Upnishad

SR No.: 007670
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1879
Total Pages: 1835
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 35 MB

Page 1469

I KÂNDA, 3 ADHYAYA, 4 BRÂHMANA, 6.
91
for the security of the All! Thou art a fence to the sacrificer, thou (art) Agni, invoked and worthy of invocation !
3. He then lays down the southern one, with the text (ib.), 'Thou art Indra's arm for the security of the All! Thou art a fence to the sacrificer; thou Agni, invoked and worthy of invocation!'
4. He then lays down the northern one, with the text (ib.), May Mitra-Varuna lay thee around in the north with firm law for the security of the All! Thou art a fence to the sacrificer, thou Agni, invoked and worthy of invocation !' They are indeed Agnis, and for that reason he says, 'Agni, invoked and worthy of invocation !
5. Thereupon he puts on the fire) a samidh (kindling-stick). He first touches with it the middle enclosing-stick : thereby he first kindles those (three Agnis). After that he puts it on the fire: thereby he kindles the visible fire.
6. He puts it on ?, with the gayatri stanza (Vág. S. II, 4), 'Thee, O Sage, who callest (the gods) to the feast, we will kindle so as to shine brilliantly; thee, O Agni, mighty at the sacrifice!' He thereby kindles the gayatri 2; the gâyatri, when kindled, kindles the other metres; and the metres, when kindled, carry the sacrifice to the gods.
1 According to Sâyana, the two sticks or pieces of wood are put on the fire in a manner similar to that in which the two âghâras or sprinklings of clarified butter are made (see I, 4, 4-5); viz. the first in the direction north-west to south-east, and the second from south-west to north-east.
9 The gayatri is the first of the three principal metres, cf. p. 80, note 3. It consists of three octo-syllabic pâdas, of which Rig-veda I, 164, 25 says,—The gayatra, they say, has three ilames (or firebrands, samidh): therefore it excelled in grandeur and power.'
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