TO THE UNKNOWN GOD
In the beginning there arose the Golden Child, (Hiranyagarbha) as soon as he was born, he alone was the Lord of all that is.
He establishes the earth and this heaven.
Who is this God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
He who gives breath, he who gives strength, whose command all the bright gods revere, whose shadow is immortality, whose Ka is death.
Who is this God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
He who thro' his might, became the sole King of the breathing and twinkling world, who governs all this, man and beast.
Who is this God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
He thro' whose might these snowy mountains are and the sea, they say, with the distant river, the Rasa. (2)
He of whom these regions are indeed the two arms.
Who is this God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
He thro' whom the awful heaven and the earth were made fast; he thro' whom the ether was established and the firmament; he who measured the air in the sky.
Who is this God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
When the great waters went everywhere, holding the germ, (Hiranyagarbha) and generating light, then arose from them, the sole breath of the Gods.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
He who by his might, looked even over the waters which held power (the germ) and generated the sacrifice "light," he who alone is God above all gods.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
FOOTNOTES:
1. From the Vedic Hymns, in Volume 32, of Sacred Book of the East, translated by Max Muller. (return to text)
2. Like Oceans in some respects. (return to text)