The Secret of the Veda

The Fifteenth Hymn to Agni

A Hymn of the Divine Upholder and Conqueror

[The Rishi hymns the Divine Will as the Seer and the Mighty One, the upholder of the Bliss and the Truth, by which men attain to the supreme-seated godheads. He breaks leonine through an army of opposers, sees and confirms for man all the possible births and manifestations of the soul, forms in him the secret superconscient plane and by knowledge delivers him into that vast beatitude.]

प्र वेधसे कवये वेद्याय गिरं भरे यशसे पूर्व्याय ।
घृतप्रसत्तो असुरः सुशेवो रायो धर्ता धरुणो वस्वो अग्निः ॥१॥

1) To the Seer and Ordainer who is the object of knowledge I bring the offering of the Word, to the glorious and victorious, to the pristine and supreme. He is the Mighty One accomplished in joy who goes forward to the clarities, the strength that is holder of the bliss and holder of the substance.

ऋतेन ऋतं धरुणं धारयन्त यज्ञस्य शाके परमे व्योमन् ।
दिवो धर्मन् धरुणे सेदुषो नृञ्जातैरजाताँ अभि ये ननक्षुः ॥२॥

2) By the Truth they uphold the Truth that holds all, in the power of the Sacrifice, in the supreme ether, even they who by the godheads born in them travel to the godheads unborn, to the Powers who are seated for ever in the Law that upholds the heavens.

Page 440

अंहोयुवस्तन्वस्तन्वते वि वयो महद् दुष्टरं पूर्व्याय ।
स संवतो नवजातस्तुतुर्यात् सिंहं न कुद्धमभितः परि ष्ठुः ॥३॥

3) Putting evil away from them they create wide-extended forms and embodiments of the soul that are a vast birth and indestructible manifestation for this first and supreme godhead; new-born he shall break through armies that join like converging floods; they stand encompassing him like hunters who enring an angry lion.

मातेव यद् भरसे पप्रथानो जनंजनं धायसे चक्षसे च ।
वयोवयो जरसे यद् दधानः परि त्मना विषुरुपो जिगासि ॥४॥

4) Thou art even as a mother when in thy wideness thou bearest in thy arms birth after birth to the firm foundation and to the vision. When thou boldest in thee and enjoyest manifestation after manifestation, thou movest abroad with thy self in many different forms.

वाजो नु ते शवसस्पात्वन्तमुरुं दोघं धरुणं देव रायः ।
पदं न तायुर्गुहा दधानो महो राये चितयन्नत्रिमस्पः ॥५॥

5) May our plenitude possess the furthest limit of thy might, O godhead, where in its wideness and all-yielding abundance it upholds the bliss. Thou art he that forms and upholds in himself that secret abode to which we move; by thy awakening of him into knowledge thou hast rescued the enjoyer of things for a vast beatitude.

Page 441