MANDALA FIVE

THE ATRIS

BUDHA AND GAVISHTHIRA

SUKTA  1

1. Fire is awake by the kindling of the peoples, he fronts the dawn that comes to him like a fostering milch-cow; like the mighty ones casting upward their branching his lustres spread towards heaven.

2. The Priest of the call is awake for sacrifice to the gods. Fire with his right thinking has stood up high ablaze. The red-glowing mass of him is seen: a great god has been delivered out of the darkness.

3. When he put out the long cord of his troop. Fire in his purity reveals all by the pure herds of his rays; the goddess of understanding is yoked to her works, she supine he standing high, he has drunk from her breasts with his tongues of flame.

4. The minds of men who seek the godhead converge towards the flame even as their seeings converge in the sun; when two dawns of different forms give birth to this Fire the white Horse is born in front of the days.

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5. He was born victorious in front of the days, established in established things, ruddy-bright in the woodlands of our pleasure; in house and house founding the seven ecstasies the Fire took up his session as a Priest of the call strong for sacrifice.

6. Strength has taken his seat as the Priest of the offering mighty for sacrifice in the lap of the Mother, in that rapturous other world, the youth, the seer, manifold in his fixed knowledge, possessed of the Truth, the upholder of the peoples; in between too, is he kindled.

7. Men pray with their prostrations of surrender that illumined seer, who achieves perfection in the pilgrim-sacrifices. Fire, the Priest of the call, for he has extended earth and heaven by the Truth, they rub bright with the Light the eternal Horse of power.

8. The purifier he is rubbed bright and pure, he who is proclaimed by the seers, one who is the dweller in his own house, and is our benignant guest; the bull of the thousand horns because thou hast the strength of That, O Fire, thou precedest in puissance all others.

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9. At once thou goest forward, O Fire, and. overpassest all others in whomsoever thou hast become manifest in all the glory of thy beauty; adorable, great of body, wide of light thou art the beloved guest of human beings. 

10. To thee, O ever youthful Fire, all the worlds and their peoples bring the offering from near and from far; awake to that right-mindedness of man's happiest state: vast and great and happy is that peace of thee,¹ O Fire.

11. Today, O luminous one, mount the luminous wholeness of thy car with the lords of sacrifice, thou knowest the wide mid-world with all its paths, bring here the gods to partake of our sacrifice.

12. To the seer, the understanding one, we have uttered the word of our adoration, to the Bull, the male; the Steadfast in Light has taken refuge, in his laud as in a far-reaching mass of gold.

KUMAR ATREYA OR VRISHA JANA
 

SUKTA  2

¹Or, is thy house of refuge,                                                                                       

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1. The young Mother carries the boy suppressed in the secret cavern and she gives him not to the father; his force is un-diminished, men see him in front established inwardly in the movement.

2. Who is this boy, O young mother, whom thou earnest in thyself when thou art compressed into form, but when thou art vast thou hast given him birth? Through many years grew the child in the womb, I saw him born when the mother brought him forth.

3. I saw him in a distant field, one golden-tusked and pure-bright of hue shaping his weapons: to him I am giving immortality in my several parts and what shall they do to me who possess not Indra and have not the word ?

4. In that field I saw ranging apart what seemed a happy herd in its many forms of beauty; none could seize on them, for he was born, even those of them who were grey with age became young again.

5. Who were they that divorced my strength from the herds of light ? Against them there was no protector nor any fighter in this war. Let those who seized them release them back to me, he has become aware and is driving back to me my herds of vision.

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6. The hostile powers have hidden within in mortals the king of those who dwell in creatures in whom all creatures dwell;  let the wisdom-words of Atri release him, let the binders themselves become the bound.

7. Shunahshepa too was bound to the thousandfold post of sacrifice, him didst thou release and he attained to calm;¹ so do thou take thy seat here in us, O conscious knower, O Priest of the call, and loose from us the cords of our bondage.

8. Mayst thou not grow wroth and depart from me: he who guards the law of working of the gods declared it to me;  Indra knew and sought after and saw thee, and taught by him, O Fire, I have come to thee.

9. This Fire shines with the Vast Light and makes all things manifest by his greatness. He overpowers the workings of knowledge that are undivine and evil in their impulse, he sharpens his horns to gore the Rakshasa.

