Canto 21Gaya · Suktas 9–10
Book 2. Part Two: Other Hymns to Agni
5. O Fire, thou takest many forms for man and man and thou
foundest for him his growth as of old, O thou lauded by
many voices; many are the things on which thou feedest
and thou illuminest them all with thy force, and none can
5do violence to the fury of thy blaze when thou blazest up in
thy might.
6. Thee, O youthful Fire, in thy high kindling the gods have
made a messenger and a carrier of the offerings; thee of
whom light is the native seat and wide are the spaces through
10which thou movest, they have set when thou hast received
the offerings as a keen burning eye that urges the thought.
7. Thee, O Fire, fed with offerings of light from the higher
heaven12 the seekers of bliss kindled with an entire kindling,
so now growing on the herbs to thy full might thou spreadest
15over wide earth-spaces.
GAYA
SUKTA 9
1. Thee, O Fire, men bringing offerings pray, mortals the
12 Or, from of old; or, the ancient seekers of bliss
20Other Hymns to Agni
godhead; I meditate on thee as the knower of all things born
and as such thou carriest our offerings without a break.
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2. Fire is the priest of the call in the house of the giver who
has plucked the grass for the seat of sacrifice and in him our
sacrifices meet and our plenitudes of inspired knowledge.
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3. Verily, the two tinders have brought to birth as if a new-
born infant Fire who does aright the pilgrim-sacrifice, to be
55the upholder of the human beings.
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m
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g
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p
o
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yo
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4. Verily, thou art hard to seize like a son of crookednesses;
75many are the trees of the forest thou consumest, O Fire, like
a beast in his pasture.
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5. Now, verily, his rays with their smoke meet perfectly to-
gether when Trita, the triple one, blows upon him in heaven
like a smelter, it is as if in the smelter that he whets his flame.
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c
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to
n
d
ErtA
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1156. I by thy guardings, O Fire, and by thy utterances as the
friend — like men beset by hostile powers, so may we pass
beyond the stumbling-places of mortals.
Mandala Five
t
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an
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7. O forceful Fire, bring to us, to men, the treasure; may he
cast his shafts, may he foster us, may he be with us for the
145conquest of the plenitude. Be with us in our battles that we
may grow.
SUKTA 10
an
aoEjSmA
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no
rAyA
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1. O Fire, bring to us a light full of energy, O unseizable Ray;
160for us by thy opulence pervading on every side cut out in
our front a path to the plenitude.
v
no
an
165aY
t
5vA
dy
m
170hnA
v
as
y
mAzht
1755AZA
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n
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2. O Fire, O Wonderful, come to us with thy will and the
180growth of the judgment; in thee the sacrificial Friend,
achiever of the work, can climb to almightiness.
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no
an
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y
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2003. Increase for us, O Fire, the acquisition and the growth of
these who are men that are illuminates and by their laudings
of thee have attained to the plenitudes of the riches, —
y
an
205cd
t
Egr
f
MBy
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f
m
EB
f
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qA
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ht
s
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4. Who, O delightful Fire, have achieved the power of the
horse and make beautiful their words of thee, strong men
with their strength whose is the Vast that is greater even
230than heaven, for in them that glory by itself awakes.