle, in our discoveries of knowledge through days, we by the Treasure overcome mortal men, O son of Force.

¹ The supreme plane of the three. ² Or, touch

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7. He who brings sin and transgression upon us, on him who gives expression to evil, on himself may there be put that evil; O thou who art conscious, slay this hostile assault, O Fire, even him who oppresses us with the duality.¹

8. Thee in the dawning of this night, O godhead, the ancients made their messenger and gave sacrifice with their oblations; for thou art the godhead kindled by mortals who have the light² and thou travellest to the House of the Treasures.

9. Rescue thy father, in thy knowledge keep him safe, thy father who becomes thy son and bears thee, O son of Force. O conscious knower, when wilt thou look upon us? When with thy Truth-Consciousness wilt thou set us to our journey?

10. The father adores and establishes the mighty name because thou, O shining one, bringest him to accept and take pleasure in it; once and again, the Fire increases and desiring the bliss of the godhead he conquers it by force.

11. O youthful god, thou, indeed, carriest safe thy adorer beyond

¹ The division or the twofoldness of the nature divided between good and evil.
² Or, the riches

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all stumblings, O Fire; for the hostile beings are seen, the thieves, even they who know not the light of intuitive knowledge and turn to crookedness.

12. These journeys have turned towards thee, that evil in us has been declared to the Shining One, O this Fire as he grows will not deliver us to the assailant and the hurter.

SUKTA 4

1. O Fire, O king, towards thee the Wealth-master of the riches I turn and delight in thee in the pilgrim-sacrifice; replenishing thee may we conquer the plenitude, may we overcome the battle-hosts of mortals.

2. The ageless Fire that carries the offering is the father of us, he in us is pervasive in his being, extended in light, perfect in vision. Accomplished in the works of the master of the house blaze out thy forces, form and turn towards us thy inspirations.

3. The seer, the master of men, lord of the human peoples, Fire, pure and purifying with its back of light set within you as the omniscient priest of the call; he shall win our desirable things in the godheads.

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4. Of one mind with the goddess of revelation take pleasure in us, O Fire, labouring with the rays of the sun; accept with pleasure our fuel, O knower of all things born, and bring the gods to us to partake of our sacrifice.

5. A cherished guest domiciled in our gated house come to this sacrifice of ours as the knower; O Fire, slaying all who assail us bring to us the enjoyments of those who make themselves the enemy.

6. Drive away from us the Destroyer with thy stroke making free space for thy own body; when thou carriest the gods over safe, O son of Force, us, O Fire, strongest godhead, guard in the plenitude.

7. O Fire, may we worship thee with our words, thee with our offerings, O purifier, O happy light; into us bring the treasure in which are all desirable things, in us establish substance of every kind of riches.

8. Accept our pilgrim-sacrifice, O Fire, accept, O son of Force, O holder of the triple world of thy session, our offering. May we be doers of good deeds before the godheads, protect us with a triple armour of peace.

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9. O knower of all things born, carry us through all difficult passages, through all calamities as a ship over the ocean. O Fire, voiced by us with our obeisance even as did Atri, awake and be the guardian of our bodies.

10. I think of thee with a heart that is thy bard and mortal I call to thee immortal; O knower of all things born, establish the glory in us, by the children of my works, O Fire, may I win immortality.

11. The doer of great deeds for whom thou shalt make that happy other world, O knower of all things born, reaches in peace a wealth in which are the Horses of swiftness, the Ray-Cows, the Son, the Heroes.

SUKTA 5

1. On the high-kindled flame pour as offering a poignant clarity, to Fire, the knower of all things born.

2. The spokesman of the godhead, the inviolable hastens the sacrifice on its way, for this is the seer who comes with the wine of sweetness in his hands.

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3. O Fire, we have sought thee with our adoration, bring hither Indra the rich in light, the beloved with his happy chariots to protect us.

4. Spread wide, O seat, soft as wool the songs of illuminations sound high; O bright one, be with us for the conquest.

5. Swing wide, O divine doors; be easy of approach that you may be our guard: lead further further and fill full our sacrifice.

6. Dawn and night we seek with desire the two mighty Mothers of the Truth with their fair front to us who increase our beingʼs space.

7. O worshipped twain, O divine priests of manʼs call, arrive on the path of the wind to this our sacrifice.

8. May Ila, Saraswati, and Mahi,¹ the three goddesses who create the bliss sit on the sacred seat, they who never err.

¹ Ila, goddess of revelation; Saraswati, goddess of inspiration; Mahi, goddess of the Vast Truth, Mahas or ṛtam bṛhat.

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9. O maker of forms, hither benignant arrive all-pervading in thy fostering to us and in thyself; in sacrifice on sacrifice us upward guard.

10. O Tree,¹ there where thou knowest the secret names of the gods make rich our offerings.

11. Swaha to the Fire and to Varuna, Swaha to Indra and the Life-powers, Swaha to the gods be our offering.

SUKTA 6

1. I meditate on the Fire who is the dweller in things,² to whom the milch-cows go as to their home, to their home the swift war-horses, to their home the eternal steeds of swiftness.³ Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

2. This is the Fire who is the dweller in things voiced by me, in whom meet the milch-cows, and in him the swift galloping war-horses and in him the illuminates who have come to the perfect birth. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

¹ Or, O master of delight, ² Or, who is the Shining One, ³ Or, steeds of the plenitude.

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3. The all-seeing Fire gives the steed of the plenitude to man, Fire the horse that conies swiftly to him for the riches; when he is pleased he journeys to the desirable good. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

4. O Fire, we kindle thy luminous and ageless flame; when the fuel of thee becomes more effective in its labour, it blazes up in heaven. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

5. O Fire, O Master of the brilliant Light, the offering is cast to thee with the word of illumination, O bearer of the offering, O master of the creature, achiever of works, O delightful Flame. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

6. In thy fires those greater fires of thee nurse every desirable good; they, they race, they run, they drive on in their impulse without a break. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

7. O Fire, those rays of thine, thy steeds of plenitude greaten the Vast; they gallop with tramplings of their hooves to

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the pens of the ray-cows. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

8. Bring to us who laud thee, O Fire, new impelling forces that lead to happy worlds; may we be of those who with thee for their messenger sing the hymn of illumination in home and home. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

9. O delightful Flame, thou turnest both the ladles of the streaming clarity towards thy mouth; then mayst thou carry us high beyond in the utterances, O Master of might. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

10. Thus have they driven and controlled the Fire without a break by their words and their sacrifices; may he found in us the perfect hero-might and the perfect power of the Horse. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

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