Rigveda 1.164 (CLXIV) Viśvedevas (“Asyavāmīya”)
Audio and transliteration : Rig Veda. Mandala 1. Sukta 164
Of him the splendid pale-old invoker,
Is his middle brother, the swift-voracious.
The third brother is the one with sprinkled back.
I saw here the all-lord of seven sons.
Seven yoke the one-wheeled car,
The single horse conveys, seven-named
Three-naved is the wheel, not aging, unstopping
Upon where all these beings stand.
This car, upon which the seven stand,
Seven-wheeled, seven horses convey
Seven sisters sing together in there
Where the seven names of cows are hidden.
Who saw the first, being born,
The bony, carried by the boneless.
What is the spirit, blood, self of the earth?
Who will approach the knowing ones to ask?
Naive, I ask, unknowing by thought,
Of these hidden steps of the Devas.
Over the full-born calf, they stretched
The seven threads – the poets – to connect.
Without perceiving, to just the perceiving ones here –
To the poets – I ask, to those knowing, as I don’t know :
These six realms propped apart,
In the form of unborn, which one did that?
Let him tell here, he who really knows
The hidden step of that Splendid bird.
Of his head, the Cows derive milk.
Clad in vesture, they have drunk water through step.
Mother shared Father Ṛta here.
Indeed the insight joined together with the thought.
She, recoiling, was penetrated with the essence of embryo.
With homages were the ones who went for addressing.
Yoked was mother, to the pole of Dakṣiṇā
The embryo stood, inside the enclosure.
Mooing, the calf beheld with the cow :-
Of all forms, to the three connections.
Bearing mothers three, fathers three,
The one stands tall, they don’t bother him.
They mutter, beneath such a heaven
The speech what all know, but not impelling all.
Twelve spoked, indeed never to age,
The wheel of Ṛta revolves around heaven,
Here, O Agni, here do the offspring, the couples,
A seven-hundred-and-twenty stand.
Of five steps, the father of twelve dimensions,
Filling up, they say, is to the far half of heaven.
Then these others speak of the one gazing apart above,
In seven-wheeled, fixed with six spokes.
In the five-spoked wheel revolving around,
In that do all the beings stand.
Carrying a great load, its axle is never hot,
From old, with the nave, it doesn’t get destroyed.
With felly, the wheel unaging, has revolved off,
Ten harnessed to the outstretched draw it.
The eye of sun moves by the domain, concealed
All beings are fixed upon it.
Of the seven born simultaneously, they say “one is singly born,
Six are twins, sages, born divine”
Ordained apart in their wishes, as their domain,
For the one still, the various ones quiver, as their form.
Truly women, of those, they say “males” to me.
One who has eye beholds, the blind doesn’t identify.
The poet who is the son, he has indeed perceived.
He who knows them apart, would be the father of father.
Away beyond, beyond this vicinity,
The cow bearing calf has stood up by her foot.
Where’s she to? What kind of half did she go beyond?
Where does she give birth to? Indeed not inside the premises!
Away, beyond, is knower of father
He who is beyond this vicinity.
Tending towards a poet, who would proclaim here :
The thought divine was born forth from where?
Which come towards, they speak of, as going beyond.
These which go away, they speak of as coming towards.
O Indra and Soma, whatever you both have made,
Those, as if connected to a beam, support the realms.
Well-winged pair, of the same yoke, feeling together (companions)
Embrace around the same tree.
Of those, one eats the sweet pippala fruit,
The other devoid of eating, beholds keenly.
There where the well-winged-pair,
Resound the share of immortality by wisdom, incessantly,
The impelling herdsman of all beings,
The insightful has entered into the naive me.
On which tree, all the well-winged
Eaters of sweetness, rest and give birth,
The pippala fruit of that alone, they say, is sweet.
He doesn’t reach it who doesn’t know the father.
How upon the gāyatri is the gāyatra verse ordained,
How from the Triṣṭubh-ic metre Triṣṭubh verse was fashioned out,
Or how the dynamic jagatī verse is imprinted in the track of Jagatī
These who know that, only they taste immortality.
