[The Rishi declares Agni as the Priest of the sacrifice, the slayer of the powers of Darkness, the finder of the world of the Sun of Truth, of his radiant herds and of his luminous waters; he is the seer in us who is increased by the clarities of right thought and speech.]

1. Awaken the Flame by the word that affirms him, kindle high the Immortal; let him place our offerings in the godheads.

2. Him in their pilgrim sacrifices mortal men desire and adore, the divine, the immortal, who is strongest for sacrifice in the human creature.

3. Him, the godhead, man's continuous generations adore with the ladle¹ dripping with the clarities; the Will they adore that he may bear their offering.

1 This ladle is the constantly lifted movement of man's aspiration towards the Truth and the Godhead.

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4. Born, the Flame shines out slaying the Destroyers,² yea, he smites the Darkness with the Light and he finds the shining Herds³ and those Waters and the luminous world.⁴

5. The Will serve and seek, the object of our adoration, the Seer with his surface of the clarities; may he come, may he hearken to my call.

6. The Will men increase by the offering of their clarities, they increase the universal doer of their works by their hymns of affirmation which place aright the thought, which find the revealing word.

2 The Titans, dividers of our unity and completeness of being and sons of the Mother of Division, who are powers of the nether cave and the darkness.

3 The Herds and the Waters are the two principal images of the Veda; the former are the trooping Rays of the divine Sun, herds of the luminous Consciousness; the waters are the outpouring of the luminous movement and impulse of the divine or supramental existence.

4 Swar, the world of divine solar light to which we have to ascend and which is revealed by the release of the luminous herds from the nether cave and the consequent uprising of the divine Sun.

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