In ancient times, a seeker stood in reverence, longing for sweetness in birth and in life. With a heart rich like milk, they approached Agni, the sacred fire, asking to be united with brilliance. “O Agni,” they prayed, “join me with radiance, with offspring, and with long life. Let the gods, and Indra alongside the seers, recognize this blessing for me.” The seeker turned to the divine Aśvins, invoking their aid: “As honey-makers gather honey in abundance, so may you establish brilliance within me. As bees deposit honey in plenty, may you grant me radiance, strength, and vigor. Let every drop of honey—from hills, mountains, cows, horses, and flowing surā—be gathered into me.” “O Aśvins, lords of beauty,” the seeker continued, “anoint me with the essence of honey. May my words shine with brilliance among people.” They honored the Lord of Creatures, whose thunder is speech, whose might, like a bull, strikes earth and heaven, sustaining all cattle. “With your strength,” the seeker asked, “fill me with what remains.” Reflecting on the cosmic order, the seeker saw the earth as a staff, the atmosphere as a womb, the sky as the lash, lightning as golden light, and the drop as its essence. They pondered the secret of the seven kinds of honey found in the lash: the priest, the king, the cow, the goat, rice, barley, and honey itself as the seventh. “Whoever knows this,” they realized, “becomes honey-filled; their food becomes honey-filled; they conquer the worlds of honey.” When thunder resounds within the womb, the Lord of Creatures manifests among his offspring. Therefore, the seeker stood with the sacred thread over their right shoulder, thinking, “May I awaken with Prajāpati.” Thus, Prajāpati awakens with his children, for those who know this truth. Seeking strength over rivals, the seeker made offerings of ghee and clarified butter to the mighty bull, praying, “Let my rivals fall low by your power.” They asked to be released from all that was not dear to their mind, eye, or tongue—from evil dreams, desires, and misfortune. “O mighty lord,” they pleaded, “free us from the harm wished upon us by those who hate us.” “Drive away desire,” they implored, “and let my rivals turn away. O Agni, burn their lowest, darkest dwellings. Surround my rivals with shining speech, the cow, so that breath, cattle, and life may choose me over them.” With the strength of Kāma, Indra, Varuṇa, Viṣṇu, Savitṛ, and Agni’s offering, they asked that their rivals be driven away, as a skillful boatman pushes a vessel into the waters. “Let Kāma, mighty and swift, make me free from rivals. May all the gods protect me and answer my invocation. Rejoice in this clarified butter, O foremost in desire; delight in it, and make me alone without rivals.” Indra and Agni were called to join desire for the seeker, pressing rivals low and burning their dark dwellings. The seeker asked desire to strike down their rivals, casting them into blind darkness, making them powerless and void of essence, so none would survive a single day. “Let desire slay my rivals and make a broad world for me, fit for wisdom. Let the four directions bow to me; let six streams of clarified butter flow to me.” Those cast down would drift away like boats cut loose from their moorings, never to return. The gods who delight in barley—Agni, Indra, Soma—were invoked to drive away rivals. “Let him, cast down, wander without offspring, hated and shunned, sinking into the earth like a thunderbolt. May the mighty god strike down my rivals.” “The fallen one bears the thunderings, while lightning that does not fall holds them all. As the sun rises with wealth and brilliance, may the mighty one drive my rivals down.” The seeker called upon the triple-shielded protection of desire, the unfailing armor of Brahman, to surround their rivals, so breath, cattle, and life would choose the seeker. The seeker invoked the power by which the gods drove away the Asuras, by which Indra led the Dasyus into darkness, asking desire to drive rivals far from this world. As the gods triumphed over the Asuras and Indra conquered the Dasyus, so too should desire banish their rivals. They honored Kāma, desire, who was born first, unattainable by gods, ancestors, or mortals. “You are greater, all-conquering, mighty; to you, Kāma, I offer reverent salutation.” Kāma’s greatness was as vast as heaven and earth, as far as the waters stretch, as far as Agni’s reach. The seeker bowed to Kāma, whose power surpasses all directions, regions, and creatures—greater than beetles, insects, kurūras, tree-serpents, those who blink or stand still, even greater than the ocean and wrath. Not even wind, fire, sun, or moon could attain Kāma; he is greater than all, destroyer of all, mighty one. The seeker asked for Kāma’s auspicious forms, those that bring truth, to enter among them, and to drive away wicked thoughts. Turning to the all-encompassing hall, the seeker sought release from all that was bound within its measured limits. “Whatever is bound in you, O hall, the snare or knot, I loosen and set free, like Bṛhaspati with speech.” They had come, strengthened, and made the knots firm, knowing the obstacles, and like Indra with his weapon, they loosened what was bound. Of the bamboos, fastenings, breath of the living, grass, and wings within the hall, the seeker declared: “What is bound, we loosen and set free.” Thus, through prayer, invocation, and understanding, the seeker journeyed from the sweetness of honey and brilliance to the overcoming of rivals and the loosening of all bonds, honoring the gods, desire, and the cosmic order that sustains all.