By Gāyatri verse, he measures against the lyric,
By lyric the melody, by Triṣṭubh verses the speech.
By speech the speech, by two-parts, four-parts,
By syllable the seven sounds are measured.
By Jagatī verse, he fixed the stream in heaven,
Around the Rathantara, he saw the Sun.
Of Gāyatri stanza, they say the fuel-sticks are three.
Thence, it has outstripped the great by greatness.
I summon the milch-cow of excellent milk,
May a milker of easy hands milk her.
The best inspiration Savitar will impel in us,
The ignited is hot, that I shall proclaim.
Making a hiṅ sound, the good mistress of goods,
Seeking calf, came inside by thought.
.Let this indestructible cow yield milk to Aśvins,
May she prosper, for greatness, for fortune.
The cow mooed following the blinking calf
Crying hiṅ sound, against his head, to bellow.
Longing for his hot jaw,
She moos her moo, swells her udder.
So this hums – by which cow is concealed inside,
As she moos her moo, resting upon the rotting.
She, through her hiss, humbled the mortal,
Becoming the lightning, she threw off her vesture.
Breathing, the quickly-going living rests,
Moving towards the fixed through the shelters,
The living moves by the self-establishment of dead,
The immortal shares the same origin with mortal.
I saw the herdsman who never falls down,
Moving by the paths to and fro.,
He clothed in the converging, he in diverging,
Wanders back and forth inside of the beings.
He who indeed made, doesn’t know of that one
He who indeed saw – away is he from that one
He, enveloped in the mother’s womb
Having many offspring, here, entered the motionlessness.
Heaven is my father, my progenitor, navel here
Is the bond, mother is the great wide earth.
In between the stretched cups … is my womb
There the father established embryo in daughter.
I ask you of the farthest limit of wide-earth,
I ask you of the navel of the being
I ask you of the bullish aśva’s seed
I ask you of the highest space of Vāk.
This vedī is the farthest limit of earth,
This yajña is the centre of being.
This soma is the bullish aśva’s seed,
The brahmā here is the highest space of Vāk.
Seven embryos of half, the seed of the being,
Stand by the directions of Viṣṇu in the stretched firmament
They the wise, by insight, by thought,
The envelopers become the envelope of everything.
I don’t identify like what am I here,
Bound by limits, yet I roam by my thoughts,
Only when the firstborn of Ṛta comes to me
Do I attain my share of the Vāk here.
Away and towards he moves controlled by self-established power,
The immortal of the same womb as mortal
That two, ever diverging, travel apart
They perceive one … they do not perceive other.
The verses are in the highest space of syllable
There where the Viśvedevas dwell.
He who doesn’t know that, what will he do with the verse!
Just those who know that have assembled here.
Feeding on good pasturage, may you be fortunate!
So thence, might we too be fortunate.
Eat grass, O inviolable cow, at all times,
Drink fresh water, moving about here.
The buffalo-cow mooed, fashioning seas,
One-footed, Two-footed, she, four-footed,
Becoming Eight-footed, Nine-footed,
She is a thousand-syllabled in the highest space.
Her expanses of water flow on, away,
By that, the four directions live.
Thence the “flowless” (syllable) “flows”,
On that everything lives.
A dung-smoke I saw, from afar,
By the equinox, beyond this vicinity.
The men cooked the sprinkling Pṛśni,
Those were the first founding principles.
Three Keśins (haired), seasonally look on –
One of them shaves in a year,
One looks everything keenly, by his powers,
Of one, just the force is seen, form isn’t.
Four are the limits of Vāk’s quarters,
These wise Brahmins know of those,
Hidden in cave, three don’t impel.
The fourth (/impelling) speech do humans speak.
Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, they speak about,
And then the divine well-winged, the Garutmān.
One is the reality, inspired ones say differently,
They speak about Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan.
Of dark course, the golden well-winged ones,
Clothed in water, fly up to heaven.
