THE EIGHTEENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE LORDS OF THE PLENITUDE [The Divine Will is invoked to complete the manifestation of the divine powers after the second state of the soul when it has passed beyond the mere physical being and is full of the perfect energy of the vital plane, for the gods have given all the life's fifty steeds of swiftness; Agni is there as the light and flame of its far-extended existence which has broken the limitations of the material being and he is full of the joys of this new and rich supra-physical life. Now the third state, the free mental being, is to be perfected by a richly varied and luminous play of thought and word e

HYMN TO INDRA VIII. 54 This is that might of thee, O Indra, which doers of the action speak of in their Words. They praise and guard thy energy dripping with light; the people of the city come (reach) to thee by their thinkings. They by their good action come (reach) to Indra and have his guard, they in whose wine-offerings thou hast delight: even as I approach thee empty of delight, even as I come to thee in my leanness, so in us take thy delight, O Indra. With that opulent pleasure which is thine, O Indra most full of the plenitudes, awake in us as our companion

CHAPTER XXII The Conquest over the Dasyus THE Dasyus stand in opposition to both the Aryan gods and the Aryan seers. The gods are born from Aditi in the Supreme Truth of things, the Dasyus or Danavas from Diti in the nether darkness; they are the Lords of Light and the Lords of Night fronting each other across the triple world of earth, heaven and mid-air, body, mind and the connecting breath of life. Sarama in X.108, descends from the supreme realm, parākāt; she has to cross the waters of the rasā, she meets the night which gives place to her for fear of her overleaping it, atiṣkado bhiyasā; she arrives at the home of the Dasyus, dasyor oko na sadanam

CHAPTER XXIII Summary of Conclusions WE HAVE now closely scrutinised the Angirasa legend in the Rig-veda from all possible sides and in allits main symbols and are in a position to summarise firmly theconclusions we have drawn from it. As I have already said, theAngirasa legend and the Vritra mythus are the two principalparables of the Veda; they occur and recur everywhere; theyrun through the hymns as two closely connected threads of symbolic imagery, and around them all the rest of the Vedic symbolism is woven. Not that they are its central ideas, but they aretwo main pillars of this ancient structure. When we determinetheir sense, we have determined the s

HYMN TO INDRA 1.7 Indra the Udgathins, Indra the masters of Rik with their thoughts of substance, Indra the voices desired. Indra is made one with our being by the love of the two Bright Ones yoked to speech, Indra of the brilliance, the wielder of the thunderbolt. Indra for far vision ascends in Heaven up to the sun, he manifests the mountain to all sides with those lustres. Indra protect us in our store of strength and in our strong possessions, fierce with fierce raptures.¹ Indra we call in great wealth, Indra in little, the thunderer assailing th

THE FIFTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE SUMMONING OF THE GODS [The hymn calls to the sacrifice by the summons of the divine Flame the principal godheads. Each is described or invoked in that capacity and functioning in which he is needed and helpful to the perfection of the soul and its divine growth and attaining.] To the Will that knoweth all the births, to the Flame highly kindled, purely luminous offer a poignant clarity. This is he that expresses the powers of the gods, the untameable who speeds on its way this our sacrifice, this is the seer who comes with the wine of sweetness in his hands. O Strength, we hav

THE SIXTEENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN TO THE BRINGER OF ALL DESIRABLE GOOD [The Rishi affirms the Divine Will in man as the offering and representative priest who brings light and strength and inspired knowledge and every desirable good; for he is the aspirer by works in whom is the puissance of all the gods and the full plenitude of their force.] Sing thou out by the word a vast manifestation for the shining Light, for the divine, for the Will whom mortals by their expressions of his godhead as the Friend¹ put in their front. The Will is the priest of offering of the peoples; by the illuminations of the discerning mind he bears abro

VI THE DIVINE DAWN Rig-veda III.61 Dawn, richly stored with substance, conscious cleave to the affirmation of him who expresses thee, O thou of the plenitudes. Goddess, ancient, yet ever young thou movest many-thoughted following the law of thy activities, O bearer of every boon. Dawn divine, shine out immortal in thy car of happy light sending forth the pleasant voices of the Truth. May steeds well-guided bear thee here who are golden-brilliant of hue and wide their might. Dawn, confronting all the worlds thou standest high-uplifted and art their perception of Immortality; do thou move

IV AGNI, THE ILLUMINED WILL Rig-veda 1.77 1. How shall we give to Agni? For him what Word accepted by the Gods is spoken, for the lord of the brilliant flame ? for him who in mortals, immortal, possessed of the Truth, priest of the oblation strongest for sacrifice, creates the gods? 2. He who in the sacrifices is the priest of the offering, full of peace, full of the Truth, him verily form in you by your surrenderings; when Agni manifests¹ for the mortals the gods, he also has perception of them and by the mind offers to them the sacrifice. 3. For he is the will, he is the strength, he is the eff

XII VISHNU, THE ALL-PERVADING GODHEAD Rig-veda 1.154 Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self- accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement. That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible lion that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops, he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place. Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading, the wide-moving