Canto 20Mandala Three

Book 2. cover for HMF=16.pdf

[19]

[RV III.1.1–12]

Rigveda. Mandala III.

I. Viswamitra’s Hymn to Agni.

51.

somy

tvs

10an

vE>

ckT

EvdT

yjy

15#

vAnQCA

20aEd

fmAy

25qv

Sayana renders the sloka — O Agni, since thou for sacrificing

in the sacrifice hast made me the bearer of the Soma, therefore

desire me who am powerful. O Agni, I shining towards the gods

apply the stone (for pressing the Soma) and become calm (or

30praise). O Agni, cleave to my body (for protection) or cleave to

me who am carrying out works.

A confused & incoherent rendering. Moreover

somy intro-

ducing the sentence

35mA

tvs

vE cannot be shunted into the later

sentence

vE>

40ckT

from which it is entirely divided by the verb

vE; nor is there anything in the text to justify the construction

ymA

ckT

45tmA

vE. The rendering of

vE as

kAmyv makes

no good sense and is needless since

50vE can be as well from

to bear as from

to desire. There is no connection of

55sense between the application of the stone to its work of Soma-

pressing and the resultant calmness of the sacrificer. “Praise”

for

fmAy

, Sayana’s alternative rendering, makes a better sense.

60Then, what sense has the cleaving of Agni to the body of the

sacrificer in a physical sacrifice? Therefore Sayana does well to

suggest another rendering. But

always means body in the

65Rigveda.

fmAy

. For his alternative rendering “praise” — note how

every word has to be forced into a ritualistic sense, praise, food,

Mandala Three

70priest etc, which it does not naturally bear, — Sayana quotes

Rigveda VI.1.9

75ffm

, but there the sense

of acquiring stillness is as possible & better than the ritualist

80rendering, O Agni, therefore I sacrifice and become thereby still

in my mortal being.

aEd

. Sayana’s rendering connects well with the idea of the

physical Soma offering, but

85aEd

occurs in a host of passages

where it cannot mean the stone of the Soma-distilling.

The final phrase

90tv

qv points clearly to a moral

sense for the sacrifice, since only as the god of pure tapas can

Agni cleave to the body of the sacrificer and not as the god of

95physical fire. I render: —

“Sustain me, O Agni, with strength for the Soma; thou hast

made me the bearer of it in the knowledge (Vidya) for action

of sacrifice; flaming up towards the gods I yoke to them my

(material) being and grow still within. Cleave, O Agni, to my

100body.”

The sense is clear and each word bears the unvarying sense

I give it in the theosophic rendering of the Veda. Soma is the

symbol of Ananda,

EvdT is Vidya, the higher knowledge; the

105sacrifice is the offering of the realised Ananda to the gods of

the higher life. Every other word, also, bears its plain & natural

sense.

Agni, the pure tapas, has made the sacrificer, Viswamitra,

by establishing him in the higher knowledge, a fit vessel for

110the divine Ananda which is to be offered up in Yogic action

& enjoyment to the gods. He calls upon the god to sustain his

lower parts and maintain him in full strength for that divine

burden. Then, sustained by Agni, his whole nature flames up in

divine force from its natural mortality towards the divinity of

115the gods and he attains that pure stillness of the mind & life-

energies which is the foundation of the higher life. He prays to

Agni to cleave to his body, that is, to dwell constantly as pure

divine tapas in his corporeal & mortal being so as to sustain

permanently that higher life.

120Commentaries and Annotated Translations

125ck

130sEmEYrEn

nmsA

vyn

Edv

135ffAs

dTA

kvFnA

140sAy

Ec1vs

gAt

mFq

Sayana renders the mantra — O Agni, we have performed a

145sacrifice which goes entirely; may my hymn of praise increase;

our people served Agni with fuel and the oblation. The gods

came down from heaven and taught knowledge (or hymns) to

the praisers and to Agni praiseworthy and increased the praisers

desire also to sing.

150Comment on this is superfluous; it is sheer incoherent fu-

tility. Grammatically also, it is impossible that there should be

three different unexpressed subjects for the verbs

vyn

155 ,

ffAs

and

. Note that in this verse Sayana is compelled to take

160EvdT in a different sense from his rendering of it in the first

verse; he is compelled to give the natural meaning knowledge,

but still cannot forsake his ritualism & at once offers his usual

rendering for every word he can press into that sense,

toAEZ.

165He takes

kEv in the sense of “praisers”, “makers of hymns”,

approaching to its modern sense, poets; but

kEv in the Veda

means a seer and not a poet, — a seer, that is to say, one who

170has the direct ideal knowledge of the vijnana, as distinguished

from those who have mentally acquired knowledge, man´ısh´ı.

EvdTA

kvFnA

can only mean the realisations of (ideal) knowledge

175possessed by the seers.

In my rendering I take, as usual,

in the sense of “higher,

180supreme” =

prA

185vyn

in the sense of “made active”,

nms

submission or adoration,

190g

sAy of “eager, desirous to acquire”.

gF is the goddess Vak who expresses the

EvdTA,

sEmt

195 the activ-

ities by which pure Tapas is fed,

Edv the realm of pure mind.

Edv may be a locative genitive, from the heaven of pure mind

or depend on vidatha. The past tenses here I take as having the

200sense of habitual action always done in the past & still done.

“We have offered the high sacrifice, let Speech increase in us;

by the fuel of their activities, by devout submission men have set

Agni to his workings, they have taught the realisations of heaven

of the seers, yea, they have had power to chant them to the man

205who hungers after them & has strength (to bear their force).”

Mandala Three

Viswamitra has offered the supreme sacrifice of the Ananda

to the gods; he prays that as a result the power of divine speech

by which men chant the Vedic knowledge in these inspired poems

210may grow in him; for it is so that men have always prevailed

(ishuh) to sing the Veda in the past. They have given the ac-

tivities of their being to the divine & infinite Force of God as

its fuel, they have submitted themselves devoutly to that Force

not interfering by the lower egoistic personal effort, then has it

215worked in them & done its miracles; then they have taught to

mankind those realisations of the ideal planes which have been

revealed in or from the pure heaven of mind to the Vedic sages

and have had power to express them in divine song for the soul

which hungers after the Vedic knowledge and has the force to

220receive and assimilate it.

myo

225EDr

tdo

Edv

230s

235qA

ET yA

aEv

240df

tmJv

vAso

aEnmpEs

245vs

ZAm

Sayana: — Intelligent, pure in strength, a good friend from his

birth, Agni, who disposes bliss of heaven & earth, the gods found

250that beautiful Agni within the waters of the flowing streams

in (for?) the work (of bearing the sacrifice).

apEs &

255ZAm

obviously go together and there is no necessity or room for

Sayana’s rendering of the latter,

srZfFlAnAm

; the sense “sisters”

260is proved by

vty

syonF of the sixth mantra.

I render: — “Wide in mental capacity, purified in discern-

265ment he, the perfect friend, has established Beatitude by his

birth in heaven & on earth; within the waters the gods found

Agni of glorious beauty (or, the seer), in the work of the sisters.”

Pure divine tapas in man, says Viswamitra, equipped with

the full capacity of the mind and a power of discernment purified

270from the errors & disorder of the lower mortality, establishes,

as soon as it can manifest, the divine bliss of Sachchidananda

both in the purified mind & in the purified body of this mortal.

Viswamitra then enlarges the word

275qA by the usual Vedic

symbolisms which recur almost in the same language in so many

hymns. This divine tapas is hidden, not born, not manifested, in

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

the waters of our sevenfold being, in the working of the seven

280sisters, the seven states of our consciousness which begin from

Sat the pure state of conscious being & descend to Bhuh, its

material state. The gods, that is to say, the great powers which

work in our being to uplift the mortal to divinity, find the hidden

Force of God concealed in the secret working of these sisters &

285bring him to light in our waking consciousness.

avD

290sP

y4F

j.Anmzq

295mEhvA

Eff

jAtm yAzr

300d

vAso

aEn

jEnmvp

305Sayana: — The seven flowing great (rivers) increased Agni of

good wealth born bright and shining by his greatness. As

mares(?) go to a child that is born, so did they; also the gods

made Agni a brightness in his birth (or in the water).

I confess I do not understand the sense of Sayana’s rendering

310and doubt if it has any.

Bg means either enjoyment or splendour or what is

315enjoyed, & in the latter significance has various derivate mean-

ings. We may take it either as describing Agni, the pure tapas,

to be also full of Ananda or as referring back to

t, if

320df

means beautiful, in the sense of “shining gloriously”.

azq

325azq in the Veda means bright, and especially rosy-

bright or rosy-red or simply bright red. We should then take the

words of the text to mean, “white in his birth, rose red (or red)

by (ie after) his growth to greatness”. We must remember that

in Indian yoga which has all its roots in the Veda, there is a fixed

330symbolism of colours. White is the symbol of purity; the pure

Sat, the inactive luminous Brahman is imaged in the Vedanta as

of a white lustre,

335,

; Shiva is white; sattwaguna is white;

on the other [hand] red is the colour of Brahma, the creator,

of the rajoguna and symbolic of action, force, desire etc. The

340rose brings in the idea of love & delight into the idea of action.

Agni is

345s

Bg. If we accept, as we have already accepted

in hypothesis, this Yogic symbolism as already formed in the

times of Viswamitra, the sense of the image will be that Agni,

the divine force, comes out white & pure from the state of non-

350Mandala Three

manifestation, but as it grows and casts itself on its object it

assumes the hue & lustre of enjoyment and action. In the next

verse we see a distinction drawn between the brightness of the

body of Agni and the brightness which he wears as a robe which

355probably refers back to this distinction between

and

azq

360,

for, there, it is by his bright white limbs that he purifies the

strength in man; it is when he wears his brilliant robe that he

acts and builds up the glories of life.

aAz. It is difficult to fix the meaning of this word. The

365sense of

is strong energy in being, action, motion, light etc;

it means to lift, be high (Gr.

