Rig Veda

Text & Audio

MAṆḌALA 1

Sūkta 5

2. Audio

▪   by South Indian brahmins
▪   by Sri Shyama Sundara Sharma and Sri Satya Krishna Bhatta. Recorded by © 2012 Sriranga Digital Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

1. 1915–17¹

1.5.1. Come, sit down, sing to Indra, O chant-bearers, friends!

1.5.2. Together when the wine has been pressed, to Indra the multitudinous, master of many desirable things.

1.5.3. He shall come into being in us in our joining to our desire. He for the felicitous treasure, he in the goddess who holds the city, shall come to us with his plenitudes.

1.5.4. In his meeting and shock the enemy ring not in his two bright steeds in the battles; to that Indra sing.

1.5.5. Pure the pressed offerings go to the drinker of the draught that he may quaff, nectar-juices of wine mingled with the curd.

1.5.6. O Indra well-powered to the work, born to the wine-drinking wast thou and at once increased to be the greatest of all.

1.5.7. O Indra who hast joy of speech, let the swift powers of wine enter into thee; let them be a bliss to the wisdom of thy heart.

1.5.8. Chant and utterance ever increased thee, O lord of a hundred active powers; then thee let our words increase.

1.5.9. Indra has unwasting prosperities and shall get me this thousandfold plenty in which are all masculine strengths.

1.5.10. O Indra who hast joy of speech, let not those who are mortal harm our bodies. Thou art the lord, ward off the stroke.

2. Circa 1912²

1. But approach, but sit down, sing out towards Indra, O friends who bear the burden of the psalm.

स्तोम. From स्तु to establish firmly. Stoma is the psalm, the hymn of praise; it is the expression in the potency of speech of those qualities in the Lord of Mental Force — or whatever other Master of being is praised,— which the sadhaka is either calling to his aid or aspires to bring out in his own being and activity. The expression of a quality in inspired and rhythmic speech tends by the essential nature of mantra to bring forward and establish in habitual action that which was formerly latent or vague in the nature. For this reason the psalm is stoma, that which establishes or confirms, as the prayer is uktha, that which desires or wills and the simple hymn is gāyatra, that which brings up and sets in motion or sansa, that which brings out into the field of expression.

2. When the nectar has been distilled, then it is Indra I take for friend, the mightiest of all that is mighty, the lord of all highest things.

पुरूतमं पुरूणाम् . Sayana’s far-fetched and violent gloss, “waster of many (foes), lord of many possessions”, is an entirely needless violation of the plain sense of the words. Purūtamam purūnām can have only one meaning and grammatical connection, “most पुरु among all that are पुरु”, just as ईशानो वार्याणां means “master among all that is supreme”. वार्य may indeed mean “desirable”, very much in the underlying sense of वर, a boon, but “supreme” rather than “desirable” chimes with ईशान and suits the balance of the phrases.

सचा is accepted invariably by the grammarians as an adverb in the sense of “together” formed from Rt सच् to adhere, to accompany. But is it certain that the word has no other sense in the Veda? The arrangement, if not the construction of the words in this line calls imperatively for a verb to connect इन्द्रं with सोमे सुते. To read in अभि प्रगायत from the first rik, is intolerably clumsy. Now in form, सचा may be the Active imperative of सच् — the singular would then be addressed to one of the company and replace temporarily the collective plural of the first and fourth riks — as सचस्व is its imperative Middle; or it may be more naturally, if my suggestion in connection with पृच्छा (I.4.[4]) is accepted, the first person indicative present of the verb used in the Active Mood and with a transitive effect. If सचस्व can mean “to consort with, always dwell with as a friend” (I.[1.9]), सचा in the Active may very well mean “I keep with me as a friend or comrade.” The sentence then becomes natural, straightforward and simple and the sense perfect and appropriate not only to the present verse, but to the preceding rik and to the rik that follows. It provides us with the perfect logical connection and transition which is a perpetual feature of Vedic style. In the first verse the Rishi invites his “friends” or “life-companions” to sing the psalm of Indra; the second states the object and purpose of their singing which is to have this mighty and supreme Master of things as a friend,— the peculiar purpose of Madhuchchhanda as the acknowledged head of this group of sadhakas, यस्ते सखिभ्य आ वरं; the third justifies the choice of the forceful God by affirming Indra’s faithful friendship and his perfect helpfulness.

