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CHAPTER I.

HINDOSTAN.-BRAHMINISM.

FROM THE RIG VEDA.*

GOD THE CREATOR.

1. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? 2. He who gives life. He who gives strength; whose command all the bright gods revere; whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

3. He who, through his power, is the one King of the breathing and awakening world. He who governs all, man and beasts. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

4. He whose greatness these snowy mountains, the sea, and the distant river proclaim. He, whose these regions are, as it were, His two arms. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

5. He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm, He through whom the highest heaven was established-He who measures out the light in the air. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?

6. He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by His will, look up, trembling inwardly-He over whom the rising sun shines forth.

* For date of Vedas,, translators' names, and explanations, see Appendix A.

7. Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose He who is the sole light of the bright gods. Who is the God to whom we

may offer our sacrifice?

8. He who by His might looked even over the waterclouds, the clouds which gave strength and lit the sacrifices; He alone who is God above all gods.

May He not destroy us. He the creator of the earth; or He the righteous, who created the heavens; He who created the bright and mighty waters.

HYMN TO INDRA.

1. Keep silence, well! We offer praises to the great Indra, in the house of the sacrificer. Does he find treasure for those who are like sleepers? Mean praise is not valued by the omnipresent.

2. Thou art the giver of horses, Indra, thou art the giver of cows, the giver of corn, the strong Lord of wealth; the old guide of man, disappointing no desires, a friend to friends: to him we address this song.

3. O, powerful Indra, achiever of many works, most brilliant god-all this wealth s known o be thine alone; take from it, conqueror, bring it nither! lo not stint the desire of the worshipper who longs for thee!

4. On these days thou art gracious, and on these nights, keeping off the enemy from our cows and rom our stud. Tearing the fiend night after night with the help of Indra, let us rejoice in food, freed from haters.

5. Let us rejoice, Indra, in the treasure and food, in wealth of manifold delight and splendor. Let us rejoice in the blessing of the gods, which gives us the strength of offspring, gives us cows first, and horses.

6. The draughts inspired thee, O Lord of the brave! these were vigor; these libations in battles, when for the sake of the

poet, the sacrificer, thou strikest down irresistibly ten thousand enemies.

7. From battle to battle thou advancest bravely, from town to town thou destroyest all this with might, when thou Indra, with Nami as thy friend, struckest down from afar the deceiver Namuki.

8. Thou hast slain Karnaga and Parnaya with the brightest spear of Atithigon. Without a helper thou didst demolish the hundred cities of Vangrida, which were besieged by Rigisvan.

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II. We who in future, protected by the gods, wish to be thy most blessed friends, we praise thee; blessed by thee with offspring and enjoying henceforth a longer life.

HYMN TO AGNI.

1. Agni, accept this log which I offer to thee, accept this my service; listen well to these my songs.

2. With this, O Agni, may we worship thee, thou son of strength, conqueror of horses! and with this hymn, thou high. born!

3. May we thy servants serve thee with songs, O granter of riches, who lovest songs and delightest in riches.

4. Thou Lord and giver of wealth, be thou wise and powerful; drive away from us the enemies!

5. He gives us rain from heaven, he gives us inviolable strength, he gives us food a thousand fold.

6. Youngest of the gods, their messenger, their invoker, most deserving of worship, come, at our praise, to him who worships thee and longs for thy help.

7. For thou, O sage, goest wisely between these two creations (heavens and earth, gods and men), like a friendly messenger between two hamlets.

8. Thou art wise, and thou hast been pleased perform, thou intelligent Agni, the sacrifice without interruption. Sit down on this sacred grass!

HYMN TO USHAS-THE Dawn.

1. She shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every living thing to do his work. When the fire had to be kindled by men, she made the light by striking down the darkness.

2. She rose up, spreading far and wide and moving everywhere. She grew in brightness, wearing her brilliant garment. The mother of the cows, the leader of the days. She shone gold-colored, lovely to behold.

3. She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the gods, who leads the white and lovely steed (of the sun), The Dawn was seen revealed by her rays, with brilliant treasures following every one.

4. Thou art a blessing where thou art near, drive far away the unfriendly; make the pastures wide, give us safety! Scatter the enemy, bring riches! Raise up wealth to the worshipper, thou mighty Dawn!

5. Shine for us with thy best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou who lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us food, who givest us wealth in cows, horses and chariots.

QUESTIONS ON THE FIRST CAUSE.

Nor Aught nor Naught existed; yon bright sky
Was not, nor heaven's broad woof outstretched above.
What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?
Was it the water's fathomless abyss?

There was not death, yet there was naught immortal,
There was no confine betwixt day and night;
The only One breathed breathless by itself,
Other than It there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled
In gloom profound-an ocean without light.
The germ that still lay covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.
Then first came love upon it, the new spring
Of mind—yea, poets in their hearts discerned,

Pondering, this bond between created things
And uncreated. Comes this spark from earth,
Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven?
Then seeds were sown, and mighty power arose—
Nature below, and Power and Will above,-——
Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here,
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?
The gods themselves came later into being,—
Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?
He from whom all this great creation came,
Whether his will created, or was mute,

The Most High Seer that is in highest heaven,
He knows it—or perchance even He knows not.

IMMORTALITY AND RESPONSIBILITY.

Extracts from different parts :

He who gives alms goes to the highest place in heaven; he goes to the gods.

The kind mortal is greater than the great in heaven.

Where there is eternal light, in the world where the sun is placed, in that immortal, imperishable world, place me, O Soma !

Where life is free, in the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are radiant, there make me immortal !

Where wishes and desires are-where the bowl of the bright Soma is, where there is food and rejoicing, there make me immortal!

Where there is happiness and delight, where joy and pleasure reside, where the desires of our desire are attained, there make me immortal!

His path is easy, and without thorns, who does what is right.

Let man fear Him who holds the four dice, before He throws them down (God who holds men's destinies in his hand); let no man delight in evil words.

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