10. May the voices of the Fire be sharp weapons to slay the Rakshasa. In his ecstasy his angers break down, all the

       ¹Or, he achieved the work;

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undivine obstructions that besiege us cannot hem him in.

11. O thou of the many births, I the sage, the thinker, the man of perfect works have fashioned for thee this laud like a chariot. If, indeed, O god, thou shouldst take an answering joy in it, by this we could conquer the waters that carry the light of the sun-world.

12. The bull with the neck of might, whom no enemy can oppose, grows and comes driving from the foe the riches of knowledge. So have the immortals spoken to this Fire that he may work out peace for man when he prepares the sacred seat, work out peace for man when he brings the offering.

VASUSHRUTA

SUKTA  3

1. Thou art Varuna, O Fire, when thou art born, thou becomest Mitra when thou blazest high; in thee are all the gods, O son of Force, thou art Indra for the mortal giver.

2. O holder of the self-law, thou becomest Aryaman when thou bearest the secret name of the Virgins; they reveal thee

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    with the Rays as Mitra firmly founded when thou makest of one mind the Lord of the house and the Spouse.

3. For the glory of thee, O Rudra, the life-powers make bright thy birth into a richly manifold beauty. When that highest step¹ of Vishnu is founded within, thou guardest by it the secret name of the Ray-cows.

4. By the glory of thee who hast the true seeing, the gods hold a multiple completeness and taste² immortality; men take up their session with Fire, the Priest of the call, aspiring, making a gift of the self-expression of the human being.

5. There is none who precedes thee as priest of the call, O Fire, none mightier for sacrifice, there is none supreme over thee in the seer-wisdoms, O master of the self-law, and of whatsoever man thou becomest the guest, he conquers by sacrifice, O godhead, those who are mortals.

6. May we who seek the Riches win them by the offering, we guarded by thee and awakened, O Fire, — we in the clash of the battle, in our discoveries of knowledge through days, we by the Treasure overcome mortal men, O son of Force.

       ¹The supreme plane of the three.    ²Or, touch

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7. He who brings sin and transgression upon us, on him who gives expression to evil, on himself may there be put that evil; O thou who art conscious, slay this hostile assault, O Fire, even him who oppresses us with the duality.¹

8. Thee in the dawning of this night, O godhead, the ancients made their messenger and gave sacrifice with their oblations; for thou art the godhead kindled by mortals who have the light² and thou travellest to the House of the Treasures.

9. Rescue thy father, in thy knowledge keep him safe, thy father who becomes thy son and bears thee, O son of Force. O conscious knower, when wilt thou look upon us ? When with thy Truth-Consciousness wilt thou set us to our journey?

10. The father adores and establishes the mighty name because thou, O shining one, bringest him to accept and take pleasure in it; once and again, the Fire increases and desiring the bliss of the godhead he conquers it by force.

11. O youthful god, thou, indeed, carriest safe thy adorer beyond 

      ¹The division or the twofoldness of the nature divided between good and evil.
 ²Or, the riches

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    all stumblings, O Fire; for the hostile beings are seen, the thieves, even they who know not the light of intuitive knowledge and turn to crookedness.

12. These journeys have turned towards thee, that evil in us has been declared to the Shining One, O this Fire as he grows will not deliver us to the assailant and the hurter.  

SUKTA  4

1. O Fire, O king, towards thee the Wealth-master of the riches I turn and delight in thee in the pilgrim-sacrifice; replenishing thee may we conquer the plenitude, may we overcome the battle-hosts of mortals.

2. The ageless Fire that carries the offering is the father of us, he in us is pervasive in his being, extended in light, perfect in vision. Accomplished in the works of the master of the house blaze out thy forces, form and turn towards us thy inspirations.

3. The seer, the master of men, lord of the human peoples, Fire, pure and purifying with its back of light set within you as the omniscient priest of the call; he shall win our desirable things in the godheads. 

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4. Of one mind with the goddess of revelation take pleasure in us, O Fire, labouring with the rays of the sun; accept with pleasure our fuel, O knower of all things born, and bring the gods to us to, partake of our sacrifice.

5. A cherished guest domiciled in our gated house come to this sacrifice of ours as the knower; O Fire, slaying all who assail us bring to us the enjoyments of those who make themselves the enemy.

