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

XIII SOMA, LORD OF DELIGHT AND IMMORTALITY Rig-veda IX.83 Wide spread out for thee is the sieve of thy purifying, O Master of the soul; becoming in the creature thou pervadest his members all through. He tastes not that delight who is unripe and whose body has not suffered in the heat of the fire; they alone are able to bear that and enjoy it who have been prepared by the flame. The strainer through which the heat of him is purified is spread out in the seat of Heaven; its threads shine out and stand extended. His swift ecstasies foster the soul that purifies him; he ascends to the high leve

CHAPTER VII Varuna-Mitra and the Truth IF THE idea of the Truth that we have found in the very opening hymn of the Veda really carries in itself the contents we have supposed and amounts to the conception of a supramental consciousness which is the condition of the state of immortality or beatitude and if this be the leading conception of the Vedic Rishis, we are bound to find it recurring throughout the hymns as a centre for other and dependent psychological realisations. In the very next Sukta, the second hymn of Madhuchchhandas addressed to Indra and Vayu, we find another passage full of clear and this time quite invincible psychological suggestion

HYMN TO INDRA X. 54 [Hymn of Brihaduktha Vamadevya to Indra, Master of Mental Force, when he exceeded Mind and entered Mahas, yet maintained the lower firmaments, — realising his unity with Sah the supreme Purusha.] When thou hadst given wholly the fullness of the ideal to thy fame, O Maghavan of the fullness, when both the firmaments cried to thee in their terror, thou didst protect the gods, thou didst transfix the Enemy, by teaching the strength of the Spirit, O Indra, even for this creation. When thou didst range abroad increasing in thy force of substance and progressing strength to the people, that force

THE TWENTY-FOURTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN TO THE DELIVERER AND PROTECTOR [The Rishi invokes the Divine Will for protection from evil and for the fullness of the divine light and substance.] 1-2. O Will, become our inmost inmate, become auspicious to us, become our deliverer and our armour of protection. Thou who art the lord of substance and who of that substance hast the divine knowledge, come towards us, give us its most luminous opulence. 3-4. Awake! hear our call! keep us far from all that seeks to turn us to evil. O shining One, O flame of purest Light, thee for our comrades we desire that even now they may have the bliss and peace. P