BHARADWAJA BARHASPATYA

SUKTA 16

1. O Fire, thou art set here in all as the Priest of the call in the sacrifice, set by the gods in the human being.

2. Offer worship with thy rapturous tongues in the Rite of the Path to the Great Ones. Bring the gods to us, do them sacrifice.

3. O ordainer of works, mighty of will, by thy revealing light¹ in the sacrifice thou knowest the tracks of the gods and their highways.

¹ Or, with thy straight going

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4. Now has the Bringer of the Treasure with his horses of swiftness aspired to thee for a twofold bliss; he has sacrificed in the sacrifices to the king of sacrifice.

5. O Fire, for the Servant of Heaven¹ who presses the wine, for Bharadwaja the giver of the offering, the multitude of these desirable things!

6. Thou art the Immortal messenger; lend ear to the laud of the seer and bring the Divine People.

7. Men deeply meditating aspire to thee that the godheads may come to them; mortals they aspire to the God in the sacrifice.

8. Bring into sacrifice thy perfect sight and thy will; rich are thy gifts and in thee is the joy of all who desire.

9. Thou art the Priest of the call set here in thinking man, his carrier with mouth of flame wiser in knowledge than he. O Fire, sacrifice to the people of heaven.

¹ Divodasa

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10. Come, O Fire, for the advent; voiced by the word, come for the gift of the oblation: sit, the Priest of our invocation, on the grass of the altar.

11. O Angiras, we make thee to grow by our fuel and our offering of the clarity; flame into a vast light, O ever-youthful Fire.

12. O God, O Fire, thou illuminest towards us a wide light of inspired knowledge and the vastness of a perfect force.

13. O Fire, Atharvan churned thee out from the Lotus, from the head of every chanting sage.¹

14. And Dadhyang too, the Seer, Atharvanʼs son, kindled thee a slayer of the Python adversary and shatterer of his cities.

15. Thee the Bull of the paths set full alight, most mighty to slay the Destroyers, a conqueror of riches in battle upon battle.

¹ Or, on Pushkara; or, the Lotus of the head of every chanting sage.

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16. Come to me and let me voice to thee, O Fire, true other words; for thou growest by these moon-powers of the Wine.

17. Wheresoever is thy mind and thou plantest that higher discernment, there thou makest thy house.

18. O Prince of Riches, the fullness of thy treasures meets not the eye and it is for the few;¹ take then joy in our work.

19. Fire of the Bringers is approached by us, the slayer of the Python adversary conscious with a multiple knowledge, the Servant of Heavenʼs Fire, master of beings.

20. This is he that unconquered, unoverthrown shall by his greatness win and give to us a treasure beyond all earthly things.

21. O Fire, by a new illumination like the old and joining it, thou hast stretched out the Vast with thy light.²

¹ Or, let not the fullness of thy treasures meet the eye only of the few;

² Or, built the Vast with thy light.

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22. O friends, offer to the impetuous violence of Fire the hymn and the sacrifice; sing the illumining verse, chant to the Ordainer of works.

23. This is he that must sit through the human generations, manʼs Priest of the call with the seer-will, the Messenger, the Carrier of the oblation.

24. O Prince of the Treasure, do worship here with sacrifice to the Two Kings who are ever pure in their works, to the sons
    of the Indivisible Mother, to the company of the Life-Gods, to Earth and Heaven.

25. O Fire, O Child of Energy, full of riches is thy vision for the mortal, the vision of the immortal, and it imparts to him its impulse.

26. Let the giver be the best by work of the will; today winning thee let him become one overflowing with affluence: a mortal, he shall taste the perfect purification.

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27. These are thy men whom thou guardest, O Fire, and they find the speed of thy impulse and move to universal Life, fighters piercing through the armies of the enemy, fighters conquering the armies of the enemy.¹

28. Let the Fire with his keen energy of light overwhelm every devourer; Fire conquers for us the riches.

29. O wide-seeing Fire, God who knowest all births that are, bring to us the treasure with its strength of the Heroes; O mighty of will, slay the demon-keepers.

30. O God who knowest all births that are, guard us from sin and from him that worketh calamity; O Seer of the Word, protect us.

31. The mortal of evil movements who gives us over to the stroke, guard us, O Fire, from him and his evil.

32. O God, repulse on every side with thy tongue of flame that doer of wickedness; oppose the mortal who would slay us.

¹ Or, piercing through the enemies who war against them, (bis).

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33. O forceful Fire, extend to Bharadwaja the peace¹ with its wideness; extend to him the desirable riches.

34. Let Fire the seeker of the treasure kindled and brilliant and fed with our offerings slay with his flame of illumination the encircling Adversaries.

35. Let him become the father of the Father in the womb of the Mother; let him break out into lightnings in the Imperishable, let him take his seat in the native home of the Truth.

36. O wide-seeing Fire, God who knowest all births that are, bring us the Word with its issue, the Word whose light shines in Heaven.

37. O thou who art made by our force, we come to thee of the rapturous vision bringing our offerings for thy pleasure and let forth towards thee, O Fire, our words.

38. Like men that take refuge in the shade, we have arrived to

¹ Or, the wide-spreading house of refuge

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the refuge of thy peace, there where thou blazest with light and art a vision of gold, O Fire.

39. Thou art like a fierce fighter shooting arrows and like a sharp-horned Bull; O Fire, thou breakest the cities.

40. They bring him like a beast of prey, like a new-born child they bear him in their hands. Fire that effects the Rite of the Path for the peoples.

41. Bring to us this great discoverer of riches, bring the god for the coming of the gods; let him take his seat in his own native home.

42. In the felicitous Fire that knows all things born the Master of your House is born to you; sharpen to his intensity the beloved guest.

43. O God, O Fire, yoke those horses of thine that do well the work and can bear thee sufficient for our passion.

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44. Come to us, bear towards us the Gods that they may eat of ¹ our pleasant offerings and drink our Soma-wine.

45. O Fire of the Bringers luminously lightening with thy incessant flame upward burn; spread wide thy light, O ageless² power.

46. Let the mortal who would serve with his works the God in the advent, aspire bringing his offering to the Fire in the Rite of the Path; let him with uplifted³ hands and with obeisance of surrender make shine the summoning Priest of Earth and Heaven, the fire of true sacrifice.⁴

47. We bring to thee, O Fire, by the illumining word an offering that is shaped by the heart. Let there be born from it thy impregnating bulls and thy heifers.

48. The Gods kindle, most strong to slay the Python adversary, the supreme Fire, the Horse of swiftness by whom the Riches are brought and pierced the demon-keepers.

¹ Or, come to ² Or, imperishable ³ Or, outstretched

⁴ Or, who worships the Truth with sacrifice.

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