They have returned down from the seat in heaven,
And the earth is moistened with sprinkles.
Twelve are the segments, One is the wheel,
Three are the naves, and who understands that?
In that, at the same time, a three hundred pegs,
Yea, and a sixty, are fixed, which move and move.
That full breast of yours, which refreshes,
By which you nourish every noble thing,
That which places treasure, which finds wealth, which is most benevolent,
O Sarasvati! Prepare to suckle us here.
With yajña, Devas offered yajña of yajña.
These were the first foundational principles.
They followed to the summit of greatness,
Where the Sādhyas of old and Devas are.
Same is this water – it goes up and down through the days.
Earth is vivified by rain, Sky is vivified by fires.
The divine well-winged, lofty bird,
The embryo of Waters, beautiful of herbs,
One who satiates by raining from the water-cloud,
The Sarasvant, him do I call out for favour.
Sanskrit :
asya vāmasya palitasya hotus tasya bhrātā madhyamo astyaśnaḥ ǀ
tṛtīyo bhrātā ghṛtapṛṣṭho asyātrāpaśyam viśpatim saptaputram ǁ
sapta yuñjanti ratham ekacakram eko aśvo vahati saptanāmā ǀ
trinābhi cakramajaramanarvam yatremā viśvā bhuvanādhi tasthuḥ ǁ
imam rathamadhi ye sapta tasthuḥ saptacakram sapta vahantyaśvāḥ ǀ
sapta svasāro abhi sam navante yatra gavām nihitā sapta nāma ǁ
ko dadarśa prathamam jāyamānam asthanvantam yadanasthā bibharti ǀ
bhūmyā asurasṛgātmā kva svit ko vidvāṃsam upa gāt praṣṭum etat ǁ
pākaḥ pṛcchāmi manasā vijānan devānām enā nihitā padāni ǀ
vatse baṣkaye’dhi sapta tantūn vi tatnire kavaya otavā u ǁ
acikitvāñcikituṣaścidatra kavīnpṛcchāmi vidmane na vidvān ǀ
vi yas tastambha ṣaḷimā rajāṃsy ajasya rūpe kimapi svidekam ǁ
iha bravītu ya īmaṅga vedāsya vāmasya nihitam padam veḥ ǀ
śīrṣṇaḥ kṣīram duhrate gāvo asya vavrim vasānā udakam padāpuḥ ǁ
mātā pitaram ṛta ā babhāja dhīty agre manasā sam hi jagme ǀ
sā bībhatsur garbharasā nividdhā namasvanta id upavākam īyuḥ ǁ
yuktā mātāsīd dhuri dakṣiṇāyā atiṣṭhad garbho vṛjanīṣv antaḥ ǀ
amīmed vatso anu gām apaśyad viśvarūpyam triṣu yojaneṣu ǁ
tisro mātṝs trīn pitṝn bibhrad eka ūrdhvastasthau nemava glāpayanti ǀ
mantrayante divo amuṣya pṛṣṭhe viśvavidam vācam aviśvaminvām ǁ
dvādaśāram nahi tajjarāya varvarti cakram pari dyāmṛtasya ǀ
ā putrā agne mithunāso atra sapta śatāni viṃśatiśca tasthuḥ ǁ
pañcapādam pitaram dvādaśākṛtim diva āhuḥ pare ardhe purīṣiṇam ǀ
atheme anya upare vicakṣaṇam saptacakre ṣaḷara āhurarpitam ǁ
pañcāre cakre parivartamāne tasminnā tasthurbhuvanāni viśvā ǀ
