Agnipurana 216

English (machine translation) 216

Language: English

216.8 — 2 parts
216.19 — 4 parts

216.1

Agni said:
Having thus performed the twilight rite, one should recite and meditate upon the Gāyatrī;
since it protects the disciples who sing it, as well as one's wife and life-breaths,

216.2

it is therefore remembered as Gāyatrī; and it is remembered as Sāvitrī because it proceeds
from the illumination of Savitṛ; and as Sarasvatī because it consists of speech.

That light is the supreme Brahman, since bhargas is remembered as radiance;
for it has the form derived from the verbal root bhā, 'to shine', or it is remembered from the root bhrasj, 'to cook [or ripen]'.

216.4

It ripens herbs and the like; it can likewise be from bhrāj, 'to shine'.
'Bhargas' is derived as 'that which shines'; the Vedic usage is diverse.

216.5

'Vareṇya' [means] superior to all lights, indeed the highest state,
or that which is ever to be chosen by those desiring heaven and liberation.

216.6

Because the root vṛ means 'to choose', [it is that which is] devoid of waking, dreaming, and the rest;
eternal, pure, conscious, one, and true: upon that Lord we meditate ('dhīmahi').

216.7

'I am Brahman, the supreme light'—we should meditate for final liberation.
That light is the Blessed Lord Viṣṇu, the cause of the creation and other states of the universe.

216.8

Some recite it as Śiva, and some recite it as the embodiment of Śakti;
some as the Sun, and some as Agni, being knowers of the Veda and keepers of the sacrificial fire.

216.8.p1

[Note]

216.8.p2

[Page 287]

216.9

Viṣṇu, possessing the forms of Agni and the rest, is sung as Brahman at the beginning of the Vedas.
That supreme abode of Viṣṇu is commemorated as belonging to the divine Savitṛ.

216.10

Indeed, the great oblation is produced; Lord Hari is self-luminous.
Becoming Parjanya, Vāyu, and the Sun, he ripens [all things] through cold, heat, and the rest.

216.11

An offering cast properly into the fire approaches the sun;
from the sun rain is born, from rain food, and thence living beings.

216.12

Or 'dhīmahi' is from the root dhā, 'to place'—we hold [it] with the mind.
'Nah' means 'our'; and whichever radiance [directs] the intellects of all living beings,

216.13

may he impel ('pracodayāt')—may he direct the intellects of the experiencers in all activities
involving seen and unseen karmic fruitions, having the form of Viṣṇu, the Sun, and Agni.

216.14

Impelled by the Lord, one goes to heaven or indeed to the pit [of hell].
All this is enveloped by the Lord; the universe, beginning with the cosmic intellect, is Hari.

216.15

The God plays by means of heaven and the rest; that Person, the Lord, is I.
And that which is within the sun, called 'bhargas', by seekers of liberation,

216.16

for the destruction of birth and death, and of the threefold suffering,
this Person is to be seen in the solar disc through meditation.

216.17

'Thou art That, the real, consciousness-Brahman, which is the supreme abode of Viṣṇu,
the radiance of the divine Savitṛ, the supreme, the fourth state.'

216.18

From the body up to the waking state and up to Brahman, we meditate: 'I am Brahman.'
He who is that Person in the sun, that am I, the infinite, Om.

216.19

He who ever stimulates kinds of knowledge, auspicious deeds, and the like. // 19

216.19.p1

Thus ends the two hundred and sixteenth chapter, named 'The Ultimate Essence of the Gāyatrī', in the great Agni Purāṇa.

216.19.p2

[Page 288]

216.19.p4

Now begins the two hundred and seventeenth chapter.

216.19.p5

The Ultimate Essence of the Gāyatrī.

Other recensions (1)

Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit