Atharva Veda · 677 of 724

HYMN XCVI

HYMN XCVI 1. Taste this strong draught that gives thee vital vigour: with all    thy chariot here unyoke thy coursers.   Let not those other sacrificers stay thee, Indra: these juices shed    for thee are ready. 2. Thine is the juice effused, thine are the juices yet to be pressed:    our resonant songs invite thee.   O Indra, pleased to-day with this libation, come, thou who    knowest all, and drink the Soma. 3. Whoso, devoted to the God, effuses Soma for him with yearning    heart and spirit,   Never doth Indra give away his cattle: for him he makes the    lovely Soma famous. 4. He looks with loving favour on the mortal who, like a rich man,    pours for him the Soma.   Maghavan in his bended arm supports him: he slays, unasked,    the men who hate devotion. 5. We call on thee to come to us, desirous of booty, and of cattle,    and of horses. p. 344   For thy new love and favour are we present: let us invoke thee,   Indra, as our welfare. 6. For life I set thee free by this oblation from the unknown    decline and from consumption;   Or, if the grasping demon have possessed him, free him from    her, O Indra, thou and Agni. 7. Be his days ended, be he how departed, be he brought very near    to death already,   Out of Destruction's lap again I bring him, save him for life to    last a hundred autumns. 8. With thousand-eyed oblation, hundred-autumned, bringing a    hundred lives, have 1 restored him.   That Indra for a hundred years may lead him safe to the farther    shore of all misfortune. 9. Live waxing in thy strength a hundred autumns, live through a    hundred springs, a hundred winters.   Through hundred-lived oblation Indra, Agni, Brihaspati, Savitar    yield him for a hundred! 10. So have I found and rescued thee: thou hast returned with    youth renewed.   Whole in thy members! I have found whole sight and all thy    life for thee. 11. May Agni yielding to our prayer, the Rakshas-killer, drive away.   The malady of evil name that hath beset thy labouring womb. 12. Agni, concurring in the prayer, drive off the eater of thy flesh,   The malady of evil name that hath attacked thy babe and    womb. 13. That which destroys the sinking germ, the settled, moving    embryo,   That which would kill the babe at birth, even this will we drive    far away. 14. That which divides thy legs that it may lie between the married    pair,   That penetrates and licks thy side, even this will we exterminate. 15. What rests by thee in borrowed form of brother, lover, or of    lord,   And would destroyed the progeny,—even this will we exter-    minate. 16. That which through sleep or darkness hath deceived thee and    lies down by thee, And will destroy thy progeny,—even this will we exterminate. 17. From both thy nostrils, from thine eyes, from both thine ears    and from thy chin,   Forth from thy head and brain and tongue I drive thy malady    away. 18. From the neck-tendons and the neck, from the breast-bones    and from the spine,   From shoulders, upper, lower arms, I drive thy malady away. 19. From viscera and all within, forth from the rectum, from the    heart,   From kidneys, liver and from spleen, I drive thy malady away. 20. From thighs, from knee-caps, and from heels, and from the    forepart of the feet,   From hips, from stomach, and from groin, I drive thy malady    away. 21. From what is voided from within, and from thy hair, and from    thy nails,   From all thyself, from top to toe, I drive thy malady away. 22. From every member, every hair, disease that comes in every    joint,   From all thyself, from top to toe, I drive thy malady away. 23. Avaunt, thou Master of the Mind, I Depart and vanish far away.   Look on Destruction far from us. The live man's mind is    manifold.