May the wisdom known by the ancient sages, born of truth, the wisdom grasped by the gods themselves, and the auspicious understanding cherished by the seers, be established within us. Let us draw into ourselves the knowledge held by the wise creators of beings, and, O Agni, with that wisdom, make us wise today. May wisdom fill our evenings, our mornings, and our midday hours; may we absorb wisdom through the rays of the sun and the power of speech. There is a remedy known to the gods, prepared from the long pepper, its virtue well established and sufficient for sustaining life. The long peppers, speaking together, are placed at the origin of birth, and whoever partakes of this living remedy is preserved from destruction. Though demons once buried it, the gods unearthed it again—a cure for afflictions caused by the winds and for what has been cast down. Agni, you are ancient and ever worthy of praise in sacrifices, both as the old and new Hotṛ. Cherish your own form and grant us good fortune. Born to overcome what is eldest, arising from the root of Yama’s dispersal, protect this one and lead him safely past all evils, granting him a long life of a hundred autumns. A hero was born on the day of the tiger, under a mighty constellation—a strong man. May he never strike his father as he grows, nor harm his mother who bore him. O Agni, release this man for me—he who is bound and mutters with a loosened tongue. Assign him his proper share once he is restored from madness. If his mind is agitated, may Agni calm it. I, knowing, prepare the remedy so that he may be restored from madness. From the gods, from the sinless, from madness, from the mad, from the demons—I prepare the remedy, so that he may be restored from madness. May all the powers—evil spirits, Indra, Bhaga, and even the unfriendly gods—return him to himself, so that he may be restored from madness. O Agni, do not let this one slay the eldest among them. Protect him from the root of Yama’s dispersal. Loosen the binding cords, knowing, so that all the gods may recognize you. Release the cords, Agni, from these—thirty-three with which they were bound. Loosen the bonds and free the father and son, the mother, all of them. Whatever cords bind him, fastened limb by limb, may they be released, for there are releasers. O Pūṣan, remover of evil, cleanse the sins that threaten the unborn. The gods once cleansed this sin for Trita, and Trita cleansed it among men. If a seizure has seized you, may the gods destroy it with the sacred word. Let the rays, the smoke, disperse—O sin, go to the wide spaces or vanish in the mists, follow the foam of the rivers. O Pūṣan, remover of evil, cleanse the sins that slay the unborn. The guilt of man, measured twelvefold, was washed away from Trita. If the seizure has not consumed you from that, may the gods destroy it for you by means of the sacred utterance. Whatever offense we, the gods, have committed against the gods, O Ādityas, release us from that by truth, by the law of truth. By the law of truth, O worshipful Ādityas, release us here, especially if we have failed in the proper conduct of the rite while seeking to perform the sacrifice. Sacrificers, rich in offerings, pour ghee with the ladle; yet, unwilling though we are, and though we seek to perform, we have not always succeeded. Whatever sins we have committed, knowingly or unknowingly, may all the gods together release us from them. Whether awake or asleep, if I have sinned, may both past and future release me, as the pressing stone releases the stalk. As one released from the pressing stone, as one cleansed after bathing, as clarified butter purified by the strainer, so may all the gods cleanse me from guilt. If, in the beginning, those who knew food but not knowledge made this binding, as the Kārṣīvaṇas did, I offer this to King Vaivasvata; then may our sacrificial food be sweet. Vaivasvata apportions the shares, joining the honeyed portion with honey. Whatever the mother desired did not come to pass, or if the father erred, he withdrew. If guilt has come to us from mother, father, brother, or son—or from any of our ancestors—may all their intentions be peaceful. Whatever debt I have incurred, unpaid, by which I walk under the power of Yama—by this, O Agni, may I be freed from debt. You know all the bonds that are loosened. Here and now, we return this guilt, removing it while living among the living. Whatever debt I have incurred by consuming another’s grain, by this, O Agni, may I be freed from debt. May we be free from debt here, free from debt elsewhere, free from debt in the third world; may we dwell, free from debt, in all the paths of the worlds of the gods and ancestors. Whatever sins we have committed with our hands, seeking to win at dice, may the fierce Apsaras and Ugrajita today release us from debt. The fierce Apsaras, rulers of the realm, may they release us from whatever gambling sins have been committed; let neither debt nor debtor remain in Yama’s world. From whom I have taken a loan, whose wife I have approached, whom I have come to as a supplicant—may the gods make their words favorable, and may the Apsaras, wives of the gods, approve. Whatever debt I incur by gambling or by eating, O Agni, I acknowledge; may Vaiśvānara, our lord, lead us forth to the world of the righteous. To Vaiśvānara I declare: if there is any debt accumulated among the gods, he knows all the bonds that are loosened; then may we be united with the cooked offering. May Vaiśvānara, the purifier, cleanse me as I approach the conflict with hope. Whatever I have done there unknowingly, asking with my mind, may I expiate that offense. Whatever harm we have done to the midspace, to the earth, or to the sky, or to mother or father, may this Gārhapatya fire lead us away from that, guiding us to the world of the righteous. Earth is our mother, Aditi our birth-giver, the midspace our brother—let no curse befall us. Heaven is our father—may the ancestral portion be auspicious; having conquered death, may we not fall from the world. And finally, may we dwell where friends of good heart and righteous deeds rejoice, having cast off disease from their own bodies, uninjured in their limbs, unharmed. In that heaven, may we behold both our parents and our children, united in peace and fulfillment.