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Dhammapada · narration sample

A one-minute narration sample. Every book in the library is narrated end to end — hear the rest in the app.

Rig Veda · 808 of 1027

Mandala 9: HYMN LXXXV. Soma Pavamana.

1.FLOW on to Indra, Soma, carefully effused: let sickness stay afar together with the fiends. Let not the double-tongued delight them with thy juice. here be thy flowing drops laden with opulence.

2.O Pavamana, urge us forward in the fight thou art the vigour of the Gods, the well-loved drink. Smite thou our enemies who raise the shout of joy: Indra, drink Soma juice, and drive away our foes.

3.Unharmed, best Cheerer, thou, O Indu, flowest on: thou, even thou thyself, art Indra’s noblest food. Full many a wise man lifts to thee the song of praise, and hails thee with a kiss as Sovran of this world.

4.Wondrous, with hundred streams, hymned in a thousand songs, Indu pours out for Indra his delightrul meath. Winning us land and waters, flow thou hitherward: Rainer of bounties, Soma, make broad way for us.

5.Roaring within the beaker thou art balmed with milk: thou passest through the fleecy filter all at once. Carefully cleansed and decked like a prizewinning steed, O Soma, thou hast flowed down within Indra’s throat.

6.Flow onward sweet of flavour for the Heavenly Race, for Indra sweet, whose name is easily invoked: Flow sweet for Mitra, Varuṇa, and Vāyu, rich in meath, inviolable for Bṛhaspati.

7.Ten rapid fingers deck the Courser in the jar: with hymns the holy singers send their voices forth. The filtering juices hasten to their eulogy, the drops that gladden find their way to Indra’s heart.

8.While thou art purified pour on us hero strength, great, far-extended shelter, spacious pasturage. Let no oppression master this our holy work: may we, O Indu, gain all opulence through thee.

9.The Steer who sees afar hath risen above the sky: the Sage hath caused the lights of heaven to give their shine. The. King is passing through the filter with a roar: they drain the milk of heaven from him who looks on men.

10.High in the vault of heaven, unceasing, honey-tongued, the Loving Ones drain out the mountain-haunting Steer,— The drop that hath grown great in waters, in the lake meath-rich, in the stream’s wave and in the cleansing sieve.

11.The Loving Ones besought with many voices the Eagle who had flown away to heaven. Hymns kiss the Youngling worthy of laudation, resting on earth, the Bird of golden colour.

12.High to heaven’s vault hath the Gandharva risen, beholding all his varied forms and figures. His ray hath shone abroad with gleaming splendour: pure, he hath lighted both the worlds, the Parents.

Asked of Guide

Why does the hymn call Soma both a drink and a divine Steer or Courser?

The hymn treats Soma as a sacred fluid and a living cosmic being: lines like “thou, even thou thyself, art Indra’s noblest food” name Soma as the drink Indra consumes, while images such as “The Steer who sees afar” and “Ten rapid fingers deck the Courser in the jar” personify Soma as an animal that carries divine power through the ritual filter. These shifting images show the Rishi compressing ritual action and cosmic myth into one figure so the drink is simultaneously substance, vehicle, and deity.

This fusion appears across the Vedas where ritual objects become agents of divine agency; compare the Rig Veda hymns to Indra where gifts and weapons are animated in praise. The hymn’s concrete ritual details—filtering, milk, beaker—anchor the metaphors so the congregation experiences Soma as both tasted liquor and a living, world-making presence.

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