Atharva Veda · 428 of 724

HYMN II

The same 1. Seize to thyself this trust of life for ever: thine be longevity    which nothing shortens.   Thy spirit and thy life again I bring thee: die not, nor vanish    into mist and darkness. 2. Come to the light of living men, come hither: I draw thee to a    life of hundred autumns.   Loosing the bonds of Death, the curse that holds thee, I give thee    age of very long duration. 3. Thy breath have I recovered from the Wind, thy vision from the   Sun.   Thy mind I stablish and secure within thee: feel in thy members,.    use thy tongue, conversing. 4. I blow upon thee with the breath of bipeds and quadrupeds, as    on a fire new-kindled.   To thee, O Death, and to thy sight and breath have I paid    reverence. 5. Let this man live, let him not die: we raise him, we recover him.   I make for him a healing balm. O Death, forbear to slay this    man. 6. Here for sound health I invocate a living animating plant,   Preserving, queller of disease, victorious, full of power and    might. 7. Seize him not, but encourage and release him: here let him stay,    though thine, in all his vigour.   Bhava and Sarva, pity and protect him: give him full life and    drive away misfortunes. 8. Comfort him, Death, and pity him: let him arise and pass away,   Unharmed, with all his members, hearing well, with old, may he    through hundred years win profit with his soul. 9. May the Gods' missile pass thee by. I bring thee safe from the    mist: from death have I preserved thee.   Far have I banished flesh-consuming Agni: I place a rampart    for thy life's protection. 10. Saving him from that misty path of thine which cannot be    defined.   From that descent of thine, O Death, we make for him a shield    of prayer. 11. I give thee both the acts of breath, health, lengthened life, and    death by age.   All Yama's messengers who roam around, sent by Vaivasvata,   I chase away. 12. Far off we drive Malignity, Destruction, Pisāchas banqueters on    flesh, and Grāhi.   And all the demon kind, the brood of sin, like darkness, we    dispel. 13. I win thy life from Agni, from the living everlasting Jātavedas.   This I procure for thee, that thou, undying, mayst not suffer    harm, that thou mayst be content, that all be well with thee. 14. Gracious to thee be Heaven and Earth, bringing no grief, and    drawing nigh!   Pleasantly shine the Sun for thee, the Wind blow sweetly to    thy heart!   Let the celestial Waters full of milk flow happily for thee. 15. Auspicious be the Plants to thee! I have upraised thee, borne    thee from the lower to the upper earth:   Let the two Sons of Aditi, the Sun and Moon, protect thee there. 16. Whatever robe to cover thee or zone thou makest for thyself,   We make it pleasant to thy frame: may it be soft and smooth    to touch. 17. When, with a very keen and cleasing razor, our hair and beards    thou shavest as a barber,   Smoothing our face steal not our vital forces. 18. Auspicious unto thee be rice and barley, causing no painful sick-    ness or consumption, these deliver from calamity. 19. Thy food, thy drink, whate'er they be corn grown by cultivation,    milk,   Food eatable, uneatable, I make all poisonless for thee. 20. We give thee over as a charge to Day and Night, in trust to    both.   Keep him for me from stingy fiends, from those who fain would    feed on him. 21. A hundred, yea, ten thousand years we give thee, ages two,    three, four.   May Indra, Agni, all the Gods, with willing favour look on thee. 22. To Autumn we deliver thee, to Winter, Spring and Summer's    care.   We trust thee with auspicious years wherein the plants and herbs    grow up. 23. Death is the lord of bipeds, Death is sovran lord of quadrupeds.   Away I bear thee from that: Death the ruler: be not thou    afraid. 24. Thou, still uninjured, shalt not die: be not afraid; thou shalt    not die.   Here where I am men do not die or go to lowest depths of    gloom. 25. Here verily all creatures live, the cow, the horse, the man, the    beast,   Here where this holy prayer is used, a rampart that protecteth    life.   Let it preserve thee from thy peers, from incantation, from thy    friends. 26. Live very long, be healthy, be immortal: let not the vital breath    forsake thy body. 27. One and a hundred modes of death, dangers that may be over-    come,   May Gods deliver thee from this when Agni, dear to all men,    bids. 28. Body of Agni prompt to save, slayer of fiends and foes art thou,   Yea, banisher of malady, the healing balm called Pūtudru.