Selected Excerpts
From The Rg Veda

Samjnana Sukta (Rgveda X.191.2-4)

Walk together in harmony, speak in harmony.
Let your minds be of one accord, 
As the gods of old, being of one mind, 
Accepted the share of sacrifice (so may you share your belongings).

May your counsel be common, your assembly united, 
Common the mind, and the thoughts of these united. 
A common purpose do I lay before you, 
And worship with your common oblation. 

Let your aims be common, 
And your hearts of one accord, 
And all of you be of one mind, 
As you may live well together.

Rigveda X.71.1-11

Those, who go neither backward nor forward,
Are no men of knowledge!
Nor performs of the sacred rites, they, the inept ones, sinfully seize the Speech,
And spread it out as weavers weave the thread. ||9||

Shankhayana Aranyaka
Chapter XIII

Thereafter, when the body is made fit for a state of desirelessness, he should be bent over the offering to Brahman. In this way, he will drive repeated deaths away. "The Soul is to be envisioned, to be heard, to be thought of and to be meditated upon." "Him (the Soul) they aspire to know by reciting the Vedas, by practicing the rigors of studentship (including celibacy), by asceticism, by faith, by ritual sacrifices and by fasting" says Sage Mandukeya. "Therefore, he who knows this should, becoming tranquil, restrained (in senses), still in meditation, enduring of the opposites and immersed in faith, perceive the Soul in his own soul," thus says Sage Madavya. That Purusha, who lives in the midst of life forces, and is a repository of consciousness, is incomprehensible and ought to be distinguished (form the animate and inanimate creation) as 'Not this, Not this' this." "This Soul alone is the Kshatriya, it is the Brahminhood, it is all the divine beings, the Vedas, all the worlds, it is all beings, indeed it is all! This Soul is that is designated by 'Tat tvam asi' (That Thou are). This Soul is to be comprehended in 'I am Brahman'. This Brahman (the Supreme Soul), without any predecessor, without any superior, without another equivalent, immanent in all, without an exterior (i.e. all pervading), is this Soul- the Brahman (the Supreme Being), the entity that experiences everything in the Universe- such is the doctrine"- says Sage Yajnavalkya.  

Chapter XIV

The best of the Riks, the best of the Yaju mantras, pinnacle of the Saman chants, the crown of the head of the Atharvans- he who studies not the Veda is indeed called ignorant. He (as if) cleaving is head himself, becomes a corpse.

To Usha (Dawn)

This light has come, of all the lights the fairest:
The brilliant brightness has been born effulgent.
Urged onward for god Savitur's uprising,
Night now has yielded up her place to morning.
Bringing a radiant calf she comes resplendent:
To her the Black One has given up her mansions.
Akin, immortal, following each the other,
Morning and Night fare on, exchanging colours.
The sisters' pathway is the same, unending:
Taught by the gods alternately they tread it.
Fair-shaped, of form diverse, yet single-minded,
Morning and Night clash not, nor do they tarry.
Bright leader of glad sounds she shines effulgent:
Widely she has unclosed for us her portals.
Pervading all the world she shows us riches:
Dawn has awakened every living creature.
Men lying on the ground she wakes to action:
Some rise to seek enjoyment of great riches,
Some, seeing little, to behold the distant:
Dawn has awakened every living creature.
One for dominion, and for fame another;
Another is aroused for winning greatness;
Another seeks the goal of varied nurture:
Dawn has awakened every living creature.
Daughter of Heaven, she has appeared before us,
A maiden shining in resplendent raiment.
Thou sovereign lady of all earthly treasure,
Auspicious Dawn, shine here to-day upon us.....
Gone are those mortals who in former ages
Beheld the flushing of the early morning;
We living men now look upon her shining:
Those will be born who shall hereafter see her.
Dispelling foes, observer of world order,
Born in due season, giver of enjoyment,
Wafting oblations, bringing wealth and fortune,
Shine brightly here to-day, O Dawn, upon us....
In the sky's framework she has gleamed with brightness;
The goddess has cast off the robe of darkness.
Rousing the world from sleep, with ruddy horses,
Dawn in her well-yoked chariot is arriving.
She brings upon it many bounteous blessings;
Brightly she shines and spreads her brilliant lustre.
Last of innumerable morns departed,
First of bright morns to come, has Dawn arisen.
Arise! The vital breath again has reached us:
Darkness has gone away and light is coming.
She leaves a pathway for the sun to travel:
We have arrived where men prolong existence.

