The Rig Veda is the oldest layer of the tradition — over a thousand hymns to the powers of nature and the mystery behind them. Here are eight of its most loved verses, in order of their themes: light, welcome, the cosmic Person, and creation itself.
tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi / dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt
We meditate on the excellent radiance of the divine Savitar; may he inspire our understanding.
The Gayatri mantra — the most recited verse in the Veda — asks for one thing only: a lit mind.
ā no bhadrāḥ kratavo yantu viśvato 'dabdāso aparītāsa udbhidaḥ / devā no yathā sadam id vṛdhe asann aprāyuvo rakṣitāro dive-dive
May auspicious thoughts come to us from every side — undeceived, unhindered, victorious. May the gods be with us for our increase, day after day, guardians who never fail.
An open door of a verse: good thoughts are welcomed from every direction, without asking where they were born.
sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt / sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛtvāty atiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam
The Person has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. Having covered the earth on every side, he extends ten fingers' breadth beyond.
The Purusha Sukta opens by stretching the imagination past its limit: the Divine is the whole of things — and still more.
puruṣa evedaṁ sarvaṁ yad bhūtaṁ yac ca bhavyam / utāmṛtatvasyeśāno yad annenātirohati
All this is the Person alone — whatever has been and whatever is yet to be. He is the lord of immortality, and of all that grows by food.
Past, present and future are gathered into one presence; nothing you have ever met is outside it.
nāsad āsīn no sad āsīt tadānīṁ nāsīd rajo no vyomā paro yat / kim āvarīvaḥ kuha kasya śarmann ambhaḥ kim āsīd gahanaṁ gabhīram
Then there was neither non-existence nor existence; there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? What gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomably deep?
The Hymn of Creation begins before beginnings, where even being and non-being have not yet parted.
na mṛtyur āsīd amṛtaṁ na tarhi na rātryā ahna āsīt praketaḥ / ānīd avātaṁ svadhayā tad ekaṁ tasmād dhānyan na paraḥ kiñ canāsa
There was no death then, nor immortality; no sign of night or day. That One breathed, windless, by its own power. Other than that, there was nothing whatsoever.
Before opposites, one breathless breath. The Veda's creation story starts in stillness, not in noise.
ko addhā veda ka iha pravocat kuta ājātā kuta iyaṁ visṛṣṭiḥ / arvāg devā asya visarjanenāthā ko veda yata ābabhūva
Who really knows? Who can here proclaim it? Whence was it born, whence this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe — so who knows whence it arose?
The hymn dares to say that even the gods arrived late to the mystery.
iyaṁ visṛṣṭir yata ābabhūva yadi vā dadhe yadi vā na / yo asyādhyakṣaḥ parame vyoman so aṅga veda yadi vā na veda
Whence this creation arose — whether it was made or not — he who surveys it in the highest heaven, he alone knows; or perhaps he knows not.
The oldest scripture ends its creation hymn with a question mark. Humility before the mystery is itself the teaching.
Put your own question to the Rig Veda, or continue the conversation with Surya as your Spiritual Guide.
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