Atharva Veda on Loneliness

bridegroom. 1. I envelope thee in my garment that was produced by Manu (the first man), that thou shalt be mine alone, shalt not even discourse of other women!

1. This plant is born of honey, with honey do we dig for thee. Of honey thou art begotten, do thou make us full of honey! 2. At the tip of my tongue may I have honey, at my tongue's root the sweetness of honey! In my power alone shalt thou then be, thou shalt come up to my wish! 3. Sweet as honey is my entrance, sweet as honey my departure. With my voice do I speak sweet as honey, may I become like honey! 4. I am sweeter than honey, fuller of sweetness than licorice. Mayest thou, without fail, long for me alone, (as a bee) for a branch full of honey! 5. I have surrounded thee with a clinging sugarcane, to remove aversion, so that thou shalt not be averse to me!

1. May (love), the disquieter, disquiet thee; do not hold out upon thy bed! With the terrible arrow of Kâma (love) do I pierce thee in the heart. 2. The arrow, winged with longing, barbed with love, whose shaft is undeviating desire, with that, well-aimed, Kâma shall pierce thee in the heart! 3. With that well-aimed arrow of Kâma which parches the spleen, whose plume flies forward, which burns up, do I pierce thee in the heart. 4. Consumed by burning ardour, with parched mouth, do thou (woman) come to me, pliant, (thy) pride laid aside, mine alone, speaking sweetly and to me devoted! 5. I drive thee with a goad from thy mother and thy father, so that thou shalt be in my power, shalt come up to my wish. 6. All her thoughts do ye, O Mitra and Varuna, drive out of her! Then, having deprived her of her will,.put her into my power alone!

1. This potent herb do I dig out: it draws toward me the eve, causes (love's) tears. It brings back him who has gone to a distance, rejoices him that approaches me. 2. By (the plant) with which the Âsurî allured Indra away from the gods, by that do I subject thee, that I may be well-beloved of thee! 3. Thy face is turned towards Soma (the nioon), thy face is turned towards Sûrya (the sun), thy face is turned towards all the gods: 't is tliee here that we do invoke. 4. My speech, not thine, (in this matter) hath weight: in the assembly, forsooth, do thou speak! To me alone shalt thou belong, shalt not even discourse of other women! 5. Whether thou art beyond the haunts of men, or whether across the river, this very herb, as if a captive bound, shall bring, thee back to me!

1. I dig up this plant, of herbs the most potent, by whose power rival women are overcome, and husbands are obtained. 2. O thou (plant) with erect leaves, lovely, do thou, urged on by the gods, full of might, drive away my rival, make my h usband mine alone! 3. He did not, forsooth, call thy name, and thou shalt not delight in this' husband! To the very farthest distance do we drive our rival. 4. Superior am I, O superior (plant), superior, truly, to superior (women). Now shall my rival be inferior to those that are inferior! 5. I am overpowering, and thou, (O plant), art completely overpowering. Having both grown full of power, let us overpower my rival! 6. About thee (my husband) I have placed the overpowering (plant), upon thee placed the very overpowering one. May thy mind run after me as a calf after the cow, as water along its course!

1. For thee alone, O (death from) old age, this (boy) shall grow up: the other hundred kinds of death shall not harm him! Like a provident mother in her lap Mitra shall befriend him, shall save him from misfortune! 2. May Mitra or Varuna, the illustrious, cooperating, grant him death from old age! Then Agni, the priest, who knows the ways, promulgates all the races of the gods. 3. Thou, (O Agni), rulest over all the animals of the earth, those which have been born, and those which are to be born: may not in-breathing leave this one, nor yet out-breathing, may neither friends nor foes slay him! 4. May father Dyaus (sky) and mother Prithivi (earth), co-operating, grant thee death from old age, that thou mayest live in the lap of Aditi a hundred winters, guarded by in-breathing and outbreathing! 5. Lead this dear child to life and vigour, O Agni, Varuna, and king Mitra! As a mother afford him protection, O Aditi, and all ye gods, that he may attain to old age!

