All the four vedas contain a large number of hymns meant to propitiate
the gods and yield the wishes
prayed for if chanted with one-pointed
attention and unfailing faith.
During the various Hindu samskaras,
rituals and austeririties ,these
hymns are chanted to invoke the
grace of the gods. Since the vast
and eternal vedas were
revealed to the ancient sages
in the depths of their meditation
by the grace of the Almighty,
these hymns ( mantras ) have great potency and sanctity.
Rigveda mainly contains hymns
to please the gods whereas Yajurveda
has mantras for performing
sacrificial rites and Samaveda
has many of the hymns from Rigveda
set to music to be chanted by
udgatrs.
All of us are familiar with a good number of these mantras being chanted
by priests, but are unaware of
the meanings of
them .In general, vedic
language is cryptic and permit
of varied interpretations.
It is rather difficult
to comprehend the exact meaning
of vedic expressions. It is only by going through the commentaries
of evolved souls or acharyas
that one could get the right import
of the vedic statements.
An overall understanding only
is possible. An attempt is made
here to provide a gist of the
meanings of a few of these mantras,
since knowing the meanings and
chanting the mantras have
added efficacy, even though it
is normally said chanting them
with
swara ( intonation
) itself will give the desired
effects. In the shlokas
given below diacritical marks
have been omitted for the sake
of clarity and easy understanding.
At the beginning of any pooja, or ritual the following mantra from the
Rigveda is chanted:
Os̍ t Os̏tO ̷̘
FΥ FՍُ̘̘̬̥̲t̘̘
*
`` s
s̲t
+ : st̲͗z z̘
**
(Rigveda 2-23-1)
This prayer is addressed to 'Brahmanaspati, the lord of spiritual wisdom
and leader of the heavenly hosts,
the wise among the wisest, the
most famous of all and the
king of supreme prayers
to listen to us with all His graces
and be present in the place of
sacrifice.
An almost similar great wondrous prayer also from the
Rigveda though addressed to the
mighty Indra calls Him lord of
hosts and extols him
as the greatest sage among sages as nothing is done
without Him
even in far off places
and requests Him to be
seated amidst us.
͍ z Os̏t Os
t̷̘ϥ̏t̘ FՍ̘
*
@t ttFt
F Z̜̍ ̷̘F Q̥e
Zw̘Z **
(Rigveda 10-112-9)
In the very first mantra of
Rigveda,
prayer is offered to Agni
who is at once the priest , the
God of the sacrifice and the ritvik
and who offers oblation and the
greatest giver of treasure. In
the vedas, the Supreme
Deity is called by different names
such as Indra, Varuna or Agni
but each one is supposed to possess
all the supreme qualities of godhead.
+Oդ
ٜͷt b̲ z̘t`̘
*
t̜ v̌t̘̘
*
(Rigveda 1-1-1)
The Purusha
Sookta hymn which occurs in all
the four vedas brings out in a
splendid way the all-pervasive
nature of the Supreme and decisively
illustrates also the mystical
idea of many in one. The
thousand headed, thousand
eyed and thousand footed Supreme
Being
is picturised as pervading the earth on all sides and manifesting
Himself in the entire creation
originating from His body itself
and transcending all the ten directions.
̷̨խ ٝ:
̷K: ̷̏t *
Θ ̫ͥt
t* +tt̯~W
*
(Rigveda 10-90-1)
In the realm of spiritual realisation it is always direct
experience of the Supreme, aparokshaanubhuti
( to borrow the title of one of
Aadi Shankaras works ). The following hymn from the Taittiriya Aranyaka
quoting from
the Purusha Sukta (from
the Rigveda) talks about direct
personal knowledge of the Purusha. The Supreme Infinite Reality( Purusha
)
is considered as effulgent
as the Sun and is beyond all darkness
whereas
the finite material world
is equated
to darkness. By knowing Him only, one is able to
transcend death and there is no
other way.
z̷t ٝ ̷̍t̘ * +zt̥s t̘̲:
̜tt *
t̘ ̘ͥ̈̍t
< ̥t * ̍: ̍y
ͥ̆t%̙̍ **
(Taittiriya Aranyaka, 3, 13. 1)
The fact that
the Ultimate Reality is beyond
darkness of ignorance and is effulgent
like the sun is echoed by the
Gita also (+zt̥s t̘̲: ̜tt - Bhagavadgita
8 , 9).
An almost identical prayer enabling one for living the full human life of 100
years is contained in Rigveda,
Taittiriya Aranyaka, and Atharvaveda.
It is not the mere existence that
is stressed but living in the
fittest way hearing and speaking
all good things . Living joyfully
with the near and dear, and at
the same time honourably is also
desired. Also, it is prayed that
we should not be conquered by
evil tendencies. All these long
years we desire to live as mentioned
above seeing the Sun sacredly
rising from the east. The hundred
autumns mentioned by the mantra
is only symbolic and means the
very possible limit of existence.
Let us see the mantra:
t[Kzͷt
ٜtZ\F[̜t *
̨
̜zt `ե ̜zt
̍z̘ ̜zt z̘
̜zt
̥̘
̜ztO s̥̘ ̜zt
̘
̜zt̘`t̲̘ ̜zt
`EZ ܙ **
(Taittiriya Aranyaka
4-42-5)
The Rigveda
has a prayer calling upon Lord
Rudra , the mythological God of
death, not to hurt the elders
and children among us, the youth
and children growing in the mothers
wombs, father or mother as also
our beloved bodies .The vedas
also teach us to treat death as
our companion and thus remove
the fear of death from our minds.
̷̍t̘t
+F
=K̍t̘t =Kt̘ *
̌: ͏t̜
t t̜ ͏
̲t̍٥
͜: *
(Rigveda 1, 114 . 7)