370rw

rdhn, arduus), to plough,

rw, to fight, (Ares, arete, etc), to excel, to be swift, bright,

as in

azq. We must fall back on its connection with

375a

to determine its meaning in this passage. If

vA could mean

380horses, Sayana would be right in taking

aAz as expressive of

motion, “galloped towards”. But to take

vA in the sense [of]

385horses results in this as in some other passages of Veda, in sheer

futility. We must take

vA in the sense of “strong ones, lords

of force” and as an epithet of

390d

vA the gods.

aAz will then

mean laboured over, increased or reared to strength.

395yn

also

means “gave him body, increased his substance”. A perfectly

good sense then emerges.

I render, “The seven great currents increased him in his

400splendours, born white but rosy-red in his growth; the lords of

strength laboured over him as over a newborn child, yea, the

gods increased Agni in his body at his very birth.”

Again we have the familiar images. All the seven streams of

consciousness give of the milk of their udders to increase this

405pure force of God that has been born in man, born white in

its utter purity, but as it grows, it assumes the rosy hue of pure

enjoyment & action; as soon as it is manifested, all the other

divine powers are at work over it and increase it immediately

in its substance. For it is said that Agni as soon as born grows

410at once to his full strength; divine force takes possession of its

world & springs at once to maturity of power & action, unlike

the hampered & slow growth of our limited mortal capacities.

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

415f

EBr

420aAttvAn

nAn

kEvEB

425pEv

foEcv

sAn

pyA

430y

rpA

E2yo

EmmFt

435htFrn

Sayana: — Agni with his bright lustres pervading the mid-air,

purifying the doer of works (the sacrificer) with intelligent (or

440praiseworthy) and purifying lustres, wearing brightness about

him as a dress creates for the active performers of ritual food

and large & perfect prosperities.

I object to this rendering that

445g

# means limbs and not

lustres and should be so rendered,

may mean mind (cf Tamil

450karuttu, thought) or will or strength, (cf Gr. kratos) but hardly

a doer, the rendering praiseworthy or hymnable for

kEv is an

unnecessary violence and

455t.

joEB lustres with intelligence

imparted to them is an absurdity. I cannot accept

aAy

460 in the

sense of food;

aAy

from the ancient root

aA to be, means life or

465being and nowhere in Veda is it necessary to take it in any other

than its natural sense. Otherwise, the rendering is more coherent

than is Sayana’s wont. It means that the sacrificial fire when it

pervades the air with its flames purifies the sacrificer & brings

him great prosperity, — a simple & natural, if shallow sense,

470suitable to the ritualistic interpretation of Veda. Unfortunately,

while intelligible in itself as a separate verse, the mantra so

understood, sheds no light on its context with which it seems to

have no earthly connection.

I take

475kEvEB in the sense of ideal illuminations. The words

-Eq &

kEv in the Veda mean a seer, but I think they are capable

also of bearing the sense of the “knowledge” & this seems best

to suit the context in several passages. The termination

480i added

to a root may give the sense of the action or state implied in the

root or of the doer or instrument of action or possessor of the

state, eg

jEn birth or a mother,

485ECEd axe and cutting etc etc.

kEv the seer or the knowledge.

. That which does, the force, or in the mind, the mind-

490force or will, or the mind which possesses the force or will.

“Mind” here gives the most obvious sense, but I think, in spite

of this apparent probability, it is the will or strength in a man

which is supposed to be purified by the divine force entering

Mandala Three

495it & illumining its otherwise blind or half blind action with

illuminations of ideality.

apAm

500 may mean “creative forces” or “works, actions”

or “doers of works or actions” or else “waters”. I take

pEr

as governing

aAy

505 which gives us a better construction than

the awkward coupling of

aAy

E2y as objects of

510EmmFt

“Throughout the being of the doers of works” or “through-

out the being of the waters”, ie the seven streams of world-

consciousness. As the whole passage is concerned with the work-

515ing of Agni in these waters the latter sense seems to me, in spite of

the tradition of Vedic scholars, far the more probable, although

it makes a less superficially simple & attractive sense than the

other rendering. Both however make good sense and fit into the

context.

520rj is taken by Sayana =

tEr

. It means properly either

light or kingdom.

525E2y. I take

2F as equivalent in Veda to

fE8t. This, I think,

was its original sense.

I render then: — “Extending himself through this kingdom

530with his pure bright limbs & purifying our strength with pure

illuminations, wearing a robe of brilliance over all the being

of the waters he builds up (measures out) vast & undefective

powers.”

Agni, the divine Tapas, growing to fullness of body, extends

535himself in that body of bright purity through this kingdom of

our mortal being and in doing so purifies our human strength

by the illuminations of ideality which are pure of the disorder &

errors of the mortal mind. He wears brilliance like a robe, — the

various brilliance of Tapas poured into many kinds of workings,

540and builds up throughout the whole range of our sevenfold

conscious being powers which are vast as proceeding from the

infinity of the ideal consciousness, that mahas which is satyam

ritam brihat, and not like our human & mental powers subject

at every step to defect, narrowness, insufficiency & limitation.

