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GOPAVANA ATREYA
SUKTA 74
1. All kinds of beings replenish the guest domiciled in your house in whom are the many pleasant things; I laud him with my thoughts with the word of bliss.
2. He to whom men bringing the offering pour the stream of the libation and by their words that give expression to him proclaim as the friend, —
3. the wonderful,¹ the knower of all things born, who in the formation of the godheads sends up the offerings uplifted in heaven,—
4. we have come to the Fire, strongest to slay the Coverers, eldest and ever new in whose force of flame Shrutarvana, son of Riksha, grows to vastness.
5. The immortal, the knower of all things born who is seen² across the darkness, one to be prayed to, one to whom are offered the clarities.
¹Or, the great doer, ²Or, who sees Page – 363 6. The Fire whom men here oppressed pray with their offerings casting their libations with the ladles at work.¹
7. Thine, O Fire, is the new thought founded in us, O rapturous and well-born guest, strong of will, wise and powerful for action.
8. May that thought, O Fire, become pleasant and full of peace and gladness; grow by it, well-affirmed by our lauds.
9. May it be luminous with many lights, and uphold in its inspiration a vast inspired knowledge in the piercing of the Coverers.
10. He is the Horse of power and the Cow of light, it is he who fills our chariots, he is brilliant and like Indra the lord of beings; you shall cross through his inspiration, O men! and find each wonderful.
11. Thou whom Gopavana gladdens with his word, O Fire, O Angiras, O purifying Flame, hear his call.
¹Or, with outstretched ladles. Page – 364
12. Thou whom men oppressed pray for the winning of the plenitudes, awake in the piercing of the Coverers.
13. As if calling armed forces in Shrutarvan, son of Riksha, from whom drips the rapturous inspiration, I comb the shaggy-maned head of the four.
14. Me the swift and galloping four of that most strong one, well-charioted, bore¹towards the delight as if birds flying to water.²
15. O great river Parushni, I have marked out (with them) thy true course. O waters, than this most strong one no mortal man is a greater giver of the Horses of power.³
¹Or, let them bear me ²Or, as the birds carried Tugrya. ³Note on Riks 13, 14 and 15: As is shown by the "Shravansi", "Turvatha" and the name "Shrutarvan" — the Rishi is giving a symbolic turn to the name as well as to the horses and the waters.
SUKTA 75
1. O Fire, yoke like a charioteer the horses most powerful for Page – 365 the calling of the gods; take thy seat, O ancient Priest of the call!
2. And now, since thou hast the knowledge, speak for us towards the gods, make true to our aspiration all desirable things.
3. For thou, O Fire, O most youthful son of force, thou in whom are cast the offerings, art the possessor of the Truth to be worshipped with sacrifice.
4. This Fire is the lord of the hundredfold and thousandfold plenitude, the seer who is the head of the treasures.
5. O Angiras, by words which bear in them the invocation, bring down nearer that sacrifice as the heaven's craftsmen brought down the rim of the wheel.
6. To him now, O Virupa, by the eternal word give the impulse of the high laud to the luminous Bull.
Page – 366 7. By the army of the Fire who has the eye that sees from afar¹ may we lay low whatever miser Trafficker and enter among the shining herds.
8. May the peoples of the gods abandon us not, even as the unslayable luminous herds full of milk leave not a calf that is lean.
9. Let not calamity from every evil-thoughted hostile around smite us like a billow smiting a ship.
10. O divine Fire, men declare their prostration of surrender to thee that they may have force; crush by thy might the foe.
11. Once and again for our search for the
Ray-Cow thou hast entered wholly into the riches, O Fire; O maker of wideness,
12. Abandon us not in the winning of this great wealth as if one who bears a heavy burden; conquer this massed treasure.
¹Or, who has the eye of wisdom Page – 367
13. O Fire, may this mischief cling to another than us for his terror; increase for us a forceful might.
14. The man in whose work he takes pleasure, one who offers the prostration of surrender and is not poor in sacrifice, him the Fire protects with increase.
15. From thy place in the supreme region break through¹ to those who are below; here where I am, them protect.
16. For we know from of old of thy protection like a father's, O Fire, now we seek thy bliss.
SUKTA 84
1. Your guest most beloved I laud who is like a beloved friend, Fire who is as if the chariot of our journey, the one whom we must know.
¹Or, descend Page – 368
2. He whom as the seer and thinker the gods have now set within twofold in mortals.
3. O thou ever-young, guard men who give, hear our words; protect the son by the Self.
4. O divine Fire, O Angiras, O child of energy, by what word, the laud, for thy supreme thinking?
5. By the mind of what master of sacrifice shall we give, O son of force; how shall I word this prostration of my surrender?
6. Mayst thou thyself create for us all worlds of a happy dwelling, make our words a source of the plenitude and the riches.
7. In whose wide-moving thought dost thou take delight, O master of the house; thou from whom come our words in the conquest of the Light? Page – 369
8. Him they make bright the strong of will and he goes in front in the race;¹ he is a master of plenitude in his own abodes.
9. He dwells safe on perfect foundations and there are none to slay him, it is he who slays; O Fire, he is a mighty hero and prosperous.
¹Or, m the contests;
SUKTA 102
1. Thou, O divine Fire, foundest a vast expansion for the giver, thou art the seer, the youth, the master of the house.
2. Do thou, O Fire of the wide light, who art awake to knowledge, go with our word of prayer and of works and call the gods.
3. With thee indeed as an ally, most strong in thy urge, we overcome for the conquest of the plenitude. Page – 370
4. Even as the Flame-Seer, Son of the Wideness, even as the Doer of Works I invoke the pure ocean-dwelling Fire.
5. I call the force which has the sound of the wind and the cry of the rain, the ocean-dwelling Fire.
6. I call like the creation of the Creator-Sun, like the delight of the Lord of Delight, the ocean-dwelling Fire.
7. For the forceful offspring of the pilgrim-sacrifices towards Fire as he grows in his multitudes, —
8. so that he may come to be with us like the Form-Maker coming to the forms he has to carve, us made glorious by his will at work.
9. This Fire travels in the gods towards all glories; may he come to us with the plenitudes.
Page – 371 10. Laud here the most glorious of priests of the call, the supreme¹ Fire in the sacrifices.
11. The intense Fire with its purifying light who dwells eldest in our homes, shines out as one who hears from afar.
12. Declare him, O illumined sage, as the powerful and conquering war-horse, as the friend who takes man to the goal of his journey.
13. Towards thee come the words of the giver of the offerings marking thee out and stand firm as companions in the might of the wind.
14. Thou whose triple-seat of sacrifice is untied and unconfined and the waters also have established thy abode,—
15. the abode of the bounteous godhead with its inviolate safeties, like a happy regard of the Sun.
¹Or, the ancient Page – 372 16. O divine Fire, by our thinkings of the light, burning with thy flame, bring to us the gods and do them sacrifice.
17. The mothers bore thee, the gods brought thee to birth as the seer, the immortal, the carrier of offering, O Angiras.
18. O Fire, O seer, they set thee within as the thinker, the desirable messenger, carrier of the offerings.
19. Mine is not the cow unslayable, I have no axe at hand, so I bring to thee this little that I have.
20. What we place for thee, a few chance logs, them accept, O ever-young Fire.
21. What is eaten by the ant, what the white ant overruns, let all that be to thee as if thy food of light.¹
22. Kindling the Fire let mortal man cleave with his mind to the Thought; by things luminous² I kindle the Fire.
¹Or, as if clarified butter. ²Or, by the shining ones Page – 373 |
