The Secret of the Veda

The Twenty-Fifth Hymn to Agni

A Hymn to the Lord of Light and Creator of Godhead

[The Rishi hymns Agni as the Seer-Will whose whole being is the light and the truth and the lavishing of the substance of divinity. He is the son born to the thought of the seers and he gives himself as the godhead born in man who is the son of our works opulent with the divine Truth and the divine Power and as the conquering steed of the journey and the battle. The whole movement of the Seer-Will is upward to the light and vastness of the superconscient; his voice is as if the thunder-chant of those heavens. He shall carry us by his perfect working beyond the siege of darkness and limitation.]

अच्छा वो अग्निमवसे देवं गासि स नो वसुः ।
रासत् पुत्र ऋषूणामृतावा पर्षति द्विषः ॥१॥

1) Raise thy song towards the Will, towards the divine for thy increasing, for he is our lord of substance and he lavishes; he is the son of the seekers of knowledge; he is the keeper of the Truth who ferries us beyond the surge of our destroyers.

स हि सत्यो यं पूर्वे चिद् देवासश्चिद्यमीधिरे ।
होतारं मन्द्रजिह्वमित् सुदीतिभिर्विभावसुम् ॥२॥

2) This is the true in his being whom the seers of old kindled, yea, the gods too kindled him with perfect outshinings into his wide substance of the light, the priest of the oblation with his tongue of ecstasy.

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स नो धीती वरिष्ठया श्रेष्ठया च सुमत्या ।
अग्ने रायो दिदीहि नः सुवृक्तिभिर्वरेण्य ॥३॥

3) O Flame supremely desirable, so by our supreme thinking, by our brightest perfected mentality, by its utter cleaving way of all evil let thy light give unto us the bliss.

अग्निर्देवेषु राजत्यग्निर्मर्तेष्वाविशन् ।
अग्निर्नो हव्यवाहनोऽग्निं धीभिः सपर्यत ॥४॥

4) The Will is that which shines out in the gods, the Will is that which enters with its light into mortals, the Will is the carrier of our oblation; the Will seek and serve in all your thoughts.

अग्निस्तुविश्रवस्तमं तुविब्रह्माणमुत्तमम् ।
अतूर्तं श्रावयत्पतिं पुत्रं ददाति दाशुषे ॥५॥

5) The Will gives to the giver of sacrifice the Son¹ born of his works who teems with the many inspirations and the many voices of the soul, the highest, the unassailable, the Master of things who opens our ears to the knowledge.

अग्निर्ददाति सत्पतिं सासाह यो युधा नृभिः ।
अग्निरत्यं रघुष्यदं जेतारमपराजितम् ॥६॥

6) Yea, 'tis the Will gives to us the Lord of existences who conquers in the battles by his souls of power; Will gives to us our swift-galloping steed of battle ever conquering, never conquered.

यद् वाहिष्ठं तदग्नये बृहदर्च विभावसो ।
महिषीव त्वद् रयिस्त्वद् वाजा उदीरते ॥७॥

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7) That which is strongest in us to upbear, we give it to the Will. Sing out the Vast, O thou whose wide substance is its light. Thy opulence is as if the largeness of the Goddess² herself; upward is the rush of thy plenitudes.

तव द्युमन्तो अर्चयो ग्रावेवोच्यते बृहत् ।
उतो ते तन्यतुर्यथा स्वानो अर्त त्मना दिवः ॥८॥

8) Luminous are thy flaming radiances; there rises from thee a vast utterance like the voice of the pressing-stone of delight; yea, thy cry of itself rises up like a thunder-chant from the heavens.

एवाँ अग्निं वसूयवः सहसानं ववन्दिम ।
स नो विश्वा अति द्विषः पर्षन्नावेव सुक्रतुः ॥९॥

9) Thus, desiring substance, we adore the Will who is forceful to conquer. May he who has the perfect power of his workings, carry us beyond all the forces that seek to destroy us, like a ship over the waters.

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