3. It was he that was ever present to us in the union (with our desire), he ever for our felicity, he ever in the holding of our city; ever he came to us with gifts of substance (in his hands).

स घा. The emphasis is on सः which is, therefore, repeated with each case of application स योगे, स राये, स पुरन्ध्याम् ; and घा serves to bring out the intention of the Rishi to emphasise the word. He is explaining why it is towards Indra, इन्द्रमभि, that the psalm must be upheld; for it is Indra that is there always in the getting of our desire, Indra always when felicity is the result of our active consciousness, Indra always when our gettings and our felicity are attacked and our city has to be held against the dasyus, the robbers, the foes. He comes to us always bringing fresh substance to our mental faculties, increased resources of mental force for our active consciousness. भुवत् , गमत् ,— the habitual past, formed direct from the proper stem भू , गम् . I accept राये as the usual dative, although I do not feel at all certain that we are not sometimes in the presence of a form रायः and this राये like योगे and पुरंध्यां a locative.

योग. The idea of Yoga in all its Vedic senses is the reaching out of the being in us to unite itself with being expressed in other persons, objects or forces, whether in the form of application of effort, contact of consciousness or acquisition of things desired.

पुरंध्याम् . I can accept neither Sayana’s योषिति nor his बहुविधायां बुद्धौ; his construction of पुरं = बहु with धि = बुद्धि is almost grotesque in its violence. पुर् is that which is filled or that which contains and protects, the city, the adhara, this nine-gated city of ours in which we guard our gettings and enjoy our felicity; धिः is holding, supporting. Always attacked by spiritual enemies, Dasyus, Rakshasas, Daityas, Vritras, Panis, it has to be maintained and upheld by the strength of the gods, Indra first, Indra always, Indra foremost.

4. Sing to that Indra whose steeds no foemen in our battles can withstand in the shock.

संस्थे. Sayana’s construction यस्य रथे (युक्तौ) हरी seems to me in the last degree forced and impossible. If संस्थ means रथ and वृण्वते means संभजंते, the only sense can be that Indra’s enemies in Indra’s chariot do not approve of his horses! We must find a more possible sense for संस्थ. In connection with battle, it may well mean the meeting and locked struggle of two enemies, and वृण्वते will have the sense which we find so often, of checking, obstructing or successfully opposing. When Indra and the enemy stand struggling together in the shock of battle, they cannot succeed in restraining the progress of his car; it forces always the obstacles and moves forward to its goal. The verse following on the आ भुवत् पुरन्ध्यां of the last rik and ending in the resumption of the first idea in the word गायत, closes appropriately and with true Vedic perfection of the minutiae of style, the train of thought started by प्रगायत and brought out by इन्द्रं सचा.

5. Distilled for purification are these juices of the Soma; pure, they are spent for thy manifestation, able then to bear their own intensity.

सुतपाव्ने. सोमसय पानकर्त्रे, says Sayana, and he is well within his rights, for पावन् would undoubtedly be in later Sanscrit a noun of the agent and, so taken in this passage, it makes good sense. “Here are these Somas distilled for the Soma-drinker.” But, as European scholars have discovered, in the old Aryan tongue the dative अने was used verbally to express the action, no less than the agent, and appears disguised in the Greek infinitive ναι, εναι while the shorter form अन् , dative or nominative, appears as the ordinary Greek infinitive ειν. Old Aryan असने for being remains in Greek as εῖναι to be, दावने for giving as δοῦνι to give, भुवन् for becoming as φύειν to become, श्रुवन् for hearing as ϰλύειν to hear. Can we hold that this ancient Aryan form persists in the Veda, in such forms as पावने, दावने? The hypothesis is tenable. In that case, however, we should land ourselves in our passage in a piece of grotesque bathos, “These Soma-juices have been distilled for the purpose of drinking Soma”! If we are to accept the idea of drinking for पावन् , Sayana’s interpretation is infinitely to be preferred. But although पावन् occurs to us naturally as of the same form as दावन् , by the addition of अन् to the root पा to drink with the intercalary euphonious व which we find established in Tamil and surviving in Sanscrit forms like ब्रुवन् , स्तुवे, yet पावन् may equally derive from the root पू to purify by modification of the root vowel, as in पावक and पावन before the termination अन. If we accept this account of सुतपाव्ने, we get a deep and fruitful significance thoroughly in harmony with the subtle, suggestive and pregnant style of the hymns of Madhuchchhandas. The nectar juices are distilled for the primary process of purification of what has been distilled, सुतपाव्ने; when they are purified, शुचयो, they then come into use यन्ति चीतये, because they are then दध्याशिरः. The presence of the epithet शुचयो becomes at once intelligible; otherwise an ornate epithet, not without meaning, but not really needed, it becomes in this rendering a word of capital importance, logically occurring and indeed inevitable in the context, and दध्याशिरः, led up to naturally by शुचयः, comes with equal inevitability as the climax of the sentence and the thought.

