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Book 8. Hymn 2. The Same

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"Hymns of the Atharva Veda", by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895],

Hymn Ii


The Same

1Seize to thyself this trust of life for ever: thine be longevity

which nothing shortens.

Thy spirit and thy life again I bring thee: die not, nor vanish

into mist and darkness.

2Come to the light of living men, come hither: I draw thee to a

life of hundred autumns.

Loosing the bonds of Death, the curse that holds thee, I give thee

age of very long duration.

3Thy breath have I recovered from the Wind, thy vision from the

Sun.

Thy mind I stablish and secure within thee: feel in thy members,.

use thy tongue, conversing.

4I blow upon thee with the breath of bipeds and quadrupeds, as

on a fire new-kindled.

To thee, O Death, and to thy sight and breath have I paid

reverence.

5Let this man live, let him not die: we raise him, we recover him.

I make for him a healing balm. O Death, forbear to slay this

man. p. a325

6Here for sound health I invocate a living animating plant,

Preserving, queller of disease, victorious, full of power and

might.

7Seize him not, but encourage and release him: here let him stay,

though thine, in all his vigour.

Bhava and Sarva, pity and protect him: give him full life and

drive away misfortunes.

8Comfort him, Death, and pity him: let him arise and pass away,

Unharmed, with all his members, hearing well, with old, may he

through hundred years win profit with his soul.

9May the Gods' missile pass thee by. I bring thee safe from the

mist: from death have I preserved thee.

Far have I banished flesh-consuming Agni: I place a rampart

for thy life's protection.

10Saving him from that misty path of thine which cannot be

defined.

From that descent of thine, O Death, we make for him a shield

of prayer.

11I give thee both the acts of breath, health, lengthened life, and

death by age.

All Yama's messengers who roam around, sent by Vaivasvata,

I chase away.

12Far off we drive Malignity, Destruction, Pischas banqueters on

flesh, and Grhi.

And all the demon kind, the brood of sin, like darkness, we

dispel.

13I win thy life from Agni, from the living everlasting Jtavedas.

This I procure for thee, that thou, undying, mayst not suffer

harm, that thou mayst be content, that all be well with thee.

14Gracious to thee be Heaven and Earth, bringing no grief, and

drawing nigh!

Pleasantly shine the Sun for thee, the Wind blow sweetly to

thy heart!

Let the celestial Waters full of milk flow happily for thee.

15Auspicious be the Plants to thee! I have upraised thee, borne

thee from the lower to the upper earth:

Let the two Sons of Aditi, the Sun and Moon, protect thee there.

16Whatever robe to cover thee or zone thou makest for thyself,

We make it pleasant to thy frame: may it be soft and smooth

to touch. p. a326

17When, with a very keen and cleasing razor, our hair and beards

thou shavest as a barber,

Smoothing our face steal not our vital forces.

18Auspicious unto thee be rice and barley, causing no painful sick-

ness or consumption, these deliver from calamity.

19Thy food, thy drink, whate'er they be corn grown by cultivation,

milk,

Food eatable, uneatable, I make all poisonless for thee.

20We give thee over as a charge to Day and Night, in trust to

both.

Keep him for me from stingy fiends, from those who fain would

feed on him.

21A hundred, yea, ten thousand years we give thee, ages two,

three, four.

May Indra, Agni, all the Gods, with willing favour look on thee.

22To Autumn we deliver thee, to Winter, Spring and Summer's

care.

We trust thee with auspicious years wherein the plants and herbs

grow up.

23Death is the lord of bipeds, Death is sovran lord of quadrupeds.

Away I bear thee from that: Death the ruler: be not thou

afraid.

24Thou, still uninjured, shalt not die: be not afraid; thou shalt

not die.

Here where I am men do not die or go to lowest depths of

gloom.

25Here verily all creatures live, the cow, the horse, the man, the

beast,

Here where this holy prayer is used, a rampart that protecteth

life.

Let it preserve thee from thy peers, from incantation, from thy

friends.

26Live very long, be healthy, be immortal: let not the vital breath

forsake thy body.

27One and a hundred modes of death, dangers that may be over-

come,

May Gods deliver thee from this when Agni, dear to all men,

bids.

28Body of Agni prompt to save, slayer of fiends and foes art thou,

Yea, banisher of malady, the healing balm called Ptudru.
is the septuagint| is the septuagint
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