The Preparation of the Ground for the Fire

4.2.1

a Thou art the step of the All-Pervading, overcoming hostility, mount the Gayatri metre, step along the earth, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of the All-Pervading, overcoming imprecations, mount the Tristubh metre, step along the atmosphere, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of the All-Pervading, overcomer of the enemy, mount the Jagati metre, step along the sky, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of the All-Pervading, overcomer of the foe, mount the Anustubh metre, step along the quarters, excluded is he whom we hate.

b The flame has cried, like the sky thundering,

Licking the earth, devouring the plants.

Straightway on birth he shone aflame,

He blazes with his light within the firmaments.

c O Radiant One, returner, to us return

With life, with radiance, with gain, with wisdom, with offspring, with wealth.

d O Radiant One, O Angiras, a hundred be Thy returns,

A thousand Thy movements;

With the increase of their increase

Do Thou bring back for us what is lost,

Bring back to us wealth.

e Return with strength,

Return, O Radiant One, with food and life;

Again guard us on all sides.

f Return with wealth,

O Radiant One, fatten with the stream,

All-gaining on every side.

g Unloose from us, O All-Seeing, the highest,

The lowest, the midmost knot;

Then may we, O Sustainer, in Thy rule,

Be guiltless before the Boundless One.

h I have drawn thee, thou hast become within,

Be thou firm and motionless,

Let all the folk desire thee;

In him establish the kingship.

i In greatness he has arisen erect in the van of the dawns;

Emerging from the darkness, he has come with the light;

The flame, with radiant brilliance, fair limbed,

On birth has filled every seat.

k Do thou sit down in the lap of this mother,

O Radiant One, knowing all the ways;

Consume her not with light nor with heat,

Within her shine with pure radiance.

l O Radiant One, with glow

Within Thine own seat of the pan,

Heating with her blaze,

Be Thou, O All-Knower, auspicious.

m Becoming auspicious to me, O Radiant One,

Do Thou sit down auspicious;

Having made all the quarters auspicious,

Sit here on Thine own birthplace.

n The gander seated in purity, the bright one seated in the atmosphere,

The invoking priest seated at the altar, the guest seated in the house,

Seated among men, seated in the highest, seated in holy order, seated in the firmament,

Born of the waters, born of the cows, born of holy order, born of the mountain, the great holy order.

4.2.2

a From the sky was the flame first born,

From us secondly he who knows all,

In the waters thirdly the manly,

The pious man sings of him, the undying, as he kindles him.

b We know Thy three places threefold, O Radiant One,

We know Thy seat that is established in many places;

We know Thy highest name in secret;

We know the spring whence Thou hast come.

c The manly souled kindles Thee in the ocean, in the waters,

In the breast of the sky, O Radiant One, he who gazes on men;

Thee standing in the third region,

In the birthplace of holy order, the steers inspirited.

d The flame has cried, like the sky thundering,

Licking the earth, devouring the plants;

Straightway on birth he shone aflame,

He blazes with his light within the firmaments.

e Eager, purifying, the envoy, the wise One,

The flame, the immortal, has been established among men;

He bears and darts forward his ruddy smoke;

The sky he attains with his pure radiance.

f The banner of the whole world, the germ,

Filled on birth the firmaments;

Even the firm mountain he cleft passing over,

When the five peoples sacrificed.

g Receptacle of prosperity, supporter of riches,

Granter of thoughts, guardian of the provision,

Son of the bright one, of strength, the king

Is resplendent within the waters, kindled before the dawns.

h He who first makes for Thee today, O Thou of wondrous radiance,

A cake rich in ghee, O God the Radiant,

Do Thou bear him ever on to the better,

To glory allotted by the angels, O youngest One.

i Give him portion, O Radiant One, in praises;

Give him portion in every hymn that is sung,

Dear shall he be before the sun, dear before the flame,

With what is born, what is to be born shall he be victorious.

k Thee, O Radiant One, the sacrificers through the days

Bear as many riches desirable;

With Thee desiring wealth,

Eagerly they revealed the stall rich in kine.

l Shining like gold, he has become widely resplendent,

For glory shining with immortal life;

The flame became immortal in his strength,

What time the prolific sky begat him.

4.2.3

a O Lord of food, accord us food,

Uninjurious, impetuous;

Do Thou further the donor,

Bestow strength on our bipeds, our quadrupeds.

b May all the angels Thee,

O Radiant One, bear up with their thoughts;

Be Thou to us most propitious,

With kindly face, abounding in light.

c Come forward, O Radiant One, rich in light,

With auspicious rays;

Shining with great radiance,

Harm not our offspring with Thy body.

d With kindling-wood serve the Radiant One,

Awaken the guest with ghee;

In him offer oblations.

e Far-famed is this fire of Bharata,

Since his great light shines like the sun;

He who overcame Puru in battle

Has shone forth, the heavenly guest, propitious for us.

f O ye waters of heaven, accept these ashes;

Place them on a resting-place, in the fragrant region

To him may the ladies with noble spouses bow;

Like a mother her son, do ye kindly bear him.

g In the waters, O Radiant One, is Thy seat,

Thou enterest the plants;

Being in the germ Thou art born again.