{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av18002.htm","path":"hin/av/av18002.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av18002.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1For Yama Soma juice flows clear, to Yama is oblation paid.\n \u00a0\u00a0To Yama sacrifice prepared, and heralded by Agni, goes.\n 2Offer to Yama sacrifice most sweet in savour and draw near.\n \u00a0\u00a0Bow down before the Rishis of the olden time, the ancient ones\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0who made the path.\n 3Offer to Yama, to the King, butter and milk in sacrifice.\n \u00a0\u00a0So may he grant that we may live long days of life mid living\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0men,\n 4Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni. Let not his\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0body or his skin be scattered.\n \u00a0\u00a0O J\u0101tavedas, when thou hast matured him, then send him on\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0his way unto the Fathers.\n 5When thou hast made him ready, J\u0101tavedas, then do thou give\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him over to the Fathers. p. 185\n \u00a0\u00a0When he attains unto the life that waits him he will obey the\n \u00a0\u00a0Deities' commandment.\n 6With the three jars Brihat alone makes pure the six wide-spread-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ing realms.\n \u00a0\u00a0The G\u0101yatri, the Trishtup, all metres in Yama are contained.\n 7The Sun receive thine eye, the wind thy spirit; go, as thy merit\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0is, to earth or heaven.\n \u00a0\u00a0Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters: go, make thy home in\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0plants with all thy members.\n 8Thy portion is the goat: with heat consume him: let thy fierce\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0flame, thy glowing splendour, burn him.\n \u00a0\u00a0With thine auspicious forms, O J\u0101tavedas, bear this man to the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0region of the pious.\n 9Let all thy rapid flames, O J\u0101tavedas, wherewith thou fillest\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0heaven and earth's mid-region,\n \u00a0\u00a0Follow the goat as he goes on, united: then with the others,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0most auspicious, aid us.\n 110Away O Agni, to the Fathers, send him who, offered in thee,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0goes with our oblations.\n \u00a0\u00a0Wearing new life let him approach his offspring, and splendid, be\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0invested with a body,\n 11Run and outspeed the two dogs, Sarama's offspring, brindled,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0four-eyed, upon thy happy pathway.\n \u00a0\u00a0Draw nigh thou to the gracious-minded Fathers who take their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pleasure in the feast with Yama.\n 12And those two dogs of thine, Yama, the watchers, four-eyed\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0who look on men and guard the pathway\n \u00a0\u00a0Entrust this man, O King, to their protection, and with prosperity\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and health endow him.\n 13Dark-hued, insatiate, with distended nostrils, Yama's two envoys\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0roam among the people.\n \u00a0\u00a0May they restore to us a fair existence here and to-day that we\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0may see the sunlight.\n 14For some the Soma juice runs clear some sit by sacrificial oil.\n \u00a0\u00a0To those for whom the meath flows forth, even to those let him\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0depart.\n 15Let him, O Yama, go to those Rishis austere, of Fervour born,\n \u00a0\u00a0First followers of Law, the sons of Law, upholders of the Law.\n 46Invincible through Fervour, they who by their Fervour went to\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0heaven. p. 186\n \u00a0\u00a0Who practised great austerity,\u2014even to those let him depart.\n 17The heroes who contend in war and boldly cast their lives away.\n \u00a0\u00a0Or who give guerdon thousandfold,\u2014even to those let him\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0depart.\n 18Let him, O Yama, go to those Rishis austere, of Fervour born,\n \u00a0\u00a0Skilled in a thousand ways and means, the sages who protect the\n \u00a0\u00a0Sun.\n 19Be pleasant unto him, O Earth, thornless and lulling him to rest.\n \u00a0\u00a0Vouchsafe him shelter broad and sure.\n 20In the free amplitude of earth take roomy space to lodge thee in.\n \u00a0\u00a0Let all oblations which in life thou paidest drop thee honey now.\n 21Hither I call thy spirit with my spirit. Come thou; delighted,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to these dwelling-places.\n \u00a0\u00a0Unite thee with the Fathers and with Yama: strong and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0delicious be the winds that fan thee.\n 22Floating in water, bringing streams, let Maruts carry thee aloft,\n \u00a0\u00a0And causing coolness by their rush sprinkle thee with their fall-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ing rain.\n 23I have recalled thy life to life, to being, power, and energy.\n \u00a0\u00a0Let thy soul go unto its own: so to the Fathers hasten thou.\n 24Let not thy soul be left behind: here let not aught of thee\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0remain,\n \u00a0\u00a0Of spirit, body, members, sap.\n 25Let not a tree oppness thee, nor Earth the great Goddess weigh\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thee down.\n \u00a0\u00a0Among the Fathers find thy home, and thrive mid those whom\n \u00a0\u00a0Yama rules.\n 26Each parted member, severed from thy body, thy vital breaths\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0that in the wind have vanished,\n \u00a0\u00a0With all of these, piece after piece, shall Fathers who dwell to-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0gether meet and reunite thee.\n 27Him have the living banished from their houses: remove him to\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a distance from the hamlet.\n \u00a0\u00a0Yama's observant messenger was Mrityu he hath despatched\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0men's lives unto the Fathers.\n 28Those Dasyus who, not eating our oblations, come wilh friends'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0faces mingled with the Fathers,\n \u00a0\u00a0Those who wear gross those who wear subtile bodies,\u2014from this.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0our sacrifice let Agni blast them. p. 187\n 29Bringing delight, prolonging our existence, here let our own, the\n \u00a0\u00a0Fathers, dwell together.