I cook, and I give (to the Brahmans), and so, too, my wife, at my religious rite and practice.-- With the birth of a son the world of children has arisen (for you): do ye two hold on to a life that extends beyond (your years)! 48. In that place exists no guilt, and no duplicity, not even if he goes conspiring with his friends. This full dish of ours has here been deposited: the cooked (porridge) shall come back again to him that cooks it! 49. kind deeds we shall perform for our friends: all that hate us shall go to darkness (hell)!--As (fruitful) cow, and (strong) steer, they (man and wife) shall during, every successive period of their lives drive away man-besetting death! 50. The fires (all) know one another, that which lives in plants, and lives in the waters, and all the (light-) gods that glow upon the heaven. The gold (here) becomes the light of him that cooks (the porridge). 51. This (naked skin) among the hides is born upon man (alone), all other animals are riot naked. Clothe yourselves, (ye Brahmans), in sheltering garments: (even) the face of the porridge is a homespun garment! 52. What falsehood thou shalt speak at play and in the assembly, or the falsehood that thou shalt speak through lust for gain--put on together, (O man and wife), this same garment, deposit upon it every blemish! 53. Produce rain, go to the gods, let smoke arise from (thy) surface; all-embracing, about to be covered with ghee, enter as a co-dweller this place! 54. In many ways heaven assumes within itself a different form, according to circumstances. It (the heaven) has laid aside its black form, purifying itself to a bright (form); the red form do I sacrifice fot thee into the fire. 55. Thee here we hand over to the eastern direction, to Agni as sovereign lord, to the black serpent as guardian, to Âditya as bowman: do ye guard it for us, until we arrive!

Counted drops penetrate into the earth, commensurate with the breaths of life and the plants. The uncounted golden (drops), that are poured into (the porridge), have, (themselves) pure, established complete purity. 29. The boiling waters rise and sputter, cast up foam and many bubbles. Unite, ye waters, with this grain, as a woman who beholds her husband in the proper season! 30. Stir up (the grains) as they settle at the bottom: let them mingle their inmost parts with the waters! The water here I have measured with cups; measured was the grain, so as to be according to these regulations. 31. Hand over the sickle, with haste bring promptly (the grass for the barhis); without giving pain let them cut the plants at the joints! They whose kingdom Soma rules, the plants, shall not harbour anger against us! 32. Strew a new barhis for the porridge: pleasing to its heart, and lovely to its sight it shall be! Upon it the gods together with the goddesses shall enter; settle down to this (porridge) in proper order, and cat it! 33. O (instrument of) wood, settle down upon the strewn barhis, in keeping with the divinities and the agnishloma rites! Well shaped, as if by a carpenter (Tvashtar) with his axe, is thy form. Longing for this (porridge) the (gods) shall be seen about the vessel! 34. In sixty autumns the treasurer (of the porridge) shall fetch it, by the cooked grain he shall obtain heaven; the parents and the children shall live upon it. Bring thou this (man) to heaven, into the presence of Agni! 35. (Thyself) a holder, (O pot), hold on to the foundation of the earth: thee, that art immoveable the gods (alone) shall move! Man and wife, alive, with living children, shall remove thee from the hearth of the fire! 36. Thou hast conquered and reached all worlds; as many as are our wishes, thou hast satisfied them. Dip ye in, stirring stick and spoon! Place it (the por idge) upon a single dish! 37. Lay (ghee) upon it, let it spread forth, anoint this dish with ghee!

1. Fly forth, ye apakit (sores), as an eagle from the nest! Sûrya (the sun) shall prepare a remedy, Kandramâs (the moon) shall shine you away! 2. One is variegated, one is white, one is black, and two are red: I have gotten the names of all of them. Go ye away without slaying men! 3. The apakit, the daughter of the black one, without bearing offspring will fly away; the boil will fly away from here, the galunta (swelling) will perish. 4. Consume thy own (proper) oblation with gratification in thy mind, when I here offer svâhâ in my mind!

