Chapter 16A Hymn to Savitri

Book 5. Hymns to the Lords of Light

[The Rishi hymns the Sun-God as the source of divine knowledge and the creator of the inner worlds. To him, the Seer, the seekers of light yoke their mind and thoughts; he, the one knower of all forms of knowledge, is the one supreme ordainer of the sacrifice. He assumes all forms as the robes of his being and his creative sight and creates the supreme good and happiness for the two forms of life in the worlds. He manifests the heavenly world, shining in the path of the dawn of divine knowledge; in that path the other godheads follow him and it is his greatness of light that they make the goal of all their energies. He has measured out for us our earthly worlds by his power and greatness: but it is in the three worlds of light that he attains to his real greatness of manifestation in the rays of the divine sun; then he encompasses the night of our darkness with his being and his light and be- comes Mitra who by his laws produces the luminous harmony of our higher and lower worlds. Of all our creation he is the one author, and by his forward marches he is its increaser until the whole world of our becoming grows full of his illumination.] y

mn ut y

EDyo Ev A Ev y b

hto EvpEct

Ev hoA dD

nAEvd k i mhF d vy sEvt

pErV

l. The illumined yoke their mind and they yoke their thoughts to the illumined godhead, to the vast, to the luminous in con- sciousness; the one knower of all manifestation of knowl- edge, he alone orders the things of the sacrifice. Great is the praise of Savitri, the creating godhead. EvvA #pAEZ Et m

kEv AsAvFd

Epd

Ev nAkmHyt

sEvtA vr

yon

yAZm

qso Ev rAjEt

Hymns of the Atris 2. All forms are robes the Seer puts on that he may create the good and bliss for the double and the quadruple1 creature. Savitri describes by his light our heavenly world; supreme is he and desirable, wide is the light of his shining in the march of the Dawn. yy yAZm v y id

' vA d vy mEhmAnmojsA

y pAET 'vAEn Evmm

s etfo rjA Es d v sEvtA mEhvnA

3. And in that march all the other gods in their might follow after the greatness of this godhead. This is that bright god Savitri who by his power and greatness has measured out our earthly worlds of light. ut yAEs sEvtFEZ rocnot s

y 'y rEmEB sm

QyEs

ut rAFm

Byt prFys ut Emo BvEs d v Dm 'EB

4. But also thou goest, O Savitri, to the three shining worlds of heaven and thou art made manifest by the rays of the Sun, and thou encirclest on both sides the Night, and thou becomest Mitra, O god, with his settled laws of Truth. ut Efq

svy vm k id

t p

qA BvEs d v yAmEB

ut d

Evv

Ev rAjEs yAvAvt

sEvt tommAnf

5. And thou alone hast power for the creation and thou becomest the Increaser, O god, by thy marchings in thy path, and thou illuminest all this world of the becoming. Shyavashwa, O Savitri, has found the affirmation of thy godhead. 1 Literally, two-footed and four-footed, but pad also means the step, the principle on which the soul founds itself. The esoteric meaning is four-principled, those who dwell in the fourfold principle of the lower world, and two-principled, those who dwell in the double principle of the divine and the human.