HYMN TO BRAHMANASPATI 1.18 MASTER OF THE SOUL O Master of the Soul, make Kakshivan, Son of Ushij, a sweet soul and a good fighter. May he who is bold and impetuous, who slays all unfriendly things, the knower of substance of being, the increaser of fullness, cleave to us, he who is strong and swift. Let not the aspiration and the eagerness of mortal man in his struggle perish in us, O Master of the Soul, protect us. That hero smites and is not hurt, whom Indra and Brahmanaspati and Soma befriend, a mortal man.

CHAPTER X The Image of the Oceans and the Rivers THE three Riks of the third hymn of Madhuchchhandas in which Saraswati has been invoked, run as follows, in the Sanskrit: Pāvakā naḥ sarasvatī vājebhir vājinīvatī; yajñam vaṣtu dhiyāvasuḥ. Codayitrī sūnṛtānām, cetantī sumatīnām; yajñam dadhe sarasvatī. Maho arṇaḥ sarasvatī, pra cetayati ketunā; dhiyo viśvā vi rājati. The sense of the first two verses is clear enough when we know Saraswati to be that power of the Truth which we call inspiration. Inspiration from the Truth purifies by getting rid of all falsehood, for all sin according to the Indian id

THE FIRST HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE MORNING SACRIFICE [The Rishi hymns the awakening of Agni the Divine Force to conscious action in the coming of the Dawn. Agni rises towards the luminous Paradise, his goal, feeding on the works of the Discernment which distributes the gifts and activities of the sacrifice, becomes a pure energy leading our days and ascends to the Vastness and the Truth. By the Truth he fashions anew our two firmaments, the physical and mental consciousness. This is the golden Affirmation of him in our heavens.] Strength is awake by kindling of the peoples and he fronts the Dawn that comes to him as the Cow that fosters; like might

THE TENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE SPLENDID SOULS WHO ATTAIN [The Rishi prays to the divine Flame to work in him by the triple force of Power, Knowledge and Delight. He speaks of the splendid souls of knowledge in our humanity who attain to the Truth and Vastness; they are the burning and overpowering flame-rays of this transcendent Conscious-Force of the Divine that is at work in us to climb to divine mastery. Some have become such souls, others are still hampered but growing. He desires the increasing affirmation of Agni so that all may advance to a rich and all-comprehending universality.] O Flame, O Ray in our limited existence, bring for u

CHAPTER XI The Seven Rivers THE Veda speaks constantly of the waters or the rivers, especially of the divine waters, āpo devīḥ or āpo divyāḥ, and occasionally of the waters which carry in them the light of the luminous solar world or the light of the Sun, svarvatīr apaḥ. The passage of the waters effected by the gods or by man with the aid of the gods is a constant symbol. The three great conquests to which the human being aspires, which the gods are in constant battle with the Vritras and Panis to give to man are the herds, the waters and the Sun or the solar world, gāḥ, apaḥ, svaḥ. The question is whether these references are to the rains of heave

THE SIXTH HYMN TO AGNI THE GALLOPING FLAME-POWERS OF THE JOURNEY [The flames of Agni the divine Will, home and meeting- place of all our increasing and advancing life-powers, are imaged as galloping on our human journey to the supreme good. Divine Will creates in us the divine strength of impulsion, an illumined and undecaying force and flame described as the steed of the plenitude, which brings us that good and carries us to that goal. His flames are coursers on the path who increase by the sacrifice; they hasten uninterruptedly, and race always more swiftly; they bring in the penned-up illuminations of the hidden knowledge. Their entire force and rapidity a

PART THREE HYMNS OF THE ATRIS The Hymns to Agni (Rig-veda V, 1 to 28) were later revised by Sri Aurobindo and have been included in HYMNS TO THE MYSTIC FIRE — Volume 11—along with the Vedic text. Here only the original translation, as it appeared in the ARYA, is given for the sake of the valuable Notes which accompany it. Foreword TO translate the Veda is to border upon an attempt at the impossible. For while a literal English rendering of the hymns of the ancient Illuminates would be a falsification of their sense and spirit, a version which aimed at bringing all the real thought to the surface would be an interpretation rather than

HYMN TO VARUNA V.85 [In this hymn there is throughout a sustained double sense. In the exoteric Varuna is hymned as the Asura, omniscient and omnipotent lord and creator, the Godhead in his creative wisdom and might forming the world and maintaining the law of things in the earth and mid-air and heavens. In the esoteric in which the physical phenomena of the exoteric become symbols, the infinite Godhead is hymned in his all-pervading wisdom and purity opening the three worlds of our being to the Sun of knowledge, pouring down the streams of the Truth, purifying the soul from the falsehood of the lower being and its sin. The hymn is rendered here successivel

THE TENTH HYMN TO MITRA-VARUNA V.71 AN INVOCATION TO THE SACRIFICE [The Rishi invokes Mitra and Varuna to the Soma-offering as destroyers of the enemy and greateners of our being and as helpers of our thoughts by their mastery and wisdom.] O destroyers of the Enemy, come with your greatenings,¹ O Varuna, O Mitra, to this our delightful sacrifice. O Varuna, O Mitra, you govern every man and are the wise thinkers; you are the rulers, nourish our thoughts. Come, O Varuna, O Mitra, to our Soma-offering, to the sacrifice of the giver, that you may drink of this wine.

THE SEVENTEENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF ENLARGEMENT AND ULTIMATE ASPIRATION [A state arrives in which man goes beyond the mere subtlety and fineness of the intelligence and reaches to a rich and manifold largeness of soul. Even then though he has now the wide law of his being which is our right foundation, he needs a force greater than his to lead him; for largeness and multiplicity of soul-force and knowledge are not enough, there must be the divine truth in thought, word and act. For we have to attain beyond the enlarged mental being to the beatitude of a state beyond mind. Agni has the light and the force, the Word and the true impulsion, the embraci