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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 846 of 1027

Mandala 10: HYMN IX. Waters.

1.YE, Waters, are beneficent: so help ye us to energy That we may look on great delight.

2.Give us a portion of the sap, the most auspicious that ye have, Like mothers in their longing love.

3.To you we gladly come for him to whose abode ye send us on; And, Waters, give us procreant strength.

4.The Waters. be to us for drink, Goddesses for our aid and bliss: Let them stream to us health and strength. 5 1 beg the Floods to give us balm, these Queens who rule o’er precious things, And have supreme control of men. 6 Within the Waters-Soma thus hath told me-dwell all balms that heal, And Agni, he who blesseth all. 7 O Waters, teem with medicine to keep my body safe from harm, So that I long may see the Sun. 8 Whatever sin is found in me, whatever evil I have wrought, If I have lied or falsely sworn, Waters, remove it far from me. 9 The Waters I this day have sought, and to their moisture have we come: O Agni, rich in milk, come thou, and with thy splendour cover me.

Asked of Guide

Why does the hymn ask the Waters to remove sin and give medicine—what role do Waters play here?

The hymn treats the Waters as living Goddesses who heal, sustain and grant strength: they are “beneficent,” “Queens who rule o’er precious things,” and sources where “all balms that heal” dwell. The speaker asks the Waters for drink, procreation, long life and the power to wipe away any sin—so their function is both physical (medicine, nourishment) and moral/ritual (purification and absolution).

Linking this to other Vedic texts, the Waters here act like the purifying rivers in later Upanishads and the Mahabharata, where water cleanses ritual fault and restores social-spiritual fitness; the hymn’s invocation of Agni “rich in milk” shows the ritual pairing of fire and water to effect healing and removal of guilt.

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