Hymns to the Mystic Fire

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RV I.140

Dirghatamas' Hymn to Agni I.140.

1) Offer like a secure seat that womb to Agni the utterly bright who sits upon the altar and his abode is bliss; clothe with thought as with a robe the slayer of the darkness who is pure and charioted in light and pure-bright of hue.    (शुक्र = a white brightness.)

2) The twice-born Agni moves (intense) about his triple food; it is eaten and with the year it has grown again; with the tongue & mouth of the one (or with his tongue in the presence of the one) he is the strong master & enjoyer, with the other he engirdles & crushes in his embrace his delightful things.    (मृश् is used of the sexual contact; वारणः from वृ to cover, surround.)

3) He gives energy of movement to both his mothers on their dark path, in their common dwelling, and both make their way through to their child (or following their child), for his tongue is lifted upward, he destroys and rushes swiftly through and should be cloven to, increasing his father.

(Explanation. Heaven & earth, Mind & body dwelling together in one frame or in one material world move in the darkness of ignorance, they pass through it by following the divine Force which is born to their activities. कुपयं is of doubtful significance. The father is the Purusha or else Heaven in the sense of the higher spiritual being.)

4) For the thinker becoming man his swift-hastening impulsions dark & bright desire freedom; unequal, active, rapid-quivering, they are yoked to their works, swift steeds and driven forward by the Breath of things.

5) They for him destroy & speed lightly on (or speed & pervade) creating his dark being of thickness and his mighty form of light; when reaching forward he touches the Vast of Being, he pants towards it and, thundering, cries aloud.    (महीमवनिं might mean the vast earth, but अवनि & even पृथिवी are not used in the Veda invariably, the former not usually, to mean earth,

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but stray or return to their original sense—सप्र अवनयः.)

6) He who when he would become in the tawny ones, bends down and goes to them bellowing as the male to its mates,—putting out his force he gives joy to their bodies (or he makes blissful the forms of things) and like a fierce beast hard to seize he tosses his horns.    (बभ्रूषु, the cows, अरुणयः of a later verse—knowledge in the mortal mind.)

7) He whether contracted in being or wide-extended seizes on them utterly; he knowing, they knowing the eternal Agni lies with them, then again they increase and go to the state divine; uniting, another form they make for the Father & Mother.

8) Bright with their flowing tresses they take utter delight of him, they who were about to perish, stand upon high once more for his coming.    (मम्रुषीः is uncertain. It may be dead or dying. रेभिरे = delight is here perfectly proved.)    For he loosens from them their decay and goes to them shouting high, he creates supreme force and unconquerable life.

9) Tearing about her the robe that conceals the Mother he moves on utterly to the Delight with the creatures of pure Being who manifest the Force; he establishes wideness, he breaks through to the goal for this traveller, even though swiftly rushing, he cleaves always to the paths.    (रिहन्, रेरिहत् are uncertain.)

10) Burn bright for us, O Agni, in our fullnesses, be henceforth the strong master and inhabit in us with the sisters; casting away from thee those of them that are infant minds thou shouldst burn bright encompassing us all about like a cuirass in our battles.    (श्वसिः is the Greek χάσɩς and an old variant of श्वसृ—wife or sister. Therefore it is coupled with वृषा—like पत्नी.)

11) This, O Agni, is that which is well-established upon the ill-placed; even out of this blissful mentality may there be born to thee that greater bliss. By that which shines bright & pure from thy body, thou winnest for us the delight.

12) Thou givest us, O Agni, for chariot & for home a ship travelling with eternal progress of motion that shall carry our strong spirits and our spirits of fullness across the births and across the peace.

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13) Mayst thou, O Agni, about our Word for thy pivot bring to light for us Heaven & Earth and the rivers that are self-revealed; may the Red Ones reach to knowledge and strength & long days of light, may they choose the force and the supreme good.

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