545Commentaries and Annotated Translations

AjA

sFmndtFrdNDA

550Edvo

y4FrvsAnA

annA

snA

555y

vty

syonFr

560dEDr

vAZF

Sayana. Agni went from every side to the waters which are chil-

dren of heaven, which neither devour him (as water quenches

565fire) nor are hurt by him (as fire evaporates water), are neither

clothed nor naked; these seven rivers who are immortal & young

(immortally young, always grown up) and have one place of

residence (the mid-air) held one Agni in their wombs.

Sayana thinks the Rishi means that the rivers do not need to

570wear any dress because they are clothed with water & therefore

not naked! I take

vAZF here as equivalent to

vEntA or

vnA.

575He went all about the mighty streams of heaven, & they

devoured not nor were overcome, clothed they were not, yet

were they not naked; here the eternal damsels born of a common

womb held, seven women, their one common child.

The divine force pervading this mortal kingdom with its

580bright limbs goes all about the sevenfold conscious being man-

ifested in the heaven of pure mind, it fills our whole purified

& liberated mentality with itself. Then these activities in us of

mentalised infinite being, mentalised infinite force, mentalised

infinite beatitude, mentalised ideality, mind pure in itself, men-

585talised life-energy, mentalised material being work perfectly &

without harm to us or deficiency in themselves; they do not

devour & break up the life & body by their unharmonised

intensities, neither are they dominated by the lower energies

(adabdhah); they are not revealed in their sheer nakedness of

590self-being, for all of them are rendered in the mental values

proper to this existence of mind in material life, neither are they

covered & concealed by the obscurations of the lower & false

values given by our present tainted & muddied perceptions.

The truth of them shines through the thin mental veil they wear.

595Here, in this lower kingdom, the seven in their eternal youth &

vigour, children of one universal mother Prakriti, are as seven

women with a common child; all of them, that is to say, enjoy

the possession of this divine force, Agni, which they formerly

kept concealed in their workings, but now hold manifested as if

600Mandala Three

a child born to them in the world of human life. The imagery

of Veda only seems to us confused & unintelligibly mystic so

long as we have not the clue; once the clue is in our hands there

is an admirable force, clearness & sublimity in every word &

605image of the sacred writings. The idea is that of the existence

of the mental being man in this world made absolutely full in

all its parts & harmonious by the completest power, range &

complexity possible to our beings; this is the great result of the

waking & working of divine Tapas in the human soul.

6107.

tFZA

hto

615Ev

v!pA

yonO

620*vT

nAm

625r

EpvmAnA

mhF

630dmy

mAtrA

smFcF

Sayana — In the womb of water (the mid-air) the massed many-

formed and spreading rays of this Agni stand in the flow of wa-

635ters. Here the waters becoming full became pleasers of all. The

shining great earth & heaven became the mothers of beautiful

Agni.

Sayana’s rendering is sufficiently incoherent and barren of

sense but to arrive at it he has to do some extraordinary vio-

640lences to language & reason which are very characteristic of his

method. We have seen him already suggesting that

jEnmn

which

naturally & in its context can mean nothing but birth should

645be taken as equivalent to water; here he insists on taking two

words

t &

650 in the wholly foreign & inappropriate sense

of water. This he has to do because he is taken aback by the

idea of clarified butter & honey flowing from the sky. Equally

violent is his transference of

655 the natural verb of

nv to

an unexpressed

660my in the first line, his rendering of

nv as

an adjective with an understood

aBvn

665 , & his gloss upon

smFcF

that it is equivalent to

670yO, as if it were derived from the root

, and consequently signified shining or beautiful. In my ren-

dering I take

675s

hto for a noun, as it is obviously intended, not an

adjective,

tFZA

as its predicate,

680G

t &

in their usual symbolic

sense,

685D

nv in its ordinary sense of the seven rivers with the usual

double entendre of rivers & cows.

smFc is an adjective formed

from

690sm on the system explained in my Origins of Aryan Speech,

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

tAc,

695EpfAc,

prAc,

v!c,

dDFc,

tFc from

700G

Epf

pr,

705vr,

Et. The meaning is easy to fix; we have

smFc in the sense

710of the level expanse of ocean,

smFck signifying sexual union,

smFcFn meaning fit, & so right, proper or true.

smFc,

smFcFn are

715therefore merely secondary adjectives, (cf likely, whitish etc in

English) modifying temperamentally the original senses of

sm in

same, equal, level, joined, harmonised, fit, true. Earth & heaven,

the two mothers of Agni, are

720mhF liberated from limitation and

smFcF harmonised with each other,

sm.

I render: — The gathered substances of Agni taking all forms

are spread in the womb of richness, in the outflow of sweet-

725nesses; here the Rivers stand growing fat therewith; the two

mothers of the bounteous god become vast & equal.

