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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 575 of 1027

Mandala 7: HYMN LIX. Maruts.

1.WHOMSO ye rescue here and there, whomso ye guide, O Deities, To him give shelter, Agni, Mitra, Varuṇa, ye Maruts, and thou Aryaman.

2.Through your kind favour, Gods, on some auspicious day, the worshipper subdues his foes. That man increases home and strengthening ample food who brings you offerings as ye list.

3.Vasiṣṭha will not overlook the lowliest one among you all. O Maruts, of our Soma juice effused to-day drink all of you with eager haste.

4.Your succour in the battle injures not the man to whom ye, Heroes, grant your gifts. May your most recent favour turn to us again. Come quickly, ye who fain would drink.

5.Come hitherward to drink the juice, O ye whose bounties give you joy. These offerings are for you, these, Maruts, I present. Go not to any place but this.

6.Sit on our sacred grass, be graciously inclined to give the wealth for which we long, To take delight, ye Maruts, Friends of all, with Svāhā, in sweet Soma juice.

7.Decking the beauty of their forms in secret the Swans with purple backs have flown down hither. Around me all the Company hath settled, like joyous Heroes glad in our libation.

8.Maruts, the man whose wrath is hard to master, he who would slay us ere we think, O Vasus, May he be tangled in the toils of mischief; smite ye him down with your most flaming weapon.

9.O Maruts, ye consuming Gods, enjoy this offering brought for you, To help us, ye who slay the foe.

10.Sharers of household sacrifice, come, Maruts, stay not far away, That ye may help us, Bounteous Ones.

11.Here, Self-strong Maruts, yea, even here. ye Sages with your sunbright skins I dedicate your sacrifice.

12.Tryambaka we worship, sweet augmenter of prosperity. As from its stem the cucumber, so may I be released from death, not reft of immortality.

Asked of Guide

Why does the hymn call the Maruts to drink Soma so urgently?

The hymn treats the Maruts as active guests whose drinking of Soma brings visible favors: lines repeat summons—“come hitherward to drink the juice” and “these offerings are for you”—because their participation binds them to protect, increase wealth, and slay foes for the worshipper. Drinking Soma is depicted as the ritual action that secures their “bounties” and “succour in the battle,” so urgency expresses the worshipper’s need for immediate divine aid.

This chapter’s emphasis on sacrificial reciprocity echoes ideas in the Sayana and later Brāhmaṇa commentaries that gods assent by accepting offerings; compare the Brihadaranyaka and Aitareya Brāhmaṇas, which also link deity satisfaction at ritual to concrete boons like prosperity and protection. The cucumber image in the last verse frames ritual release and life when the deity-guest accepts the libation.

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