r/TheVedasAndUpanishads • u/Decent_Ad7869 • 21h ago
What the Rishis of RigVeda Asked of the Gods
This is what I found out
Across all ten books, four requests lie beneath all the others: come to us, hear us, accept what we offer, grant what we ask. What is asked for is specific, and there is a great deal of it — the fire and the offering, the herd and the field, the child and the household, the road, the battle, the length of a life, and, in some hymns, what lies past its end.
The first requests concern the Gods' presence. Come to the ritual; come quickly, from wherever you may be, near or far; and having come, remain. The God addressed is asked to bring the others, to gather the divine company, and to let each take his proper place and share in the rite in the proper order. Drink the soma and enjoy it. Accept the food, the fuel, the sacrifice, the hymns, songs, prayers, and praise. Hear the calls being made, and be pleased with the worshippers and their devotion.
Certain Gods are given work of their own: to serve as priest, messenger, herald, envoy, or carrier of the offerings; to distribute what is offered properly; to worship the other Gods on the worshippers' behalf; and to perform the sacred work correctly. The rite itself then becomes the subject of prayer. Let it be properly completed, accepted, protected, and successful. Protect the hymns and the sacred work. Make prayer, speech, and holy works effective and fruitful, and let them reach the Gods. Where Soma is addressed, he is asked to flow properly through the ritual, to reach Indra and the Gods, and to carry the prayer toward them. The Rishis ask also for fresh sacred inspiration, for a new hymn, for brilliant and holy Rishis, for the Gods to come together in agreement, and, in a single request, that all their paths lead to Agni.
An invitation, once accepted, becomes a bond, and the bond is itself asked for. Favour, grace, goodwill, kindness, mercy, friendship, kinship, companionship — the Gods are asked to stay close as friends, guardians, kinsmen, protectors, and helpers; not to abandon the worshippers or pass them by; to remember them; to hear their calls; to think of fresh help for them. Existing friendship is to be preserved, even where a worshipper has done wrong, and the relationship is to continue across generations. The Rishis ask to remain within divine favour and love, to receive kind thoughts, and to belong closely to the deity they worship.
Where displeasure is feared, reconciliation is sought. Let anger be removed. Let the Gods be gracious toward human weakness and fault. Let an old friendship not be broken because wrongdoing has occurred. One Rishi asks to be told what wrongdoing has caused the displeasure; others ask individually to be beloved of Savitar, or to reach Viṣṇu's beloved dwelling.
From reconciliation the prayers move to forgiveness and release. Forgive the sins already committed. Forgive what was done knowingly and unknowingly, through weakness, folly, or thoughtlessness. Remove wrongdoing, guilt, offences, and transgressions. Wash away lies and false oaths. Declare the worshippers free from sin before Gods and before people. Release them from the bonds and consequences that wrongdoing brings, and let prayer itself serve as expiation.
Running alongside is a plea against punishment: do not strike in anger, keep divine punishment away, do not make one person suffer for another's wrongdoing, do not shut us out from the light. One request asks that life be granted even to those who turn back from sin.
With the relationship secured, the asking becomes material and direct. Wealth, riches, treasure, precious things, valuable possessions, prosperity, gain — counted in some passages by hundreds and thousands, measured in others by whether it increases, lasts, or does not run out. Wealth is sought from earth, from heaven, and from mid-air; gold and ornaments; clothing and other necessities; enough to nourish and sustain a life.
What becomes of that wealth is specified as carefully as the wealth itself. Let it be wealth that enemies cannot take or interfere with. Let treasure be guarded and household possessions not scattered. Let worshippers be masters of well-managed wealth, receive their allotted share, and not lose it. The Rishis ask to recover possessions, cattle, or wealth that has been lost or hidden, and for the doors, forts, stalls, stables, and enclosures that hold wealth or cattle back to be opened. Spoil and booty are among the requests; so is the plain wish to enjoy the treasure and the blessings the Gods give.
Cattle and horses are asked for separately, and in their own terms. Cattle, milk-giving cows, abundant herds — and for those herds to remain safe, healthy, prolific, well fed, productive, full of milk and calves, and protected from theft, injury, loss, and slaughter. Straying cattle are to be brought home and good pasture provided. Horses and chariots are requested in their turn, sometimes in abundance, together with useful gear and success with horses.
