SUTAMBHARA

SUKTA 11

1. Fire the guardian of men has been born, wakeful and discerning for a new happy journey; luminous is his front and with his heaven-touching vast he shines out full of light and brilliant in his purity for the Bringers.

2. Fire the supreme intuition of the sacrifice, the representative priest, men have kindled high in the triple world of his session; let him come in one chariot with Indra and the gods and take his seat on the sacred grass, the Priest of the call, strong in will to sacrifice.

Page –222

3. Unoppressed thou art born brilliant-pure from the mothers twain, a rapturous Priest of the call thou hast risen up from the sun; they have increased thee with the offering of light, O Fire, fed with the oblation and thy smoke has become a ray of intuition lodged in heaven.

4. May the Fire come to our sacrifice with power to accomplish, men carry the Fire severally in house and house; the Fire has become the messenger and carrier of our offering; when men accept the Fire it is the seer-will that they accept.

5. For thee, O Fire, this word most full of the honey-sweetness, for thee this Thinking, let it be a happiness to thy heart; thee our words fill with force as the great rivers fill the sea and make thee grow.

6. Thee, O Fire, the Angiras sought and found hidden in the secrecy lodging in tree and tree; by our pressure on thee thou art born a mighty force, the Son of Force they call thee, O Angiras!

SUKTA 12

Page –223

1. To Fire, the vast sacrificial Flame, to the Bull of the Truth, to the mighty lord I bring my thought as if the offering of light in the sacrifice, purified in the mouth I bring the word turned to meet him for the master of the herds.

2. O thou conscious of the Truth, of the Truth alone be conscious, cut out in succession many streams of the Truth; I know not how to travel by force or by division to the Truth of the shining lord.

3. By what thought of ours seeking the Truth by the Truth shalt thou become for us, O Fire, a new discoverer of the word? The god who is guardian of the order and laws of the Truth knows me but I know him not, the master of the conquering riches.

4. O Fire, who are these that are binders of the Adversary, who are the guardians, the luminous ones that shall possess and conquer? who keep the foundation of the Falsehood, O Fire? who are the guardians of the untrue Word?

5. These were thy comrades, O Fire, who have turned away from thee, they were benignant and have become malign; they have done violence to themselves by their words speaking crooked things to the seeker after straightness.

Page –224

6. But he, O Fire, who desires with obeisance the sacrifice, guards the Truth of the luminous lord; let there come to him his wide and perfect habitation, the last state of man as he advances on his journey.

SUKTA 13

1. Singing the word of illumination we call to thee, singing the word of illumination we kindle, singing the word of illumination, O Fire, that thou mayst be our guard.

2. Seekers of the riches we meditate today the all-achieving laud of the divine, heaven-touching Fire.

3. May Fire accept our words, he who is the priest of the call in men; may he sacrifice to the divine kind.

4. Great is thy wideness, O Fire, our priest of the call, beloved and supremely desirable; by thee men carry out the sacrifice.

Page –225

5. Thee high-lauded, O Fire, the strong conqueror of the plenitudes, the illumined wise increase; so do thou give us the gift of a complete hero-might.

6. As the rim of a wheel the spokes, so dost thou encompass the gods; thou shalt arrange for us our rich achievement.

SUKTA 14

1. Awake by the laud the Fire, let the immortal be kindled and let him set our offerings in the godheads.

2. Him they pray in the pilgrim-sacrifices, mortals the divine and immortal who is strong for sacrifice in human kind.

3. Him, the divine Fire, the perpetual generations pray with the ladle dripping the clarity for the carrying of their offerings.

4. Fire at his birth has shone out slaying the destroyers, darkness by the light, he found the Ray-Cows, the Waters, the Sun-World.

Page –226

5. Serve Fire the supremely desirable, the seer with his back of Light; may he come, may he hear my call.

6. The Fire they have made to grow by the light, the all-seeing by their lauds that place rightly the thought, that seek for the word.

Page –227