"Hearing this speech of theirs, the maker of the worlds, Brahma, summoning Agni, spoke a gentle word to him — to the imperishable quickener of beings: 'You are the maker of all these worlds and their end; you sustain the three worlds, you are the mover of all rites. Act, then, O lord of the worlds, so that the rites may not be cut off. Why, being a lord, devourer of offerings, are you so bewildered? For you are purity itself in the world, abiding in all beings. Not with your whole body will you attain all-devouring: only those of your flames that touch the impure will burn away all impurity, O flame-crowned one. As everything touched by the rays of the sun becomes pure, so everything burned by your flame will become pure. Therefore, O Agni, you are the great heat that has come forth from your own might; by your own radiance make that sage's curse true, O lord, and accept the share of the gods and your own, poured into your mouth.' 'So be it,' Agni answered the Progenitor, and went to carry out the command of the supreme god. And the gods and sages, rejoicing, departed as they had come, and the sages, as before, performed all the rites once more. In heaven the gods and all the hosts of beings in the world rejoiced; and Agni attained supreme joy, freed from the taint of the curse."