VIII. CHARMS IN EXPIATION OF SIN AND DEFILEMENT.

VI, 45. Prayer against mental delinquency.

1. Pass far away, O sin of the mind! Why dost thou utter things not to be uttered? Pass away, I love thee not! To the trees, the forests go on! With the house, the cattle, is my mind.
2. What wrongs we have committed through imprecation, calumny, and false speech, either awake, or asleep--Agni shall put far away from us all offensive evil deeds!
3. What, O Indra Brahmanaspati, we do falselymay Praketas ('care-taker') Ângirasa protect us from misfortune, and from evil!

VI, 26. Charm to avert evil.

1. Let me go, O evil; being powerful, take thou pity on us! Set me, O evil, unharmed, into the world of happiness!
2. If, O evil, thou dost not abandon us, then do we abandon thee at the fork of the road. May evil follow after another (man)!
3. Away from us may thousand-eyed, immortal (evil) dwell! Him whom we hate may it strike, and him whom we hate do thou surely smite!

VI, 114. Expiatory formula for imperfections in the sacrifice.

1. The god-angering (deed), O ye gods, that we, the (Brahman) gods, have committed, from that do ye, O Âdityas, release us, by virtue of the order of the universe!
2. By virtue of the order of the universe do ye, O reverend Âdityas, release us here, if, O ye carriers of the sacrifice, though desirous of accomplishing (the sacrifice), we did not accomplish (it)!--
3. (If), when sacrificing with the fat (animal), when offering oblations of ghee with the spoon, when desiring to benefit you, O all ye gods, we have contrary to desire, not succeeded!

VI, 115. Expiatory formulas for sins.

1. From the sins which knowingly or unknowingly we have committed, do ye, all gods, of one accord, release us!
2. If awake, or if asleep, to sin inclined, I have committed a sin, may what has been, and what shall be, as if from a wooden post, release me!
3. As one released from a wooden post, as one in a sweat by bathing (is cleansed) of filth, as ghee is clarified by the sieve, may all (the gods) clear me from sin!

VI, 112. Expiation for the precedence of a younger brother over an older.

1. May this (younger brother) not slay the oldest one of them, O Agni; protect him that he be not torn out by the root! Do thou here cunningly loosen the fetter of Grâhi (attack of disease); may all the gods give thee leave!
2. Free these three, O Agni, from the three fetters with which they have been shackled! Do thou cunningly loosen the fetters of Grâhi; release them all, father, sons, and mother!
3. The fetters with which the older brother, whose younger brother has married before him, has been bound, with which he has been encumbered and shackled limb by limb, may they be loosened; since fit for loosening they are! Wipe off, O Pûshan, the misdeeds upon him that practiseth abortion!

VI, 113. Expiation for certain heinous crimes.

1. On Trita the gods wiped off this sin, Trita wiped it off on human beings; hence if Grâhi (attack of disease) has seized thee, may these gods remove her by means of their charm!
2. Enter into the rays, into smoke, O sin; go into the vapours, and into the fog! Lose thyself on the foam of the river! 'Wipet off, O Pûshan, the misdeeds upon him that practiseth abortion!
3. Deposited in twelve places is that which has been wiped off Trita, the sins belonging to humanity. Hence if Grâhi has seized thee, may these gods remove her by means of their charm!

VI, 120. Prayer for heaven after remission of sins.

1. If air, or earth and heaven, if mother or father, we have injured, may this Agni Gârhapatya (household fire) without fail lead us out from this (crime)
to the world of well-doing!
2. The earth is our mother, Aditi (the universe) our kin, the air our protector from hostile schemes. May father sky bring prosperity to us from the world of the Fathers; may I come to my (departed) kin, and not lose heaven!
3. In that bright world where our pious friends live in joy, having cast aside the ailments of their own bodies, free from lameness, not deformed in limb, there may we behold our parents and our children!

VI, 27. Charm against pigeons regarded as ominous birds.

1. O ye gods, if the pigeon, despatched as the messenger of Nirriti (the goddess of destruction), hath come here seeking (us out), we shall sing his praises, and prepare (our) ransom. May our two-footed and four-footed creatures be prosperous!
2. Auspicious to us shall be the pigeon that has been despatched; harmless, ye gods, the bird shall be to our house! The sage Agni shall verily take pleasure in our oblation; the winged missile shall avoid us!
3. The winged missile shall not do us injury: upon our hearth, our fireplace he (the pigeon) takes his steps! Propitious he shall be to our cattle and
our domestics; may not, ye gods, the pigeon here do harm to us!

VI, 29. Charm against ominous pigeons and owls.

1. Upon those persons yonder the winged missile shall fall! If the owl shrieks, futile shall this be, or if the pigeon takes his steps upon the fire!
2. To thy two messengers, O Nirriti, who come here, despatched or not despatched, to our house, to the pigeon and to the owl, this shall be no place to step upon!
3. He shall not fly hither to slaughter (our) men; to keep (our) men sound he shall settle here! Charm .him very far away unto a distant region, that (people) shall behold you (i.e. him) in Yama's house devoid of strength, that they shall behold you bereft of power!

VII, 64. Expiation when one is defiled by a black bird of omen.

1. What this black bird flying forth towards (me) has dropped here--may the waters protect me from all that misfortune and evil!
2. What this black bird has brushed here with thy mouth, O Nirtiti (goddess of misfortune)-may Agni Gârhapatya (the god of the household fire) free me from this sin!

VI, 46. Exorcism of evil dreams.

1. Thou who art neither alive nor dead, the immortal child of the gods art thou, O Sleep! Varunânî is thy mother, Yama (death) thy father, Araru is thy name.
2. We know, O Sleep, thy birth, thou art the son of the divine women-folk, the instrument of Yama (death)! Thou art the ender, thou art death! Thus do we know thee, O Sleep: do thou, O Sleep, protect us from evil dreams!
3. As one pays off a sixteenth, an eighth, or an (entire) debt, thus do we transfer every evil dream upon our enemy.

VII, 115. Charm for the removal of evil characteristics, and the acquisition of auspicious ones.

1. Fly forth from here, O evil mark, vanish from here, fly forth to yonder place! Upon him that hates us do we fasten thee with a brazen hook.
2. The unsavoury mark which flying has alighted upon me, as a creeper upon a tree, that mayest thou put away from us, away from here, O golden-handed
(golden-rayed) Savitar (the sun), bestowing goods upon us!
3. Together with the body of the mortal, from his birth, one and a hundred marks are born. Those that are most foul do we drive away from here; the auspicious ones, O Gâtavedas (Agni), do thou hold fast for us!
4. These (marks) here I have separated, as cows scattered upon the heather. The pure marks shall remain, the foul ones I have made to disappear!