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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 850 of 1027

Mandala 10: HYMN XIII. Havirdhanas.

1.I YOKE with prayer your ancient inspiration: may the laud rise as on the prince’s pathway. All Sons of Immortality shall hear it, all the possessors of celestial natures.

2.When speeding ye came nigh us like twin sisters, religious-hearted votaries brought you forward. Take your place, ye who know your proper station: be near, be very near unto our Soma.

3.Five paces have I risen from Earth. I follow her who hath four feet with devout observance. This by the Sacred Syllable have I measured: I purify in the central place of Order,

4.He, for God’s sake, chose death to be his portion. He chose not, for men’s good, a life eternal They sacrificed Bṛhaspati the Ṛṣi. Yama delivered up his own dear body.

5.The Seven flow to the Youth on whom the Maruts wait: the Sons unto the Father brought the sacrifice. Both these are his, as his they are the Lords of both: both toil; belonging unto both they prosper well.

Asked of Guide

Why does stanza 4 say someone “chose death” and sacrificed Bṛhaspati the Ṛṣi?

Stanza 4 names a voluntary giving of life: “He, for God’s sake, chose death to be his portion,” which frames death as an offering made to secure cosmic order rather than mere misfortune. The line pairs a personal surrender with communal benefit—Yama “delivered up his own dear body”—so death functions as a ritual act that sustains the sacrificial world the hymn enacts.

This echoes other Vedic strands where cosmic figures undergo sacrifice to maintain Ṛta; see the Purusha hymn (Rig Veda 10.90), where the primal being is offered so the cosmos arises. Here the sacrifice of Bṛhaspati and Yama models devotion and the idea that life given up in service renews divine order.

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