✶Gnosis
← Contents
Theme
0905 / 1027

Listen

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 · 905 of 1027

Mandala 10: HYMN LXVIII. Bṛhaspati.

1.LIKE birds who keep their watch, plashing in water, like the loud voices of the thundering rain-cloud, Like merry streamlets bursting from the mountain, thus to Bṛhaspati our hymns have sounded.

2.The Son of Aṅgirases, meeting the cattle, as Bhaga, brought in Aryaman among us. As Friend of men he decks the wife and husband: as for the race, Bṛhaspati, nerve our coursers.

3.Bṛhaspati, having won them from the mountains, strewed down, like barley out of winnowing- baskets, The vigorous, wandering cows who aid the pious, desired of all, of blameless form, well-coloured.

4.As the Sun dews with meath the seat of Order, and casts a flaming meteor down from heaven. So from the rock Bṛhaspati forced the cattle, and cleft the earth’s skin as it were with water.

5.Forth from mid air with light he dravc the darkness, as the gale blows a lily from the fiver. Like the wind grasping at the cloud of Vala, Bṛhaspati gathered to himself the cattle,

6.Bṛhaspati, when he with fiery lightnings cleft through the weapon of reviling Vala, Consumedḥim as tongues cat what teeth have compassed: he threw the prisons of the red cows open.

7.That secret name borne by the lowing cattle within the cave Bṛhaspati discovered, And drave, himself, the bright kine from the mountain, like a bird’s young after the egg’s disclosure.

8.He looked around on rock-imprisoned sweetness as one who eyes a fish in scanty water. Bṛhaspati, cleaving through with varied clamour, brought it forth like a bowl from out the timber.

9.He found the light of heaven, and fire, and Morning: with lucid rays he forced apart the darkness. As from a joint, Bṛhaspati took the marrow of Vala as he gloried in his cattle.

10.As trees for foliage robbed by winter, Vala mourned for the cows Bṛhaspati had taken. He did a deed ne’er done, ne’er to be equalled, whereby the Sun and Moon ascend alternate.

11.Like a dark steed adorned with pearl, the Fathers have decorated heaven With constellations. They set the light in day, in night the darkness. Bṛhaspati cleft the rock and found the cattle.

12.This homage have we.offered to the Cloud God who thunders out to many in succession. May this Bṛhaspati vouchsafe us fulness of life with kine and horses, men, and heroes.

Asked of Guide

Why does Bṛhaspati keep breaking open Vala to free the cattle?

The hymn tells Bṛhaspati as the active liberator: he cleaves Vala, forces apart darkness, and “threw the prisons of the red cows open,” so his role is to release wealth — literal cows, fire, and light — trapped in a rock-cave. The episode names him the bringer of Morning, fire, and the “light of heaven,” linking cattle-release to cosmic order and prosperity.

This chapter treats the rescue as a single heroic act that establishes regular cycles: by his deed “the Sun and Moon ascend alternate,” and the Fathers set lights in heaven. If you want another text that treats a similar cosmic rescue, compare Indra’s Vala-slaying in other Rigveda hymns, where the release of cows also stands for restoring order and sacrificial wealth.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.