tasya nākṣastapyate bhūribhāraḥ sanādeva na śīryate sanābhiḥ ǁ
sanemi cakramajaram vi vāvṛta uttānāyām daśa yuktā vahanti ǀ
sūryasya cakṣū rajasaityāvṛtam tasminnārpitā bhuvanāni viśvā ǁ
sākaṃ jānām saptatham āhur ekajam ṣaḷ id yamā ṛṣayo devajā iti ǀ
teṣām iṣṭāni vihitāni dhāmaśaḥ sthātre rejante vikṛtāni rūpaśaḥ ǁ
striyaḥ satīs tām̐ u me puṃsa āhuḥ paśyad akṣaṇvān na vi cetad andhaḥ ǀ
kavir yaḥ putraḥ sa īm ā ciketa yas tā vijānāt sa pituṣ pitāsat ǁ
avaḥ pareṇa para enāvareṇa padā vatsam bibhratī gaurudasthāt ǀ
sā kadrīcī kam svid ardham parāgāt kva svit sūte nahi yūthe antaḥ ǁ
avaḥ pareṇa pitaram yo asyānuveda para enāvareṇa ǀ
kavīyamānaḥ ka iha pra vocad devam manaḥ kuto adhi prajātam ǁ
ye arvāñcas tām̐ u parāca āhur ye parāñcas tām̐ u arvāca āhuḥ ǀ
indraś ca yā cakrathuḥ soma tāni dhurā na yuktā rajaso vahanti ǁ
dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā samānam vṛkṣam pari ṣasvajāte ǀ
tayoranyaḥ pippalam svādvatty anaśnann anyo abhi cākaśīti ǁ
yatrā suparṇā amṛtasya bhāgam animeṣam vidathābhisvaranti ǀ
ino viśvasya bhuvanasya gopāḥ sa mā dhīraḥ pākam atrā viveśa ǁ
yasmin vṛkṣe madhvadaḥ suparṇā niviśante suvate cādhi viśve ǀ
tasyed āhuḥ pippalam svādv agre tan nonnaśad yaḥ pitaram na veda ǁ
yadgāyatre adhi gāyatramāhitam traiṣṭubhādvā traiṣṭubham niratakṣata ǀ
yadvā jagaj jagatyāhitam padam ya it tad vidus te amṛtatvam ānaśuḥ ǁ
gāyatreṇa prati mimīte arkamarkeṇa sāma traiṣṭubhena vākam ǀ
vākena vākam dvipadā catuṣpadākṣareṇa mimate sapta vāṇīḥ ǁ
jagatā sindhum divy astabhāyad rathantare sūryam paryapaśyat ǀ
gāyatrasya samidhas tisra āhus tato mahnā pra ririce mahitvā ǁ
upa hvaye sudughām dhenum etām suhasto godhug uta dohad enām ǀ
śreṣṭham savam savitā sāviṣanno ’bhīddho gharmas tad u ṣu pra vocam ǁ
hiṅkṛṇvatī vasupatnī vasūnām vatsam icchantī manasābhyāgāt ǀ
duhām aśvibhyām payo aghnyeyam sā vardhatām mahate saubhagāya ǁ
gaur amīmed anu vatsam miṣantam mūrdhānam hiṅṅakṛṇon mātavā u ǀ
sṛkvāṇam gharmam abhi vāvaśānā mimāti māyum payate payobhiḥ ǁ
ayam sa śiṅkte yena gaur abhīvṛtā mimāti māyum dhvasanāv adhi śritā ǀ
sā cittibhir ni hi cakāra martyam vidyud bhavantī prati vavrim auhata ǁ
anacchaye turagātu jīvam ejad dhruvam madhya ā pastyānām ǀ
jīvo mṛtasya carati svadhābhir amartyo martyenā sayoniḥ ǁ
apaśyam gopām anipadyamānam ā ca parā ca pathibhiś carantam ǀ
sa sadhrīcīḥ sa viṣūcīr vasāna ā varīvarti bhuvaneṣvantaḥ ǁ
ya īm cakāra na so asya veda ya īm dadarśa hirug in nu tasmāt ǀ
sa mātur yonā parivīto antar bahuprajā nirṛtimā viveśa ǁ