Viswamitra pursues his free but consistent strain of ancient

symbolic imagery. As the divine Tapas grows, as it pervades the

harmonised consciousness of the purified nature, it begins to

730gather its masses of force into definite forms, into all the forms

of life & thought and action and these spread themselves in the

mind which becomes a womb of rich faculty, a flowing river

of sweetness & delight; with this richness and delight the seven

streams of our being, force, bliss, ideality, mind, life, body are

735all fattened & nourished; they stand here

a in this lower king-

dom, receiving these life-giving nectars. Mental being & bodily

being become harmonised in us, each answering to the calls of

each other, not at discord, their mutual vibrations equalised,

740not harmful by one unevenly dominating, the other suffering;

they are now

mhF, wide & vast, partaking of the infinity of the

higher realms. They are the two mothers of Agni, like the rivers,

because in them & out of them the force manifests.

7458.

750no

shso

yOd

dDAn

7555A

rBsA

760cot

DArA

765G

770vAv

kA y

Sayana. O son of force, held by all, thou shinest holding bright

775& speedy rays. Where (for whatever sacrificer) Agni increases by

the hymn, there streams of very sweet water flow out. Sayana

explains the passage to mean that when Agni is pleased with

Mandala Three

the hymn of the sacrificer, then it rains. Possibly; but that is not

780what Viswamitra says. He says that when Agni increases, then

streams of

t flow out. The pluvial interpretation of the Agni &

Indra legends (they are not legends but symbols & metaphors)

785suffers always from this defect that a few words or slokas here

& there acquire a false clearness & aptness; but all the rest

becomes hopelessly muddled, inapt, strained, words have to be

tortured out of their plain significance and the writers convicted

of such a hopeless anarchy & licence of language & chaotic

790confusion of imagery that the Veda becomes capable of meaning

anything & everything which its interpreter pleases. There is no

straightforwardness, no honesty or efficiency in their language,

no consistency of ideas, no coherence, no logical development.

I take

795bB

AZ here as a middle like

dDAn, not a passive.

800G

ty might mean sweet butter, if we had not had in the

preceding verse

ty ..

805mD

nAm

which binds us to take

810no in

this passage also as a noun.

815$

Eq recalls

820#, but the

sense of

Eq is not limbs, it is bodies, — the

825s

hto

v!pA of

the last verse.

830I render: — O son of Force, bringing (all this wealth) thou

hast lightened forth upholding thy bright & rapturous forms;

the streams of sweetness & richness flow down where he as the

strong lord increases by the ideal knowledge.

Agni, born of the might of God, has blazed out in the whole

835range of our being, illuminating it with strength whose substance

is knowledge & knowledge whose force is strength, the Chit-

Tapas from which he sprang; in that blaze of strength & light

he holds up all the bright & rapturous formations of thought

& action & life & physical self-expression with which the ways

840of our existence are now strewn; for it is when Agni as the

vrisha, the master & lord with all our capacities, the

nA, the

htF

845E2y, as his paramours, increases in us by the growth of

ideal truth & knowledge that all these streams of richness &

sweetness, glad force & utter delight, begin to drip, to trickle &

to stream out upon our exalted mortal nature.

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

8509.

Ept

855Dj

Evv

860 yy

DArA

865D

870t

sEKEB

Efv

EBEd

875y4FEBn

880v

Sayana: — Agni of himself knows the region of water which

is as the udder of his father the mid-air; he poured out the

streams from that udder & the middle words(?); this Agni living

in the cave with his beneficent friends the winds and the waters,

885children of mid-air, no one situated in the cave was able to get.

This rendering is merely a confession that Sayana could

make nothing of the verse and may be dismissed without com-

ment.

Ept

890 — the father must be taken in the absence of other indi-

cation in its ordinary sense, the world-Purusha, father of all.

used of a male being shows that the Vedic Rishis still used words

with the freedom of their early life when they had not crystallised

895into their derived significances.

UD means teat, udder; but this

is certainly not the pure original significance. It means obviously

anything raised or swollen or holding in itself swelling contents,

— so the continent, womb, teats, breasts, bosom — & into the

900latter senses it has crystallised. (The sense given by the lexicogra-

phers, “a secret place to which only friends are admitted”, may

be rejected at once as a gloss & nothing to the purpose.) The

real difficulty of the passage lies in the accusative

905hA

910g

v obviously refers to Agni, — he who had been concealed in

915the secrecy of our sevenfold consciousness did not in this action,

though he went into the secret places of the Purusha to draw

out these streams, relapse into the unmanifest state. The general

meaning is clear. But if

920t

is correct, & we are forced to accept

it, there is an ellipse somewhere in the sentence. We have to

take then

925hA

as referring to an understood

Eptr

930, — that is

easy & natural, — and governed by

Evv

d understood from the

first pada, — which is not easy, though just possible, & far from

935natural. I cannot help suspecting an original

crn

940sEKEB

Efv

EB.

I render: — He knew from his birth the secret hold of the Fa-

ther, of that he poured out the showers, the rivers; him dwelling

945in secrecy he found, (yet) by the help of friendly comrades and

Mandala Three

the mighty ones of heaven he became not hidden.