6. Drive away from us the Destroyer with thy stroke making free space for thy own body; when thou earnest the gods over safe, O son of Force, us, O Fire, strongest godhead, guard in the plenitude.

7. O Fire, may we worship thee with our words, thee with our offerings, O purifier, O happy light; into us bring the treasure in which are all desirable things, in us establish substance of every kind of riches.

8. Accept our pilgrim-sacrifice, O Fire, accept, O son of Force, O holder of the triple world of thy session, our offering. May we be doers of good deeds before the godheads, protect us with a triple armour of peace.

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9. O knower of all things born, carry us through all difficult passages, through all calamities as a ship over the ocean. O Fire, voiced by us with our obeisance even as did Atri, awake and be the guardian of our bodies. 

10. I think of thee with a heart that is thy bard and mortal I call to thee immortal; O knower of all things born, establish the glory in us, by the children of my works, O Fire, may I win immortality.

11. The doer of great deeds for whom thou shalt make that happy other world, O knower of all things born, reaches in peace a wealth in which are the Horses of swiftness, the Ray-Cows, the Son, the Heroes.

SUKTA 5

1. On the high-kindled flame pour as offering a poignant clarity, to Fire, the knower of all things born.

2. The spokesman of the godhead, the inviolable hastens the sacrifice on its way, for this is the seer who comes with the wine of sweetness in his hands.

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3. O Fire, we have sought thee with our adoration, bring hither Indra the rich in light, the beloved with his happy chariots to protect us.

4. Spread wide, O seat, soft as wool the songs of illuminations sound high; O bright one, be with us for the conquest.

5. Swing wide, O divine doors; be easy of approach that you may be our guard: lead further further and fill full our sacrifice.

6. Dawn and night we seek with desire the two mighty Mothers of the Truth with their fair front to us who increase our being's space.

7. O worshipped twain, O divine priests of man's call, arrive on the path of the wind to this our sacrifice.

8. May Ila, Saraswati, and Mahi,¹ the three goddesses who create the bliss sit on the sacred seat, they who never err.

    ¹Ila, goddess of revelation; Saraswati, goddess of inspiration; Mahi, goddess of the Vast Truth, Mahas or ṛtam bṛhat.

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9. O maker of forms, hither benignant arrive all-pervading in thy fostering to us and in thyself; in sacrifice on sacrifice us upward guard.

10. O Tree,¹ there where thou knowest the secret names of the gods make rich our offerings.

11. Swaha to the Fire and to Varuna, Swaha to Indra and the Life-powers, Swaha to the gods be our offering.

SUKTA  6

1. I meditate on the Fire who is the dweller in things,² to whom the milch-cows go as to their home, to their home the swift war-horses, to their home the eternal steeds of swiftness.³ Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

2. This is the Fire who is the dweller in things voiced by me, in whom meet the milch-cows, and in him the swift galloping war-horses and in him the illuminates who have come to the perfect birth. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

    ¹Or, O master of delight,    ²Or, who is the Shining One,     ³Or, steeds of the plenitude.

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3. The all-seeing Fire gives the steed of the plenitude to man, Fire the horse that conies swiftly to him for the riches; when he is pleased he journeys to the desirable good. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

4. O Fire, we kindle thy luminous and ageless flame; when the fuel of thee becomes more effective in its labour, it blazes up in heaven. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

5. O Fire, O Master of the brilliant Light, the offering is cast to thee with the word of illumination, O bearer of the offering, O master of the creature, achiever of works, O delightful Flame. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

6. In thy fires those greater fires of thee nurse every desirable good; they, they race, they run, they drive on in their impulse without a break. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

7. O Fire, those rays of thine, thy steeds of plenitude greaten the Vast; they gallop with tramplings of their hooves to

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    the pens of the ray-cows. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

8. Bring to us who laud thee, O Fire, new impelling forces that lead to happy worlds; may we be of those who with thee for their messenger sing the hymn of illumination in home and home. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

9. O delightful Flame, thou turnest both the ladles of the streaming clarity towards thy mouth; then mayst thou carry us high beyond in the utterances, O Master of might. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

10. Thus have they driven and controlled the Fire without a break by their words and their sacrifices; may he found in us the perfect hero-might and the perfect power of the Horse. Bring to those who laud thee the force of thy impulse.

ISHA

SUKTA  7

1. O comrades, in you an integral force and complete laud to Fire the most powerful among the peoples, to the

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mighty child of energy.

