Hymns to the Mystic Fire

[13]

RV I.74

1) As we move forward to the path of the sacrifice let us speak out the word of our thought to Agni who hears us from afar and from within.

2) He who supreme (ancient, first) in the worlds of our action that pour forth the clarity meeting together (or, when our labours that drip their fruit combine together), protects for the giver his attaining (or movement).

3) Yea, let all creatures born (be able to) say, "Up Agni comes into being, slayer of Vritras, conqueror of our wealth in battle after battle."

4) He whose messenger thou art to his home, thou takest his offerings on their journey (or, takest his offerings on thy journey to be eaten by the gods, or comest to the offerings); thou makest effective his path of sacrifice.

5) Him men call the man complete in his offering, complete in his gods, complete in his base of sacrifice, O Angiras, O Son of Force.

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6) Thou bringest both those gods here that we may express them and bearest, O rich in delight, the offerings on their journey (or, to be expressed & to eat the offerings).

7) No tramp is heard of the horses of thy chariot in its going when thou goest on thy embassy, O Agni.

8) By thee fostered the horse of life goes undeviating, each one after that which preceded it, and the giver of sacrifices progresses, O Agni.

9) Yea, and thou lodgest throughout his being for the giver and his gods, O God, Agni, a vast and luminous completeness of energy.

The Hymn is a hymn of the Adhwara Yajna, the Sacrifice of the Path. Agni, the Divine Will-Force or Power of Consciousness, is the deity.

1) The Gotamas, illumined minds, are to proceed to the path of the sacrifice; let them then give voice to the thought in them which is to be the governing word of their progress for the Divine Will-Force to use; that Force hears the word and responds whether as the deity realised within or as the deity of the universe seated in the highest and most distant worlds.

2) The Divine Will-Force is the first and supreme among divine powers; it protects our movement in the sacrifice from plane to plane and all the planes of our being on which the Work proceeds come together in a conscious harmony and stream forth their riches in response to our giving.

3) Let this Divine Force manifest itself so that all shall say, "It is born and rises on high, slaying all the hostile powers that obstruct our progress and winning wealth on new wealth for the soul in battle after battle."

4) These results are attained, because the Divine Will-Force becomes a compelling envoy who carries our offerings on their journey to the goal which is our home and the home of the gods, the divine plane of the Truth, thus it makes the sacrifice of the path effective; the worlds meet together and drip their riches under the compulsion of the all-creative, all-manifesting Truth of Surya Savitri.

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5) The man then becomes perfect in his sacrifice; the offering is effective, the godheads are completely manifested, the base of sacrifice in the soul includes all the various planes of our being.The Divine Force, the Angiras, the puissance of Seer Will and the Son of Strength overpowering the Panis and Vritras, effects this completeness.

6) He is the envoy & effects the great commerce between earth & heaven, bringing the gods down from the higher planes so that they may be manifested in man in the terrestrial and taking our offerings, the fruits of our terrestrial life upwards to be divinised, transformed into the divine essence, eaten, in the Vedic image, by the gods. That transformation is effected in the perfect bliss of the Divine Will-Force.

7-8) This great going & coming is effected in a silent spiritual rapidity; there is no rumour or clamour at all of the trampling hooves of the Vital Forces in their swiftness; but the chariot of the movement gallops swiftly.

9) Finally, the Divine Will-Force lodges in all our being for the benefit of the soul itself and of the gods who work in him, a complete and utter heroic energy, vast with the vastness of the Truth & luminous with its light.

1) अध्वरं. According to Sayana, the word is अ-ध्वरं from ध्वृ to hurt, and means unhurt by the Rakshasas etc. But the word unhurt thus used could never have become by itself a synonym for sacrifice, as अध्वर has done. Throughout the Veda अध्वर is associated with the idea of movement on the path to the goal, and it is therefore more reasonable to connect it with अध्वन् a path; the adhvara is the sacrifice that travels on the paths of the divine journey (अध्वनो देवयानान्) and reaches the heavens of the gods.We have the words अध्वन्, sky, and अध्वर, sky; which show that the two words are from the same root and of a similar formation. That root is evidently an old root अध्, no longer formed as a verb, which must have had the same sense as अत्. We have also a lost root अथ् surviving in अथर्यति, to move constantly and अथर्यु, moving. For the Adhwara Yajna see Appendix I.

उपप्रयंतो अध्वरं. Coming to the sacrifice of the path with

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the progressive movement which belongs to the sacrifice, प्रयाति अध्वरे.

आरे अस्मे च. Sayana takes च rather unnaturally with the whole phrase because he could not understand the distinction "afar and in us". There is always the distinction in the Veda between the far and the near, दूरे .. अंति in the planes of our being, the क्षेत्र or field of conscious existence, and the nearest, निदिष्ठ, is within ourselves, अंतः.

शृण्वते. The hearing of the mantra by the gods always implies a response, the divine accepting the human thought and replying to it by its own vibrations. See I.10.4, एहि स्तोमाँ अभि स्वर । अभि गृणीह्यारुव । ब्रह्मा च नो वसो सचा । इंद्र यज्ञं च वर्धय ॥ which gives in a few words the theory of the divine acceptance of the Mantra.

2) सनीहितीषु. Sayana takes as "slaying", "those who slay" and he explains that Agni protects the sacrificer's wealth गय when the peoples who hurt come together in the battle to destroy or plunder. His note is वधकारिणीषु—ष्णिह स्नेहने । स्नेहयतीति वधकर्मसु पठितः । स्नेह्यंते हिंस्यंते प्रजा आभिरीति स्नेहितयः ॥ The ordinary senses of सि्नेह् are (1) to be moist, wet, fluid; (2) to be thick, dense; (3) to be thickly fluid, so viscous, oily, greasy, fat; (4) by figure, to be full of love, affection, kindness; (5) to flow or make flow thickly, or continuously, anoint etc. We may compare स्नु to ooze, trickle, flow, stream & स्निट् to go, where the sense of motion comes out more clearly. स्नेहः in the Veda seems to be used for the thick-flowing ghrita. स्नीह् here may mean then to drip the richness of the ghrita, cf the धृतस्नु of Indra's horses etc,—or to move in a dense mass or to adhere together; the कृष्टयः come together and become cohesive or come together and move in a mass.

कृष्टिषु. This latter sense of सनीहितीषु = शश्वत्सु would apply if कृष्टि means either people or the powers that labour in us; the sense of cohesion, if कृष्टि means the worlds which are the field of the working. For the sense of कृष्टि see Appendix II.

पूर्व्यः Literally first or pristine. But in the Veda पूर्व्यः, प्रथमः often mean first also in the sense of supreme. Agni is the original power of the world and therefore the supreme power.

गयं. S. takes the word sometimes as wealth, sometimes as house. गयः must have meant originally movement, the mover or

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the goal of movement. If it is the object of movement, it may mean क्षयः, the home to which we go; but it would more naturally be either the thing attained by the movement, the spiritual wealth, or that which comes to us, still meaning the wealth; or else the movement itself.