Agni, the divine force, is able to pour out these liberated

rivers of being, these showers of richness & sweetness, because

950he manifests himself in man with the inborn knowledge of the

divine Purusha and the secret hold from which he pours out

this sevenfold stream of the workings of Prakriti with all its

riches; he knows at once where to go for the enrichment of

our life & nature, to the Spirit’s secret hold whence all things

955are produced; instead of the little powers & pleasures of our

mortal life he pours out thence the full richness. To bring it

he has to plunge into that higher secret place far above the

mortal mind, but supported by his comrades the gods & the

liberated action of our sevenfold consciousness he himself does

960not again become unmanifest, but is able to enter into the se-

crecy & yet remain active on the lower plane. For when we

are full of the divine force, when our nature is liberated, then

the higher principles of Sat, Chit, Ananda & Tapas, the four

great rivers, are active on the plane of mind and in free touch

965with their secret sources. The Force in us is able therefore to

draw power & delight & knowledge thence without the danger

of losing itself in the higher planes so difficult for us to be in

touch with — they being sushupta in us, — that we also in our

ordinary state must become sushupta in the trance of Samadhi

970to reach them and cannot command them in our waking con-

sciousness.

10.

Ept

975gB

jEnt

980$

aDypFJyAnA

985v

sp&F

990sb

995#

pAEh

1000/

Sayana. This Agni bears the world (herbs etc) of the Brahman,

father of the whole world, which is the offspring (by rain) of

the father (the mid-air); one Agni eats many which have grown;

Heaven & Earth co-wives (of the Sun) & beneficent to men are

1005friends to this raining & pure Agni. O Agni, protect them.

The rendering of this verse also may be dismissed without

comment. The difficulty in

Ept

1010jEnt

c is that two words are

used with an identical meaning “father” to express two different

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

persons. There is no meaning in the words “the child of the

1015father & also of the begetter”. I suggest that

EptA

jEntA

c is

1020an ancient pre-Vedic phrase preserved in Vedic Sanscrit with the

force of father & mother. The termination

with a feminine

force is still preserved in very ancient words like

1025mAtA,

EhtA, but

it was afterwards replaced by the later feminine form

F, which

1030obviously grew up by analogy & could not have been originally

native to the

forms.

jEnt

1035 in the oldest Sanscrit must have

been masculine, feminine & neuter and borne equally the sense

of father & mother; & as in

jEn,

jAEn,

1040jAEm the feminine

sense may originally have been preferred.

aDyt

1045 to suck, suck the milk of, drink. Agni drinks of the

rivers, the streams & showers of honey which he has himself set

flowing; they are nourished by him, he by them.

1050.

y from

1055 a man is originally an adjective, hu-

man, belonging to man; but it cannot mean, surely, good for

man. This is a strained and far-fetched interpretation resorted

to by the grammarians in order to avoid a difficulty created by

their own ignorance, because not having the clue they could

1060not understand how Heaven & Earth could be described as

human. I take

with

1065En

pAEh. It will make equally good

sense in the preceding clause, but the other rendering is simpler

in construction & idea.

I render: — He bore the issue of the father & the mother; he

1070being one, drank of the many whom he nourished. Both heaven

& earth are common wives to his mastery, common friends to

his purity. Them in man do thou protect.

The garbha, that which was contained in the secret hold of

the father & which now comes forth as the child of Purusha

1075& Prakriti, Agni bears & brings to man, all this higher fruit

of their union upon the levels of purified mind. Agni, alone

possessing the whole of our nature as Force divine manifested

in many forms, drinks the joy of all these many rich streaming

rivers of our conscious being which he has nourished with the

1080streams of richness & sweetness, of glad force & delight. He

increases all our being & capacities & uses them again for his

own increase. Thus divine force continues ever increasing in our

Mandala Three

purified mentality. To heaven and earth in man, manushye, mind

1085& matter manifesting in this mortal world & in human nature,

Agni stands in two relations. Divine force in us is purity & to

the soul that is pure both mental & physical nature become

harmonious, amical, like two friends and helpful playfellows.

Divine force in us is also mastery & enjoyment; to the strong

1090soul mental & physical nature become like wives submitted to its

command for action and demand on their delight. They are his

common wives, common friends — not discordant or incompati-

ble. He is not divine & lord & pure in mind, fallen or struggling

in body, but in both supreme, great & holy. Protect, O Agni,

1095cries Viswamitra, these thy two wives & friends in our human

totality.

11.

urO

mhAnEnbAD

1100vvD

aApo

aEn

yfs

1105Eh

-ty

1110yonAvfy:m

jAmFnAmEnrpEs

1115^

ZAm

Sayana: — This great Agni increases in the unhampered wide

mid-air, — for many foodful waters increase him; he, thus in-

creased, situated in the place of water (the mid-air) lies down

1120with a controlled mind in the water of the self-moving sisters.

Again, I pass from this rendering without comment; for

comment is superfluous.

uz is the common word in the Rigveda

for mahas, the realm of vijnana.