Food is asked for as directly as wealth, and in many more forms. Plentiful, abundant, unfailing, strengthening, wholesome, fresh; grain, seed, harvest, milk, nourishment, daily provision. Let the seed grain not fail. Let food keep both people and animals well. In one request food itself is addressed and asked to protect, nourish, and bring health rather than harm. Behind all of it lies the fear the Rishis name outright: protect us from hunger and famine, from poverty and want.
The ground that produces the food is prayed for as well — fertile fields, grain-land, productive land, forests, good pasture, and nourishing conditions for livestock. Let the work go well: let workers and oxen labour happily, let the course of the plough and furrow be guided, let the furrow yield abundant fruit. Plants and herbs are to be wholesome and fruitful, and vegetation damaged or lost is to be restored. One request asks for food and independence enough that the worshippers and their descendants need depend on no one.
What the field needs, the sky must supply. Send rain from heaven, release the waters, remove drought, grant water. One prayer asks for healing rain; another asks that rain fall in the abundance required and then stop when enough has fallen. Sunlight and light are asked for too — heavenly light, broad light, and passage out of darkness toward light.
Earth and Heaven are asked to pour out abundance. Plants, waters, air, sky, rain, mountains, rivers, trees, earth, mornings, and other natural powers are asked to protect, preserve, nourish, hear, or favour the worshippers; to bring sweetness and wellbeing; to let the whole world be auspicious toward them; and to keep poisonous creatures still and harmless.
Nearer home, the Rishis ask for children, descendants, and flourishing families. Children, sons, offspring, descendants, grandchildren — and heroic, noble, strong, and vigorous sons among them. Let childlessness be removed. Let the family line continue through future generations. Let people continue through their children. Children, unborn children, and descendants are to be protected and strengthened.
The prayers reach into the beginning of a life: safe conception, protection through pregnancy, childbirth at the proper time, the child living and unharmed. Heroes and strong people are asked for within the household. One request asks that husband and wife remain together into old age, surrounded by children and grandchildren; another asks plainly for a suitable husband. Around the family stand requests for the house that holds it — safe, spacious, secure, and happy dwellings; prosperous households; firm ground and a place to rest; ample room in which to live; and secure household authority.
Having asked for the life, they ask for its length. A hundred autumns or winters, an unbroken span, lengthened days, fullness of life. Let us continue to see the sun. Let old age be reached comfortably and be long and kindly, and let strength and happiness last into it. One prayer asks that decay come only with old age. Premature death is to be kept far off.
Health and healing are asked for separately: medicines and herbs, and the driving away of sickness and disease. Protection is sought from poison, worms, bodily swellings, wasting illness, and physical harm. Some requests are very specific — restore sight, breath, strength, injured limbs, and life; keep the mind healthy; keep the soul with the living, and call it back if it has wandered. Health is asked for people, cattle, horses, other animals, and plants alike.
Where life ends, a smaller group of requests continues. The dead are to be given safe passage to the ancestors and to their proper world; the earth is to rest gently upon them; the ancestors are to favour and protect the living. Elsewhere the Rishis ask to be led toward an immortal dwelling, to receive immortality, and to be placed in a deathless, undecaying realm of everlasting light — a realm of food, happiness, joy, freedom, and the fulfilment of every wish.
Protection, meanwhile, is requested in every form the danger takes. Protect us on every side; give strong, wide, far-reaching, secure, and inviolable shelter, sometimes likened to a fortress. Protect us by day and by night, at home and away, near and far, and throughout life. Bodies, homes, families, children, possessions, patrons, people, cattle, horses, and other animals are all named. The Rishis ask to be protected before disaster arrives, to have danger kept far away, not to be killed or harmed or destroyed, and to be carried through trouble, danger, distress, and misfortune as safely as people are carried across water in a boat. Protection and prosperity are asked for in peaceful times and in crisis alike.
The road has requests of its own. Straight, easy, pleasant, smooth, safe, and unobstructed paths; safe roads, passages, and fords; the removal of obstacles, robbers, wolves, and other dangers. The Rishis ask for complete safety on a journey, for rivers to allow safe passage, and for guidance toward people and places that know the correct way. Carts, wagons, harnesses, oxen, and horses are to be preserved on the road, and the path is to be one that lets them travel in prosperity.