\n \u00a0\u00a0Coming with sacrifice may we assist them, living long lives\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0through many autumn seasons.\n 30Now by this cow I bring thee, by the boiled rice set in milk for\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thee,\n \u00a0\u00a0Be the supporter of the folk left here without a livelihood.\n 31Prolong the pleasant Dawn enriched with horses-or bearing us.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0anew beyond the darkness.\n \u00a0\u00a0Adjudged to die be he, the man who slew thee: this portion let\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him find, and not another.\n 32Yama is higher and Vivasv\u0101n lower: nothing whatever do I see\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0above him.\n \u00a0\u00a0This sacrifice of mine is based on Yama, Vivasv\u0101n spread the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0atmosphere about us.\n 33From mortal men they hid the immortal Lady, made one like\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0her and gave her to Vivasv\u0101n.\n \u00a0\u00a0Sarany\u016b brought to him the Asvin brothers, and then deserted\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0both twinned pairs of children.\n 34Bring thou the Fathers one and all Agni, to eat the sacrifice.\n \u00a0\u00a0The buried, and the cast away, those burnt with fire, and those\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0exposed.\n 35Those, whether flames have burnt or not consumed them, who in\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the midst of heaven enjoy oblations\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0Let them, when thou dost know them, Jatavedas, accept with\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0sacred food the axe and worship.\n 36Burn gently, Agni, burn not up the body with too fervent heat.\n \u00a0\u00a0Let all thy force and fury be expended on the woods and earth.\n 37I give this place to him who hath come hither and now is mine,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to be a home to rest in:\n \u00a0\u00a0This was the thought of Yama when he answered: This man is.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mine. Let him come here to riches.\n 38This date we settle once for all, that it may ne'er be fixt again_\n \u00a0\u00a0A hundred autumns; not before.\n 39This date we order, etc.\n 40This date we limit, etc.\n 41This date we measure, etc.\n 42This date we mete out, etc.\n 43This date we stablish, etc.\n 44This date we mete and measure out, that it may ne'er be fixt. p. 188\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0again. A hundred autumns: not before.\n 45The period I have measured\u2014come to heaven. I would my life\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0were long\n \u00a0\u00a0Not to be measured out again; a hundred autumns, not before.\n 46Inbreath and outbreath, breath diffused, life, sight to look upon\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the Sun\n \u00a0\u00a0Seek by a straight unwinding path the Fathers whom King\n \u00a0\u00a0Yama rules,\n 47Unmarried men who toiled and have departed, the childless,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0having left their foes behind them,\n \u00a0\u00a0Have found on high the world whereto they mounted, reflecting\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0on the ridge of vaulted heaven.\n 48The lowest is the Watery heaven, Pilumat\u012b the middlemost;\n \u00a0\u00a0The third and highest, that wherein the Fathers dwell, is called\n \u00a0\u00a0Pradyaus.\n 49The Fathers of our Father, his Grandfathers, those who have\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0entered into air's wide region,\n \u00a0\u00a0Those who inhabit earth or dwell in heaven, these Fathers will\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0we worship with oblation.\n 50Thou seest now, and ne'er again shalt look upon, the Sun in\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0heaven.\n \u00a0\u00a0Cover him as a mother draws her skirt about her son, O Earth!\n 51This once,,and at no other time hereafter in a lengthened life:\n \u00a0\u00a0Cover him, as a wife, O Earth, covers her husband with her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0robe!\n 52Round thee auspiciously I wrap the vesture of our Mother\n \u00a0\u00a0Earth:\n \u00a0\u00a0Be bliss among the living mine, oblation mid the Fathers thine!\n 53Ye have prepared, pathmakers, Agni-Soma, a fair world for the\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods to be the it treasure.\n \u00a0\u00a0Go to that world and send us P\u016bshan hither to bear us on the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0paths the goat hath trodden.\n 54Guard of the world, whose cattle ne'er are injured, may P\u016bshan\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bear thee hence, for he hath knowledge.\n \u00a0\u00a0May he consign thee to these Fathers' keeping, and to the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0gracious Gods let Agni give hee.\n 55Lord of all life, let Ayu guard thee, P\u016bshan convey thee forward\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0on the distant pathway.\n \u00a0\u00a0May Savitar the God conduct thee thither where dwell the pious\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0who have gone before thee. p. 189\n 56For thee I yoke these carriers twain to bear thee to the spirit.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0world.\n \u00a0\u00a0Hasten with them to Yama's home and join his gathered.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0companies.\n 57This is the robe that first was wrapped about thee: cast off the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0robe thou worest here among us.\n \u00a0\u00a0Go, knowing, to the meed of virtuous action, thy many gifts.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bestowed upon the friendless.\n 58Mail thee with flesh against the flames of Agni; encompass thee\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0about with fat and marrow;\n \u00a0\u00a0So will the bold One eager to attack thee with fierce glow fail to\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0girdle and consume thee.\n 59From his dead hand I take the staff he carried, together with his\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0lore and strength and splendour.\n \u00a0\u00a0There art thou, there; and here with good men round us may\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0we o'ercome all enemies and foemen.\n 60From his dead hand I take the bow he carried, together with his.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0power and strength and splendour.\n \u00a0\u00a0Having collected wealth and ample treasure, come hither to the-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0world of living beings.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 18: Hymn 2: A funeral hymn, taken mainly from the Rigveda","type":"page"}