[Agni is hymned as the divine Force that brings the bliss and the ray of the truth into the human being and light into the night of our darkness. He leads men in their labour to his own infinite levels; he enjoys and tears up the objects of earthly enjoyment, but all his multitude of desires are for the building of a universality, an all-embracing enjoyment in the divine home of the human being. He is the animal moving as the enjoyer by the progressive movement of Nature, as with an axe through the forest, to the achievement and the bliss. This passionate, emotional, animal being of man is given by him to be purified into the peace and bliss; in it he establishes a divine light and knowledge and the awakened state of the soul.]

1. O comrades, in you an absolute force of impulsion and an utter affirming for the Strength that lavishes all his abundance on the worlds of our dwelling,¹ for the master of Force, for the son of Energy.

1 Or, on the dwellers in the world.

Page – 417

2. Wheresoever man's soul comes to the utter meeting with him, it becomes full of delight in its dwelling-place. Even they who are adepts in the strength continue to kindle the flame of him and all creatures born work to bring him to perfect birth.

3. When wholly we possess and enjoy our strengths of impulsion, wholly all that men offer as a sacrifice, then I receive the ray of the Truth in its illumination and shining energy.²

4. Verily he creates the light of perception even for one who sits far off in the night, when himself undecaying the purifier compresses the lords³ of the woodland of delight.

5. When in his circling men cast the sweat⁴ of their toil as an offering on the paths, then they ascend to him where he sits self-joyous⁵ like climbers who arrive upon large levels.⁶

2 Or, "of the light, the luminous force, the truth."

3 Vanaspatīn, in its double sense, the trees, the lords of the forest, growths of the earth, our material existence, and lords of delight. Soma, producer of the immortalising wine, is the typical vanaspati.

4 An equivoque on the double sense of the word, sweat and the rich droppings of the food-offering.

5 Or, self-victorious.

6 These are the wide free infinite planes of existence founded on the Truth, the open levels opposed elsewhere to the uneven crookednesses which shut in men limiting their vision and obstructing their journey.

Page – 418

6. Him shall mortal man come to know as the godhead who has this multitude of his desires that he may establish in us the all; for he reaches forward to the sweet taste of all foods and he builds a home⁷for this human being.

7. Yea, he teareth to pieces this desert⁸ in which we dwell as the Animal that teareth its food; the beard of this Beast is of the golden light, his fang is a purity and the force in him is not afflicted by his heats.

8. Pure indeed is he for whom as for the eater of things there is the flowing progression by Nature,⁹ as by an axe, and with a happy travail she, his Mother, brought him forth that he may accomplish her works and taste of the enjoyment.¹⁰

7 The home of man, the higher divine world of his existence which is being formed by the gods in his being through the sacrifice. This home is the complete Beatitude into which all human desires and enjoyings have to be transformed and lose themselves. Therefore Agni, the purifier, devours all the forms of material existence and enjoyment in order to reduce them to their divine equivalent.

8 The material existence not watered by the streams or rivers which descend from the superconscient Bliss and Truth.

9 Again an equivoque on the double sense of svadhiti, an axe or other cleaving instrument and the self-ordering power of Nature, Swadha. The image is of the progress of the divine Force through the forests of the material existence as with an axe. But the axe is the natural self-arranging progression of Nature, the World-Energy, the Mother from whom this divine Force, son of Energy, is born.

10 The divine enjoyment, bhaga, typified by the god Bhaga, the Enjoyer in the power of the Truth.

Page – 419

9. O strength, O presser out on us of the running richness, when thou findest one who is a glad peace¹¹ for the establishing of thy works, in such mortals illumination establish and inspired knowledge and the conscious soul.

10. For to this end I born in the material existence receive as thy gift the emotional mind and the animal being.¹² Yea, O Will, may the eater of things overpower the Dividers¹³ who minister not to his fullness; these souls that rush upon him with their impulsions may he overcome.

11 Śam and śarma in the Veda express the idea of peace and joy, the joy that comes of the accomplished labour, śamī, or work of the sacrifice: the toil of the battle and the journey find their rest, a foundation of beatitude is acquired which is already free from the pain of strife and effort.

12 Literally, passion-mind and the animal; but the word paśu may also mean, as it does oftenest in the Veda, the symbolic Cow of light; in that case the sense will be the emotional mind and the illumined mind. But the first rendering agrees better with the general sense of the hymn and with its previous use of the word.

13 The Dasyus who hack and cut up the growth and unity of the soul and seek to assail and destroy its divine strength, joy and knowledge. They are powers of Darkness, the sons of Danu or Diti the divided being.

Page – 420