SOBHARI KANWA

sukta 19

1. Affirm that godhead of the sun-world, the gods set the divine traveller to his race, they brought the offering to the world of the gods.

2. O illumined seer, pray the Fire opulent in his gifts, rich in his lustres; the guide of this Soma-sacrifice pray, O Sobhari, for the rite of the path, the Ancient One.

3. We have chosen thee the mightiest for sacrifice, the divine in the divine, the immortal as the Priest of call of this sacrifice, the strong of will, —

4. the Son of Energy, the Fire, happy and radiant and most glorious in his light; may he win for us by sacrifice the bliss in heaven of Mitra and Varuna and the bliss of the waters.

5. The mortal who with the fuel and the oblation, with knowledge and with surrender has given to the Fire, who is perfect in the pilgrim-rite, —

6. swift gallop his war-horses, most luminous is his glory, neither calamity wrought by the gods nor evil wrought of men can come to him from any part.

7. High of fire may we be with your fires, O son of force, O lord of Energies! for thou hast the hero-strength and thy desire is towards us.

8. As our friendly guest finding our expression for us, Fire must be known, and as our chariot; in thee are all-accomplishing foundations of ease, thou art the king of the Treasures.

9. That mortal is sure in the giving of his pilgrim-sacrifice, O happy Fire, he is one to be proclaimed, may he be a conqueror by his thoughts, —

10. one for whom thou standest high exalted over his pilgrim-sacrifice, he is a master and hero and accomplishes, — he conquers by the war-horses, by the luminous seers, by the heroes, wins his work achieved.

11. He in whose house Fire, in whom are all desirable things, maintains his body and his affirming laud and his delight and the offerings, he occupies the field of his occupancy.

12. O son of force, for the illumined seer who lauds thee and is most swift in his givings, create for that seeker of knowledge, O Shining One,¹ the word in which the mortal is above the godhead below.

13. He who by his gifts of the oblations or by prostrations of surrender, or by his word illumines the Fire, who brings his right judgment, and the swift action of his light, —

14. he who with his stimulation by the fuel serves with the seats of the session of the Fire, the Boundless, that happy mortal exceeding men by his thoughts and by his lights passes beyond all things as one who crosses over waters.

15. Bring, O Fire, that light which overcomes in the house whatever devourer or wrath of any being with evil thoughts.

16. The light by which Mitra sees and Varuna and Aryaman, by

¹ Or, O lord of the Riches,

which lords of the journey and Bhaga, that light may we worship, we made by thy force perfect knowers of the path guarded by the lordship of the

Puissant.

17. O Fire, those are perfect in their thought who, themselves illumined, have set thee within them, O illumined seer, thee, O godhead, divine in vision and strong in will.

18. They have made their altar and their offering, O happy Fire, and their libation of the wine in heaven, they have conquered by their plenitudes a mighty wealth who have cast into thee their desire.

19. O felicitous god, happy to us art thou fed with the offerings, happy thy giving, happy the pilgrim-sacrifice, happy our utterances.

20. Create for us a happy mind in the piercing of the Coverers by which thou mayst overcome in the battles; lay prostrate many firm positions of those who challenge us, may we conquer them by thy attacks.

21. I pray with the word the Fire set in man whom the god sent

in as the messenger and traveller, the carrier of offerings, strong to sacrifice.

22. To the ever-young Fire shining with his sharp tusks of flame, thou singest delight, Fire who fed with the offerings of light forms by true words a great strength.

23. When he is fed with the offerings of light the Fire like one full of might, works his blade upwards and downwards and carves for himself a shape.

24. The godhead set in man who speeds the offerings in its fragrant mouth, perfect in the pilgrim-sacrifice illumines all desirable things, the divine and immortal Priest of the call.

25. O Fire, fed with the offerings, O son of force, O friendly light, if thou wert the mortal and I the immortal, —

26. I would not give thee over to the Assailant or to sinfulness, O benignant, O shining one; he who lauded me would not be one without understanding or miserable nor one plagued by guilt, O Fire.

27. He is like a son well nourished in the house of his father; may our offerings reach the gods.

28. O Fire, O shining one, by thy closest guardings may I, the mortal, be ever companioned by the favour of the god.

29. By thy will may I conquer, O Fire, by thy gifts, by thy revealing utterances; for of thee they speak as the guiding Thought in me. O Fire, have joy for the giving.

30. By thy guardings in which is the strength of the heroes and the bringing of the plenitudes, he drives forward on his way with whom thou hast chosen friendship, O shining one.

31. ....¹ the blue stream of thee with its cry is faithful to the law of its Truth, even as it is kindled it takes what is cast in it; thou art beloved of the great Dawns and thou shinest in the dwelling places of the night.

32. We the sons of Sobhari have come to the Fire with its thousandfold mass of flame, strong in its approach for protec-

¹ Siṣṇo not translated.

tion, imperial, the Fire of the Terror of the Destroyer.¹

33. O Fire, other fires dwell dependent on thee as on a tree its branches; I annex to me the illuminations of men and their lights, increasing so thy warrior forces.

34. O sons of the boundless mother, you who betray not, great givers, the mortal whom out of all possessors of riches you lead to the other shore, —

35. for you, the kings, who have power over seeing men, choose one or another to have mastery in the human ways, — such may we be, O Varuna, O Mitra, O Aryaman, charioteers, indeed, of the Truth.

36. The Terror of the Destroyers, son of the master of wide vision, has given me the brides five hundred, he is a bounteous giver, the noble, a lord of beings.

37. And so, for me at the ford of the wide-flowing and forward streaming river of the happy dwelling places,² came the bay horse, leader of the three seventies. May he become an opulent master of the things that are to be given.

¹ Or, Fire of Trasadasyu. ² Or, the river Suvastu,

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