The master of many peoples who labour towards the godhead, we seek for you with words of perfect expression, Agni whom others also everywhere desire. Men hold Agni in them as the increaser of strength. With offerings we dispose the sacrifice for thee, do thou then become today to us perfect-minded and our keeper here in our havings, O thou who art of the truth of being. Thee we choose out for our messenger, the priest of offering who hast universal knowledge; when thou art greatened in thy being thy flames range wide, thy lustres touch the heavens. The gods eve

Foreword IN ANCIENT times the Veda was revered as a sacred book of wisdom, a great mass of inspired poetry, the work of Rishis, seers and sages, who received in their illumined minds rather than mentally constructed a great universal, eternal and impersonal Truth which they embodied in Mantras, revealed verses of power, not of an ordinary but of a divine inspiration and source. The name given to these sages was Kavi, which afterwards came to mean any poet, but at the time had the sense of a seer of truth, — the Veda itself describes them as kavayaḥ satyasrutah, “seers who are hearers of the Truthˮ and the Veda itself was called, sruti, a word which came to mean “revealed Scriptureˮ The

KETU AGNEYA sukta 156 1. May our thoughts speed the Fire on his way like a swift galloper in the battles, by him may we conquer every kind of wealth. 2. The army by which we may make ours the Ray-Cows under thy guard, that army send to us¹ for the getting of plenty. 3. Bring to us, O Fire, a stable wealth of the Ray-Cows and the ¹ Or, speed for us Page – 433 horses of power, reveal heaven, turn away from us the evil Trafficker. 4. O Fire, make to as

HARYATA PRAGATHA SUKTA 72 Page – 359 1. Do you make the offering, the Priest of the pilgrim-rite has come and he conquers again, for he knows the commandment of the Fire. 2. Let him sit within close to the keen burning ray the Priest of the call in thinking man accepting the comradeship of the Fire. 3. Within they wish him to be in a man the “terrible oneˮ, beyond the thinking mind; by his tongue they seize the peace. 4. High burnt the companion bow, a founder of the growth he climbed to woodland, he smote the rock with his tongue. 5.

KUTSA ANGIRASA SUKTA 94 This is the omniscient who knows the law of our being and is sufficient to his works; let us build the song of his truth by our thought and make it as if a chariot on which he shall mount. When he dwells with us, then a happy wisdom becomes ours. With him for friend we cannot come to harm. Whosoever makes him his priest of the sacrifice, reaches the perfection that is the fruit of his striving, a home on a height of being where there is no warring and no enemies; he confirms in himself an ample energy; he is safe in his strength, evil cannot lay its hand upon him.

SAMVANANA ANGIRASA sukta 191 O Fire, O strong one, as master thou unitest us with all things and art kindled high in the seat of revelation; do thou bring to us the Riches. Join together, speak one word, let your minds arrive at one knowledge even as the ancient gods arriving at one knowledge partake each of his own portion. Common Mantra have all these, a common gathering to union, one mind common to all, they are together in one Page – 435 knowledge; I pronounce for you a common

NODHAS GAUTAMA SUKTA 59 A HYMN OF THE UNIVERSAL DIVINE FORCE AND WILL Other flames are only branches of thy stock, O Fire. All the immortals take in thee their rapturous joy. O universal Godhead, thou art the navel-knot of the earths and their inhabitants; all men born thou controllest and supportest like a pillar. The Flame is the head of heaven and the navel of the earth and he is the power that moves at work in the two worlds. O Vaishwanara, the gods brought thee to birth a god to be a light to Aryan man. As the firm rays sit steadfast in the Sun, all

PURU SUKTA 16 Create by the illumining word a wide expansion for the Light, for the divine Fire, whom mortals by their proclaimings of him set in their front as Mitra the friend. He is menʼs priest of the call who by his illuminations carries in his two arms of the Understanding the offerings wholly in a continuous order; as Bhaga, the enjoyer, he Page –228 reaches our desirable good. In the lauding of this master of plenty, in his friendship as his light grows, for all things are in this Fire of the many voices, men have founded their strength in him, the Noble One.

MANDALA TWO GRITSAMADA BHARGAVA SUKTA 1 O Fire, thou art born with thy lights, flaming out on us in thy effulgence; thou art born from the waters and around the stone, thou art born from the forests and born from the plants of the earth. Pure art thou in thy birth, O Master of man and his race. O Fire, thine are the call and the offering, thine the purification and the order of the sacrifice, thine the lustration; thou art the fire-bringer for the seeker of the Truth. The annunciation is thine, thou becomest the pilgrim-rite:¹ thou art the priest of the Word and the master of th

SOBHARI KANWA SUKTA 103 He is seen, the great path-finder in whom they have founded the laws of our action; to the Fire well-born, increaser of the Aryan, go our words. Fire lit by the Servant of Heaven travels in his might towards the gods along our mother earth and on heavenʼs peak he takes his stand. Fire because of whom men doing the works that have to be done, grow luminous, him conqueror of the thousands as if in the winning of the purities they serve by the self,¹ by their thoughts. He whom thou willst to lead to the Riches, the mo