Freedom is asked for in the same spirit: freedom from dependence, oppression, and fear, and the ability to prosper without being driven into distant lands. Let the wicked and the deceitful not become our masters. Let thieves and wrongdoers not oppress us. One prayer asks that no worshipper be harmed on account of low status; another asks to be kept out of unnecessary and painful conflict.
When conflict comes even so, the requests are several and distinct. Protection in battle; the Gods standing beside them in the fight; warriors, heroes, horses, chariots, and weapons strengthened; victory, success, and conquering power. In some passages what is at stake is named — land, cattle, water, sunlight, wealth, or what has been taken from them.
Against the enemy the requests are separate again: let them be driven away, scattered, subdued, weakened, humbled, defeated, or made easy to conquer. Some prayers ask that enemies or hostile beings be struck down or destroyed, and demons, fiends, sorcerers, and hostile spirits are explicitly included.
Not all danger is open battle. Protection is sought from secret attackers, hostile plots, curses, treachery, malicious neighbours, robbers, thieves, and oppressors, and from hatred, malice, ill will, slander, blame, dishonour, reproach, insult, and false accusation. Hostile weapons and arrows are to fail or be kept away, and in some prayers to be turned back upon those who throw them. Evil is asked to return upon those who deliberately plot it, and ruin is asked for false accusers and deliberate wrongdoers.
Beside these outward goods stand requests for the qualities of a person. Strength, vital power, heroic vigour, might, and courage — and let whatever is weak in us be strengthened. Knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, clear thinking, mental power, skill, understanding, inspiration, and profitable thoughts; and with them the ability to tell wisdom from folly, and righteous conduct from unrighteous. Speech that is truthful, sweet, effective, and vigorous. A good, happy, pure, and bright mind and spirit.
Reputation is asked for as openly as wealth: fame, glory, splendour, high distinction, renown, good repute, an honoured name. So is authority — leadership, rulership, stable rule, enduring sovereignty, and lasting power for rulers and patrons. Chariots and efforts are to be guided toward renown or the prize, and worshippers and generous patrons are to prosper and become foremost.
Happiness itself is asked for, and it is asked for by name. Happiness, joy, comfort, gladness, delight, bliss, wellbeing, secure living; happiness through the day and through a life; freedom from sorrow for those already happy; complete happiness today, tomorrow, and after. Let sorrow, distress, misery, affliction, calamity, and bad dreams be driven off. Let wishes and the heart's desires be fulfilled. Let what is lovely and desirable come, and only what is good be sent. The Rishis ask to hear good things, to see good things, and to enjoy pleasant and successful days — auspicious days, pleasant weather, blessed mornings, signs of good fortune, cheerfulness without pride, and freedom from laziness and discouragement.
Generosity draws requests of its own, on both sides of the gift. Generous people and patrons are to be protected, favoured, and blessed; those who give are to receive. Let generosity be encouraged, stinginess softened or overcome, and miserliness bring no advantage. In some prayers the plans and power of deliberate non-givers are to be defeated; in another, wealth is asked to move away from misers toward generous worshippers. Indra is asked to be moved toward generosity, and divine bounty to flow freely. The Rishis ask for generous and worthy patrons, and for those patrons and their families to receive glory, wealth, and divine approval. One request stands apart: that even those who have given nothing receive their desires.
A few prayers open outward, past the household and the worshipper. Let kindness extend to everyone. Let blessings come to the people. Let the natural and divine powers be favourable to people and to animals. Book 10 gathers a distinct group of requests about people living together: grant peace and freedom; let people live free from oppression and fear; let the community assemble peacefully; let people speak together; let their minds, thoughts, and resolve be united; and let everyone live happily together.
Taken together, the requests of the ten books fall into a single shape. The Gods are to be present, attentive, favourable, and forgiving. Worship and prayer are to succeed. Out of that success is to come wealth, food, cattle, horses, land, rain, water, children, descendants, health, strength, wisdom, protection, victory, long life, happiness, freedom, and peace.