2. Whom wheresoever they come into contact with, him men who have the power rapturously set alight in this house of man and all beings born strive to bring to birth.

3. Whenso we win completely the impulsions of force, completely the offerings human beings must give, then he gathers to himself the Ray of the light and the might and the Truth.

4. Yea, he creates the light of intuition even for one who is far off in the night, the purifying and imperishable Fire ravages the trees of the forest.

5. When in his service men cast down their sweat on the paths, they ascend to a self-born ground as if to wide levels.

6. Him mortal man must come to know as one who holds the multitude of his desires so that he may establish in him all; he moves towards the sweet taste of the draughts of the wine and to the building of the house for man.

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7. Pure and bright, verily, is he and he tears our desert dwelling place,¹ like a beast who tears, a beast with golden beard and tusks of bright purity, he is like a smith whose force is un-afflicted by ,the heat of the Fire.

8. Yes, he is pure and bright and he is as one whose axe is like an eater and ever enters deeper; with a happy delivery his mother bore him, for he is an achiever of the work and wins enjoyment of the bliss.

9. O Fire, to whom is poured the running stream of the offering of light, the man who is a happy ground for establishing thee, — in such mortals found the light, and the inspiration and the knowledge.

10. Even so, irresistible born, I receive the force of mind, the cow of vision given by thee. O Fire, then may Atri overcome the destroyers who satisfy thee not, may he overcome forces and men.

SUKTA  8

    ¹Or, the-solid ground on; which we dwell,

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1. O Fire, created by our force, thee the Ancient One, the ancient seekers of Truth set blazing for their guard the master of sacrifice with his many delights who establishes all, Fire who dwells in the house, master of the house, the supremely desirable.

2. Thee, O Fire, men seated within as the ancient guest, the master of the house with his tresses of light, — vast is his intuition, many are his forms, he brings out the riches, he is a giver of perfect peace and protection and a destroyer of the foe.

3. Thee the human people pray, O Fire, who knowest the word of invocation, who hast the just discernment, who art strongest to found the ecstasy, — thee who dwellest in the secret cave, O happy Flame, and hast the vision of all things, the perfect sacrificer with the multitude of thy voices and the glory and beauty of thy light.

4. Thee, O Fire, who upholdest all things in every way we voicing thee with our words have approached with obeisance ; so do thou accept us, O Angiras, a godhead kindled by the glory of a mortal and by his high illuminings.

5. O Fire, thou takest many forms for man and man and thou foundest for him his growth as of old, O thou lauded by

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    many voices; many are the things on which thou feedest and thou illuminest them all with thy force, and none can do violence to the fury of thy blaze when thou blazest up in thy might.

6. Thee O youthful Fire, in thy high kindling the gods have made a messenger and a carrier of the offerings; thee of whom light is the native seat and wide are the spaces through which thou movest, they have set when thou hast received the offerings as a keen burning eye that urges the thought.

7. Thee, O Fire, fed with offerings of light from the higher heaven the seekers of bliss¹ kindled with an entire kindling, so now growing on the herbs to thy full might thou spreadest over wide earth-spaces.

GAYA

SUKTA  9

1. Thee, O Fire, men bringing offerings pray, mortals the godhead; I meditate on thee as the knower of all things born and as such thou earnest our offerings without a break.  

    ¹Or, from of old; or, the ancient seekers of bliss

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2. Fire is the priest of the call in the house of the giver who has plucked the grass for the seat of sacrifice and in him our sacrifices meet and our plenitudes of inspired knowledge.

3. Verily, the two tinders have brought to birth as if a new-born infant Fire who does aright the pilgrim-sacrifice, to be the upholder of the human beings.

4. Verily, thou art hard to seize like a son of crookednesses; many are the trees of the forest thou consumest, O Fire, like a beast in his pasture.

5. Now, verily, his rays with their smoke meet perfectly together when Trita, the triple one, blows upon him in heaven like a smelter, it is as if in the smelter that he whets his flame.

6. I by thy guardings, O Fire, and by thy utterances as the friend — like men beset by hostile powers so may we pass beyond the stumbling-places of mortals.  

7. O forceful Fire, bring to us, to men, the treasure; may he cast his shafts, may he foster us, may he be with us for the conquest of the plenitude. Be with us in our battles that we may grow.

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