The Preparation of the Fire

4.6.1

a The strength resting on the stone, the hill,

On the wind, on the rain-cloud, on the breath of the All-Seeing,

Brought together from the waters, from the plants, from the trees;

That food and strength do ye, O Maruts, bounteously bestow upon us.

b With the wind of the ocean

We envelop thee, O Radiant One;

Be thou purifying and auspicious to us.

c With the caul of winter

We envelop thee, O Radiant One;

Be thou purifying and auspicious to us.

d Down upon earth, upon the reed,

Upon the waters lower do thou descend;

Thou, O Radiant One, art the bile of the waters.

e O female frog, with these come hither;

Do thou make this sacrifice of ours

Pure in hue and auspicious.

f Pure, with radiance wonderful,

On earth he has shone as with the light of dawn.

g Who comes to battle,

Moving with strength as on Etaca's course,

In the heat unathirst, immortal.

h O Radiant One, the purifying, with Thy light,

O God, with Thy pleasant tongue,

Bring hither the angels, and sacrifice.

i Do Thou, O shining and purifying One,

O Radiant One, bring hither the angels

To our sacrifice and our oblation.

k This is the meeting of the waters,

The abode of the ocean;

May Thy bolts afflict another than us;

Be Thou purifying and auspicious to us.

l Homage to Thy heat, Thy blaze,

Homage be to Thy light;

May Thy bolts afflict another than us;

Be Thou purifying and auspicious to us.

m To Him that sits in man, hail! To Him that sits in the waters, hail! To Him that sits in the wood, hail! To Him that sits on the strew, hail! To Him that finds the heaven, hail! (All are His signs, and He is nearer to us than our jugular vein.)

n Giver of expiration art Thou, of inspiration, of cross-breathing,

Giver of eyesight, giver of splendour, giver of wide room;

May Thy bolts afflict another than us;

Be Thou purifying and auspicious to us.

o May the Radiant One with His piercing blaze

Cast down every foe;

May the Radiant One win for us wealth.

p With His countenance the kindly One

Will sacrifice to the angels for us, most skilled to win prosperity by sacrifice;

Guardian undeceived and protector of us,

O Radiant One, shine forth with radiance and with wealth.

4.6.2

a He who sat down, offering all these beings,

As invoking priest, the seer, our Guardian,

He seeking wealth with prayer,

Has entered into the boon of the first of coverers.

b Since the Maker of all is mighty in mind,

Disposer, ordainer, and highest seer,

Their offerings rejoice in food,

Where, say they, is One beyond the seven seers.

c He who is our Guardian, our begetter, the ordainer,

Who begot us from being unto being,

Who alone assigns their names to the angels,

Him other beings approach for knowledge.

d Wealth they won by offering to Him

The seers of old like singers in abundance,

They who fashioned these beings illumined and unillumined

In the expanse of space.

e Ye shall not find Him who produced this world;

Another thing shall be betwixt you;

Enveloped in mist and with stammering

The singers of hymns move enjoying life.

f Beyond the sky, beyond this earth,

Beyond the angels, what is secret from the rebellious,

What germ first did the waters bear,

When all the angels came together?

g This germ the waters first bore,

When all the angels came together;

On the navel of the unborn is set the one

On which rests all this world.

h The Maker of all, the God, existed;

Then second the heavenly musician;

Third the Guardian, begetter of plants;

In many a place did He deposit the germ of the waters.

i Father of the eye, the sage with His mind,

Produced these two worlds rich in ghee,

When the fore ends were made firm,

Then did sky and earth extend.

k Seeing on every side, with a face on every side,

Acting on every side, with power on every side,

The one God producing sky and earth

Welds them together with His power.

l What was the basis?

Which and what His support?

When producing earth the Maker of all, all-seeing,

Disclosed the sky with His might.

m What was the wood, and what the tree,

Whence they formed sky and earth?

O ye wise ones, inquire with your minds

On what He stood as He supported the worlds.

n Thy highest, lowest,

Midmost abodes here, O Maker of all,

In the offering do Thou teach Thy comrades, O faithful One;

Do Thou Thyself rejoice in Thy own glory.

o The Lord of speech, the Maker of all,

Let us invoke this day to aid us, thought yoked for strength,

May He delight in our nearest offerings,

He with all healing, to aid us, the doer of good deeds.

p O Maker of all, waxing great with the oblation,

Do Thou rejoice in Thy own glory;

May the others around, our foes, be confused;

May our patrons here be rich.

q O Maker of all, with the oblation as strengthening,

Thou didst make the Mighty One, the protector, free from scathe,

To Him the clans of old bowed in homage,

That He might be dread, to be severally invoked.

r To the ocean, the moving,

The Lord of streams, homage!

To the Lord of all the streams

Do ye offer, to the Maker of all,

Through all the days the immortal offering.

4.6.3