dyaurme pitā janitā nābhir atra bandhur me mātā pṛthivī mahīyam ǀ
uttānayoś camvor yonir antar atrā pitā duhitur garbham ādhāt ǁ
pṛcchāmi tvā param antam pṛthivyāḥ pṛcchāmi yatra bhuvanasya nābhiḥ ǀ
pṛcchāmi tvā vṛṣṇo aśvasya retaḥ pṛcchāmi vācaḥ paramam vyoma ǁ
iyam vediḥ paro antaḥ pṛthivyā ayam yajño bhuvanasya nābhiḥ ǀ
ayam somo vṛṣṇo aśvasya reto brahmāyam vācaḥ paramam vyoma ǁ
saptārdhagarbhā bhuvanasya reto viṣṇos tiṣṭhanti pradiśā vidharmaṇi ǀ
te dhītibhir manasā te vipaścitaḥ paribhuvaḥ pari bhavanti viśvataḥ ǁ
na vi jānāmi yadi vedam asmi niṇyaḥ saṃnaddho manasā carāmi ǀ
yadā māgan prathamajā ṛtasyādidvāco aśnuve bhāgamasyāḥ ǁ
apāṅ prāṅeti svadhayā gṛbhīto’martyo martyenā sayoniḥ ǀ
tā śaśvantā viṣūcīnā viyantā nyanyam cikyurna ni cikyuranyam ǁ
ṛco akṣare parame vyomanyasmindevā adhi viśve niṣeduḥ ǀ
yastanna veda kimṛcā kariṣyati ya ittadvidusta ime samāsate ǁ
sūyavasād bhagavatī hi bhūyā atho vayam bhagavantaḥ syāma ǀ
addhi tṛṇam aghnye viśvadānīm piba śuddham udakam ācarantī ǁ
gaurīrmimāya salilāni takṣatyekapadī dvipadī sā catuṣpadī ǀ
aṣṭāpadī navapadī babhūvuṣī sahasrākṣarā parame vyoman ǁ
tasyāḥ samudrā adhi vi kṣaranti tena jīvanti pradiśaścatasraḥ ǀ
tataḥ kṣaratyakṣaram tadviśvamupa jīvati ǁ
śakamayam dhūmamārādapaśyam viṣūvatā para enāvareṇa ǀ
ukṣāṇam pṛśnim apacanta vīrāstāni dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan ǁ
trayaḥ keśina ṛtuthā vi cakṣate saṃvatsare vapata eka eṣām ǀ
viśvam eko abhi caṣṭe śacībhirdhrājirekasya dadṛśe na rūpam ǁ
catvāri vākparimitā padāni tāni vidur brāhmaṇā ye manīṣiṇaḥ ǀ
guhā trīṇi nihitā neṅgayanti turīyam vāco manuṣyā vadanti ǁ
indram mitram varuṇam agnim āhur atho divyaḥ sa suparṇo garutmān ǀ
ekam sadviprā bahudhā vadanty agnim yamam mātariśvānamāhuḥ ǁ
kṛṣṇam niyānam harayaḥ suparṇā apo vasānā divam utpatanti ǀ
ta āvavṛtrant sadanād ṛtasyād id ghṛtena pṛthivī vyudyate ǁ
dvādaśa pradhayaś cakram ekam trīṇi nabhyāni ka u tacciketa ǀ
tasmint sākam triśatā na śaṅkavo’rpitāḥ ṣaṣṭir na calācalāsaḥ ǁ
yaste stanaḥ śaśayo yo mayobhūryena viśvā puṣyasi vāryāṇi ǀ
yo ratnadhā vasuvidyaḥ sudatraḥ sarasvati tamiha dhātave kaḥ ǁ
yajñena yajñamayajanta devāstāni dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan ǀ
te ha nākam mahimānaḥ sacanta yatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥ ǁ
samānam etad udakam uccaity ava cāhabhiḥ ǀ
bhūmim parjanyā jinvanti divam jinvantyagnayaḥ ǁ
divyam suparṇam vāyasam bṛhantam apām garbham darśatam oṣadhīnām ǀ
abhīpato vṛṣṭibhis tarpayantam sarasvantam avase johavīmi ǁ
Sanatana Dhara 