वितये. Sayana says भक्षणार्थं, but he gives other significances also for वी, गमनप्रजननकान्त्यसनखादनेष्विति. In the sense of going, as in the familiar classical वीत, वी is sometimes the compound of वि + इ to go, but the verb we have in वीतये is rather the long form वी of the primary root वि to manifest, shine, open, be born, appear, produce, grow, spread, extend, move, still surviving in वयस् , वियत् , वयुनं. The rendering खादन strikes me as an additional sense forced upon it by the ceremonialists in order to bring this crucial Vedic term within the scope of their ritualistic conceptions. I take it, in the Veda, in its natural sense of manifestation, appearance, bringing out or expansion. This word वीति describes the capital process of Vedic Yoga, the manifestation for formation and activity of that which is in us unmanifest, vague or inactive. It is वीतये or देववीतये, for manifestation of the gods or of the powers and activities which they represent that the Vedic sacrifice is initiated and conducted internally in subjective meditation and surrender, externally in objective worship and oblation. The Soma-juices purified यन्ति वीतये go to manifest, are spent for manifestation, — in this case, as we see in the next verse (वृद्धो अजायथाः), of Indra, the god of the hymn, Master of mental force.

दधि-आशिरः. This expression must either consist of two separate words, दधि and आशिरः wrongly combined in the Padapatha or it is a compound epithet — as Sayana takes it — of सोमासः. In the first case, दधि may mean curd and आशिरः milk, used in the plural to express several helpings of milk; we shall have then to translate ritualistically, “Here are (Somas) distilled for the Soma drinker and here, purified, go Somas, curd and milks for eating.” Let those take it so who will and reconcile as they can its puerility with the loftiness of the verse that precedes and the subtlety of the verse that follows. But it is clear from the construction and arrangement of words that दधि-आशिरः is an epithet of सोमासः. Sayana’s explanation is too wonderfully complex for acceptation; nor can दधि-आशिरः mean दधि-आशिर-युक्त; one of the two factors in the compound may have a verbal force, the other of the governed substantive; nor in the older terms of Vedic language is there any insurmountable objection to the verb in the compound preceding the word it governs. दधि will then be a verbal adjective formed by reduplication from धि (cf दधिष्व, the adjective ददि etc) upholding, able to uphold and आशिर् a noun expressing devouring heat, force or intensity akin to the other Vedic word आशु more than once used adjectivally in this sense by Madhuchchhandas. We get therefore the sense “able, being purified, to sustain the action of their own intensity”,— not, therefore, rapidly wasted so as to be unable to supply the basis of delight and force necessary for Indra’s action.

6. Thou for the drinking of the Soma-juice straightway didst appear increased, O Indra, for supremacy, O great in strength.

अजायथाः didst appear; again the habitual past.