1125yfs I take in the sense of

victorious, successful, who have attained their end. The word

nA is a little difficult to fix. It is obviously connected with the

1130dMy

EBrnFk

# of a later verse, & both are, I think, adjectives from

dm, house. In that case,

1135$

nA will mean, dwelling in the house

or in his own house

1140.

jAEm means properly associated,

companion. I render: —

Huge in the free Vast he increased, for many waters victo-

rious increased Agni; in the womb of Truth he lay down in his

1145home, even Agni in the working of the companions & sisters.

Viswamitra now passes on to the final stage of this great

movement in the Vedic Yoga, for the object of the awakening

of divine Force in our mortal nature is not the perfection of our

bodily & mental being on their own levels, but, as a result of

1150Commentaries and Annotated Translations

that perfection, the arising of our human life out of that mortal

& materialised mentality which is now our seat & centre into

the ideal plane,

-ty

1155yonO, of the pure truth, the spontaneous

law, the vast & unhampered being. Agni is now released into

the Vast, mahas, satyam ritam brihat; in the wideness of the

ideal self where there is no limit, hindrance or wall of enclosing

consciousness, where the soul is vast, universal & free, Agni,

1160mah´an, wide & great in the nature of mahas increases yet far-

ther; for the seven streams of being, now full & victorious, all in

their multitude increase him so that he may take them up with

him into those ideal vasts. There he arises, there in that womb of

the realised & actualised truth,

1165-t

, he reposes in his own home

of ideal force, — calm & still in the free & effortless working of

the seven sisters, always companions, but here revealed in their

perfect harmony & sisterhood.

117012.

a5o

bEB

sEmT

1175mhFnA

Edd

1180nv

BA-jFk

E*yA

jEntA

1185yo

jjAn

apA

gBo

1190tmo

y4o

aEn

Sayana: — Agni who, father of all the worlds, child of the wa-

ters, a perfect leader (a great protector) of men & great, is

1195the assailant of his foes (or unassailable by them) & in the

battle the bearer (or master) of his great armies visible to all &

self-luminous, he created the waters for the giver of the oblation.

Sayana’s renderings of

a5o as

1200aA5EmtA,

mhFnA

as great with

nAnAm

1205 understood &

BA-jFk as self-luminous seem to me

astonishing rather than convincing.

a5 is an old Vedic word to

the meaning of which our one clue is the Greek

1210kroc. If that

identity holds,

a5 means supreme, highest or on a height. But

it may also mean not acting,

a negative and

12155 =

kr from

do. This will give a better sense, though both are possible.

1220sEmT

is “coming together” either friendly in the sense of

union or hostile in the sense of battle.

mhFnAm

. The seven rivers, described now as all great & full,

1225like Agni himself,

urO

mhAnEnbAD

Edd

1230Edd

A must mean either the desire of seeing or the

power of seeing,

Edd

y I take as an adjective from

1235Edd

A, the

Mandala Three

sight referred to being the ideal

1240E of the Rishis, or

syd

which belongs to the vijnana & is referred to in the Isha Upani-

shad,

1245syDmA

1250$

1255n

means son, “that which is produced or begotten”;

it means “producer of Soma”, “Soma-sacrificer” & “sacrificer”

generally. But it may also bear another sense, [incomplete]

[20]

1260[RV III.1.1–12]

1. Viswamitra’s hymn to Agni.

1. O divine Strength, bear me up, thou who hast made me strong

to bear in the knowledge the Soma for life’s sacrifice; brightening

towards the gods I yoke to them my settled being and tranquillise

1265it; cleave, O Agni, to my body.

Sayana.

kAmyv — but elsewhere [vh]

aEd

1270"

AvAZ

1275aEBqvZAy

nE6m

fmAy

1280fAMyAEm

tTA

1285A

-t

1290v

sEvtA

fmAyt

-g

1295y7A

tOEm

ffmAno

jrtFEt

1300Etkm

pAWAt

tTA

1305m

1310Ij

ffm

But these

1315can be otherwise interpreted, “By truth the god Savitri attains

calm”, “tranquillising his heart he adores or desires”, “That

mortal, O Agni, sacrifices & becomes calm.”

1320Say.

frFr

y7A

kmA

1325tv

2. We have turned towards the supreme our sacrifice, may our

expression increase! By fuel of his burning, by worship of sub-

1330mission they have set Agni to his workings, they have declared

in the heaven of mind the perceptions of the seers and for the

strong desiring soul they yearn towards their farther journey.

1335kq

gQC

But

1340A

prA

1345pr supreme —

prAc,

prA

belonging or tending to the supreme.

1350nmsA

vyn

hEvqA ..

amdFyA

1355pErcr

but he says

1360ffAs

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

Edv

lokAdAgy I take it as rather a genitive of vague &

general locality.

1365g

sAy

ZAt

Erd

1370!p

tot yAyAny

or from

1375 +

s, cf

vs.

gAt

1380tot

totAr

iQC

1385c

3. With his containing brain, with his pure discernings he es-

tablished the divine Beatitude, from his birth the good friend of

earth and heaven; Agni the gods found revealed in the waters of

being, in the working of the sisters.

1390p

=bl

1395my

1400df

nFy

1405srZfFlAnA

ndFnAmJv

1410ETtmpEs

y.vhn!p

This is one of Sayana’s impossible pedantic clumsinesses; the

1415dissociation of

apEs from

1420 & the addition of

ZAm

1425a sort of afterthought far away from the words with which it is

connected & separated from them by a parenthetical

apEs is not

only impossible to any sound literary style, but needless, when

a simple & straightforward construction & rendering make ex-

1430cellent sense. It is equally needless and pedantic to take

ZAm

1435srZfFlAnAm

when the metaphor of the Sisters,

jAEm for

1440the seven rivers pervades the Veda.

4. The seven great goddesses increased him in his rich enjoyings,

white of purity in his birth, red of action in his growing; as on a

child that is born the powers of Life worked at him, the gods in

his very birth increased the body of Agni.

1445Eff

yTA

jAt

Eff

1450m

vXvA

a yAz

aEBgQC

1455Et

tTA

up3mEnmEBjm

jEnmn

1460jmy

1465vp

EPmk

1470I see no reason for taking janiman in the sense of water,

when the whole talk is about Agni’s birth,

qA,

j.An

1475,

jAt

, or

1480 = light, when the whole talk is about the growth of a child

that is born.

avD

—

1485mEhvA,

1490g

#rAttvAn

Mandala Three

5. With his limbs of brightness he extended this kingdom of Life

purifying the will in it by the pure powers of ideal knowledge,

1495wearing light like a robe he throughout the being of the waters

holds in his embrace powers that are wide and void of defect

and limitation.

aAttvAn

yAJn

1500vn

ktA

1505r

yjmAn

kEvEB

1510#

tot y

#vA

joEB

1515pEr. Say. takes with

vsAn and constructs

aAy

r(3

)

1520E2y

EmmFt

1525EmmFt

kroEt

apAm

apytA

1530vtAm

6. He went all about the great goddesses of heaven (or the rivers

of heaven) and lo! they devoured not neither were they over-

powered, they were not clothed, neither were they naked; the

seven Words of Life, eternal, young, daughters of one womb,

1535held in our world that single Birth.

andtFrdNDA

aEnrpA

foqk

1540cAp

fmy

ByEmh

1545nAtFy

Edvo

y4F

1550tEryApyB

avsAnA

vmnAQCAdy

1555y

vTAnFyy

jly

EvmAn -

vAt

1560at

evAnnA

snA

snAtyo

1565vtyo

Enytz@y

Enyv

iyT

1570syonF

smAnm

tEr

TAn

yAsAm

15757. At once wide extended & gathered in masses, wearing uni-

versal shapes, they stood here in the womb of richness, in the

flowing stream of sweetnesses, his cows of plenty, and were

nourished; equal & vast were the two mothers of that Lord of

bounty.

1580G

yonO

udky

1585TAn

tEr

tFZA

1590ht

jFB

1595sv

ayAn

1600my

nAm

udkAnAm

1605D

FZEyWy

1610aAp

dmy

nFyy

Commentaries and Annotated Translations

16158. O Son of force, thou bearest them up and shinedst wide

abroad holding many bodies of brightness and rapture; streams

of honey & richness come dripping out wherever the Mighty

One has been greatened by divine knowledge.

1620AZ

1625mAZ

rBsA

1630kA y

1635no

1640mD

ryodky

DArA

ydA

yjmAnto

1645ZA -

Ent

BvEt

tdAnF

1650v

vtFyT

9. From his birth he knew the fullness of the father also, wide

he poured out his streams, wide his rivers; with comrades benef-

1655icent, with the great goddesses of heaven he knew him though

moving in the hidden places and himself became not hidden.

Ept

1660tEry

UDr

UDTAnFy

jld

1665D

mAyAEmkA

vAc

sEKEB

1670sEKB

#vA

1675EB

enmEn

1680g

1685g

Ect

hAyA

1690ETt

ko'Ep

smTo

nABvt

169510. He bore the child of his father and his creator (or and of his

mother); he was one and drank of the fullness of many; the two

powers of our human being had the pure one, the strong master

for their common husband and friend; them protect.

1700v

E7ArA

1705t

lokmoqyAEdk

EbBEt

1710$

b4F ..

aoqDFrDyt

1715ByEt

vEq

1720y

Eht

172511. In the unobstructed vast he grew to greatness, many waters

victoriously increased Agni; in the womb of truth he lay down,

he made it his home, Agni in the working of the consorts and

sisters.

yfso

1730yfo'3

t7y

Mandala Three

-ty

udky

1735apEs

pyEs

1740dA

tmnA

12. As one on his summit, bearing up all in the coming together

of the mighty sisters, he becomes the impulse to vision in the

giver of the nectar; straight are his lustres; this is the creator

1745who made to appear on high the daughters of light, child of the

waters, Agni most strong, the Master.

tmo

1750t

tmo

y4o

mhAn

sEmT

1755s

mhtFnA

1760nAnA

BtA

Edd

1765#

nFy

BA-jFk

1770vdFyA

kAfmAn

uE*yA