From that death, the lord of cattle, do I rescue thee: do not fear! 24. Free from harm thou shalt not die; thou shalt not die: do not fear! Verily, they do not die there, they do not go to the nethermost darkness;-- 25. Verily, every creature lives there, the cow, the horse, and man, where this charm is performed, as the (protecting) barrier for life. 26. May it preserve thee from sorcery, from thy equals and thy kin! Undying be, immortal, exceedingly vital; thy spirits shall not abandon thy body! 27. From the one and a hundred deaths, from the dangers that are surmountable, from that Agai Vaisvânara (the funeral pyre?) may the gods deliver thee! 28. Thou, the remedy called p6tudru, art the body of Agni, the deliverer, slayer of Rakshas, slayer of rivals, moreover thou chasest away disease. V. 30. Prayer for exemption from disease and death. 1. From near thy vicinity, from near thy distance (do I call): remain here, do not follow; do not follow the Fathers of yore! Firmly do I fasten thy life's breath. 2. Whatever sorcery any kinsman or stranger has practised against thee, both release and deliverance with my voice do I declare for thee. 3. If thou hast deceived or cursed a woman or a man in thy folly, both release and deliverance with my voice do I declare for thee. 4. If thou liest (ill) in consequence of a sin committed by thy mother or thy father, both release and deliverance with my voice do I declare for thee. 5. Fight shy of the medicine which thy mother and thy father, thy sister and thy brother let out against thee: I shall cause thee to live unto old age! 6. Remain here, O man, with thy entire soul; do not follow the two messengers of Yama: come to the abodes of the living! 7. Return when called, knowing the outlet of the path (death), the ascent, the advance, the road of every living man! 8. Fear not, thou shalt not die: I shall cause thee to live unto old age! I have charmed away from thy limbs the disease that wastes the limbs. 9.

1. As the wind tears this grass from the surface of the earth, thus do I tear thy soul, so that thou, woman, shalt love, shalt not be averse to me! 2. If ye, O two Asvins, shall unite and bring together the loving pair-united are the fortunes of,both of you (lovers), united the thoughts, united the purposes! 3. When birds desire to chirp, lustily desire to chirp, may my call go there, as an arrow-point upon the shaft! 4. What is within shall be without, what is without shall be within! Take captive, O herb, the, soul of the maidens endowed with every chai-m! 5. Longing for a husband this woman hath come, I have come longing for a wife, As a loudly neighing horFe I have attained to my good fortune!

1. As the creeper embraces the tree on all sides, thus do thou embrace me, so that thou, woman, shalt love me, so that thou shalt not be averse to me! 2. As the eagle when he flies forth presses his wings against the earth, thus do I fasten down thy mind, so that thou, woman, shalt love me, so that thou shalt not be averse to me. 3. As the sun day by day goes about this heaven and earth, thus do I go about thy mind, so that thou, woman, shalt love me, so that thou shalt not be: averse to me.

1. Love's consuming longing, together with yearning, which the gods have poured into the waters, that do I kindle for thee by the law of Varuna! 2. Love's consuming longing, together with yearning, which the all-gods (visve devâh) have poured into the waters, that do I kindle for thee by the law of Varuna! 3. Love's consuming longing, together with yearning, which Indrâni has poured into the waters, that do I kindle for thee by the law of Varuna! 4. Love's consuming longing, together with yearning, which Indra and Agni have poured into the waters, that do I kindle for thee by the law of Varuna! 5. Love's consuming longing, together with yearning, which Mitra and Varuna have poured into the waters, that do I kindle for thee by the law of Varuna!

1. The first impulse of jealousy, moreover the one that comes after the first, the fire, the heart- burning, that do wc waft away from thee. 2. As the earth is dead in spirit, in spirit more dead than the dead, and as the spirit of him that has died, thus shall the spirit of the jealous (man) be dead! 3. Yon fluttering little spirit that has been fixed into thy heart, from it the jealousy do I remove, as air from a water-skin.

1. May we be in harmony with our kinfolk, in harmony with strangers; do ye, O Asvins, establish here agreement among us! 2. May we agree in mind and thought, may we not struggle with one another, in a spirit displeasing to the gods! Ma not the din of frequent battle-carnage arise, may the arrow not fly when the day of Indra has arrived!

1. As the bowstring from the bow, thus do I take off thy anger from thy heart, so that, having become of the same mind, we shall associate like friends! 2. Like friends we shall associate-I take off thy anger. Under a stone that is heavy do we cast thy anger. 3. I step upon thy anger with my heel and my fore-foot, so that, bereft of will, thou shalt not speak, shalt come up to my wish!

1. Let me go, O evil; being powerful, take thou pity on us! Set me, O evil, unharmed, into the world of happiness! 2. If, O evil, thou dost not abandon us, then do we abandon thee at the fork of the road. May evil follow after another (man)! 3. Away from us may thousand-eyed, immortal (evil) dwell! Him whom we hate may it strike, and him whom we hate do thou surely smite!