The idea of the verse follows in logical order on the suggestions in the last. The Rishi has devoted his first four verses to the reasons he has to give for the preference of Indra and the hymning of Indra. He then proceeds to the offering of the Soma, the wine of immortality, ananda materialised in the delight-filled vitality; it is first expressed in the terms of joy and vitality; it is next purified; purified it is spent in the putting out of mental force for the manifestation of divine Mind, Indra; Indra manifests at once, सद्यो अजायथाः, but he manifests वृद्धो increased; a greater mental force appears than has been experienced in the past stages of the Yoga or the life. Indra appears thus increased सुतस्य पीतये and ज्यैष्ठ्याय, primarily for the drinking of the joy and vitality that has been distilled, secondarily, through and as a result of the taking up of that joy and vitality in the active mental consciousness for supremacy, that is to say, for full manifestation of his force in that fullness in which he is always the leader of the divine war, king and greatest (ज्येष्ठ) of the battling gods. Therefore is the appellation सुक्रतो placed at the end in order to explain ज्यैष्ठ्याय. The Lord of Mental Force is a very mighty god; therefore, when he appears in his fullness, it is always his force that takes the lead in our activity. We have in these two verses a succession of symbolic concepts in perfect logical order which express stage by stage the whole process of the divine manifestation in this lower material activity, devaviti in adhwara yajna.

7. May the fiery Soma-juices enter into thee, O Indra, thou who hast delight in the Word; may they be peace to thee in thy forward-acting awareness.

आशवः. व्याप्तिमंतः, says Sayana; but the epithet is then inapposite. आशु like आशिर means devouring, fiery, intense, impetuous, swift — cf the senses of आशिर fire, the sun, a demon. The joy and vitality are to pervade the mental force and, because this is to be done in the force of the word, the mantras, गरिः, therefore Indra is addressed as गिर्वणः,— the word, besides, preparing after the fashion of Vedic interlinking the transition of the thought to the subject of the next verse.

प्रचेतसे. The epithet is not here merely ornamental or generally descriptive; if it were, the vocative would have been preferred. The use of the dative indicates clearly that प्रचेतस् is meant to express the condition in which the peace is desired. The most serious obstacle of the sadhaka is the difficulty of combining action with a basis of calm; when intense force enters the system and is put out in activity, it brings eagerness, disturbance, trouble, an excitement of activity and exhaustion of relapse. There is अशान्ति, absence of शं. It is easy to avoid this when there is quietude and the ananda is merely enjoyed, not utilised. But Indra, as mental force, has to be prachetas, consciously active, putting his consciousness forward in thought and action, प्रचेतस् , he has to absorb the Soma-wine and lose nothing of its fire, yet preserve the peace of the liberated soul. The Soma-juices have to bring added peace with them to the active mind as well as an added force.

8. Thee the hymns of praise have increased, thee, the hymns of prayer, O Indra of the hundred mights; thee may our Words increase.

अवीवृधन् the habitual past. In the past and as a rule, praise of Indra and prayer to Indra have increased and increase the mental force; let the words also of this mantra now increase it.

गिरः takes up the गिर्वणः of the last line. It is the mantra that has to make the Soma effective in increasing Indra. The thought, therefore, takes up the प्र गायत of the first rik and applies it to the office which is asked of Indra, for which he has been given the Soma wine, the final purpose of the invocatory chant and the utility of this divine increase in the fiery strength of the Soma offering.

9. Unimpaired in his expansion may Indra safeguard this myriad wealth (of mind) on which all our strengths are established.

अक्षितोतिः. The ritualistic interpretation of the ninth rik is not unworth noting for its unadulterated clumsiness and unconvincing pointlessness. Sayana takes वाजं in the sense of food and supposes it to allude to the Soma. “Let Indra” he renders it “whose protection is undamaged enjoy this food thousand-numbered, in which food are all strengths.” Nothing is clear here except the working of a mind ignorant of the meaning of the text and compelled to hammer out a meaning in harmony with tradition and ritualistic prepossessions. In the light of the symbolic interpretation, the verse like every other becomes both in sense and construction simple, straightforward, logical, well-ordered and full of subtle purpose and consummate dexterity. ऊतिः is expansion, see [ ] and appendix. Indra is supposed to have increased mental force in accordance with past experience (वृद्धो अजायथाः, अवीवृधन्) and in answer to the prayer त्वां वर्धंतु नो गिरः; the Rishi prays that that increased mental force may remain unimpaired अक्षित, and that the Lord of the Force, thus preserved in the expansion of his power, may safeguard, preserve or keep safe (सनेद्) this substance of mind, this rich mind-stuff full of the force of Indra सहस्रिणं in which all human strengths repose for their effectiveness and stability.

सनेद् . The group of words साः, सातिः, सन् , सनयः, सनः, सनिः, सानसिः, are of great importance in the Veda. Sayana is not consistent in his interpretation of them. He applies to them his favourite ritualistic ideas of giving, favour, praying, eating etc. I attach to them invariably the sense of substance, permanence, safety, preservation, safeguarding. The basic sense of the roots of the Sa family is substance, steadfastness, stability, solidity. साः is the Greek σῶς, safe, सातिः the Greek σῶσις, safety, salvation, preservation; सन् is the basis of the Latin sanus, sound, sane, in health which rests on the fundamental sense “well-preserved, safe from harm”, and of the Sanscrit सनत् , सना, सनात् , सनातनः perpetual, eternal, and सनयः, सनिः, सनः, सानसिः are its derivatives in this fundamental significance. We shall find that this interpretation will illuminate the sense of every passage in which the words occur, need never be varied and never lead to either straining of sense or awkwardness of construction.

सहस्रं means “a thousand”; if that be its only significance, सहस्रिणं must mean, myriad, thousandfold, infinitely numerous or varied. I am convinced, however, that सहस्र meant originally as an adjective plentiful or forceful, or as a noun, plenty or force; सहस्रिणं would then mean “abundantly plentiful” or “rich in force”. In any case, it describes well the myriad-shaped wealth of mind-stuff and mind-force which is the basis of all our masculine activities or practical masteries, यस्मिन् विश्वानि पौंस्या. We may, if we choose, take the phrase to mean “wealth counted by thousands” of gold pieces or of cattle, in which, says the Vedic Rishi, reside all forms of human strength and greatness. But I am not disposed to lend the sentiment of Mammon worship to men of an early age in which strength, skill and mental resource must have been the one source and protection of wealth and not, as falsely seems to be the fact in a plutocratic age, wealth the source and condition of the rest. The Vedic Rishis may have been primitive savages, but primitive savages did not hold sentiments of this kind; they valued strength and skill first, wealth only as the reward of strength and skill.

10. Let not mortal men (or, let not the slayers) do hurt to us, O Indra who delightest in the mantra; be the lord of our bodies & give us to ward off the stroke.

मर्ताः Greek βροτός, mortal. The Rishi has already prayed for protection of his spiritual gains against spiritual enemies; he now prays for the safety from human blows of the physical body. But I am inclined to think that मर्ताः here has an active rather than a passive sense; for the termination त may have either force. मर्ताः undoubtedly means mortal in the Veda, but it is possible that it bears also the sense of slayer, smiter, deadly one like मर्त् in the Latin Mars, like the transitive sense in mortal, which means either subject to death or deadly. In any case I cannot follow Sayana in taking तनूनाम् as subject to अभि. I take it subject to ईशानो which is otherwise otiose and pointless in the sentence. The significant use of गिर्वणः indicates that the safety from mortal strokes is also claimed as a result of the Vedic mantra. “Let not those who would slay, do harm against us (अभि in our direction); do thou, Indra, lord of mental force, in the strength of the mantra, govern our bodies and when the blow comes in our direction ward it off or enable us to ward it off (यवया, causal).” The reference seems to me to be to that power of the mental force in which the Indian Yogin has always believed, the power which, substituting a divine mental action for the passive, helpless and vulnerable action of the body, protects the individual and turns away all attempts physical or otherwise to do him hurt. If I am right in my interpretation, we see the source of the Tantric idea of the stoma or stotra acting as a kavacha or mental armour around the body which keeps off the attacks of suffering, calamity, disease, wounds or death. We may note that if मर्ताः be slayers, तनूनाम् may be governed by मर्ताः, “Let not the slayers of the body do hurt towards us, O Indra who delightest in the mantra; govern them (our bodies with thy mental force) and give us to ward off the stroke.” But, in any case, whether we associate तनूनाम् with अभि or मर्ताः or ईशानो, ईशानो must refer back to तनूनाम् . Sayana’s “ward off the blow, for thou canst”, is a pointless superfluity, one of those ideas which seem right and ingenious to the scholar, but would never suggest itself to the poet; least of all to a master of style like Madhuchchhanda.

¹ CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 201-203.

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² R.V. 1.5 // CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 374-384. (Часть 3 № 6); Sri Aurobindo. The Secret of the Veda // SABCL.– Volume 10.– Popular Edition.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1971, pp.491-501.

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