(from Rig Veda I:113)

To Visvakarman (The "All-Maker")

The seer, our father, sacrificing all these worlds,
Sat on the high priest's throne:
Pursuing wealth by [offering] prayer, he made away
With what came first, entering into the latter things.
What was the primal matter (adhisthana)? What the beginning?
How and what manner of thing was that from which
The Maker of All, see-er of all, brought forth
The earth, and by his might the heavens unfolded?
[3] His eyes on every side, on every side his face,
On every side his arms, his feet on every side --
With arms and wings he together forges
Heaven and earth, begetting them, God, the One!
[4] What was the wood? What was the tree
From which heaven and earth were fashioned forth?
Ask, ask, ye wise in heart, on what did he rely
That he should [thus] support [these] worlds?
[5] Teach us thy highest dwelling places (dhama), thy lowest too;
[Teach us] these, thy midmost, Maker of All:
Teach thy friends at the oblation, O thou, self-strong;
Offer sacrifice thyself to make thy body grow!
[6] Maker of All, grown strong by the oblation,
Offer heaven and earth in sacrifice thyself!
Let others hither and thither, distracted, stray
But for us let there be a bounteous patron here.
[7] Let us today invoke the Lord of Speech,
Maker of All, inspirer of the mind,
To help us at the [time of] sacrifice.
Let him take pleasure in all our invocations,
Bring us all blessing, working good to help us!

The Sacrifice of Primal Man

  A thousand heads had [primal] Man,
A thousand eyes, a thousand feet:
Encompassing the earth on every side,
He exceeded it by ten fingers' [breadth].
That Man is this whole universe, -
What was and what is yet to be,
The Lord of immortality
Which he outgrows by [eating] food.
This is the measure of his greatness,
But greater yet is [primal] Man:
All beings form a quarter of him,
Three-quarters are the immortal in heaven.
With three-quarters Man rose up on high,
A quarter of him came to be again [down] here:
From this he spread in all directions,
Into all that eats and does not eat.
From him was Viraj born,
From Viraj Man again:
Once born, - behind, before,
He reached beyond the earth.
When with Man as their oblation
The gods performed their sacrifice,
Spring was the melted butter,
Summer the fuel, and the autumn the oblation.
Him they besprinkled on the sacrificial strew, -
[Primeval] Man, born in the beginning:
With him [their victim], gods, Sadhyas, seers
Performed the sacrifice.
From this sacrifice completely offered
The clotted ghee was gathered up:
From this he fashioned beasts and birds,
Creatures of the woods and creatures of the village.
From this sacrifice completely offered
Were born the Rig- and Sama-Vedas;
From this were born the metres,
From this was the Yajur-Veda born.
From this were horses born, all creatures
That have teeth in either jaw;
From this were cattle born,
From this sprang goats and sheep.
[11] When they divided [primal] Man,
Into how many parts did they divide him?
What was his mouth? What his arms?
What are his thighs called? What his feet?
The Brahman was his moth,
The arms were made the Prince,
His thighs the common people,
And from his feet the serf was born.
From his mind the moon was born,
And from his eye the sun,
And from his mouth Indra and the fire,
From his breath the wind was born.
From his navel arose the atmosphere,
From his head the sky evolved,
From his feet the earth, and from his ear
The cardinal points of the compass:
So did they fashion forth these worlds.
Seven were his enclosing sticks
Thrice seven were made his fuel sticks,
When the gods, performing sacrifice,
Bound Man, [their sacrificial] beast.
With the sacrifice the gods
Made sacrifice to sacrifice:
These were the first religious rites (Dharma),
To the firmament these powers went up
Where dwelt the ancient Sadhya gods.

To Visvakarman

The father of the eye - for wise of mind is he - 
Begat these twain [heaven and earth] like sacrificial ghee,
And they bowed to him [in worship].
Not till the ancient bounds were firmly fixed
Were heaven and earth extended.
Maker of All, exceeding wise, exceeding strong,
Creator, Ordainer, highest Exemplar (samdrs):
Their sacrifices [or wishes] exult in nourishment
There where, they say, the One is - beyond the Seven Seers.
He is our father, he begat us,
[He] the Ordainer: dwellings (dhama) knows,
All worlds [he knows]: the gods he named,
[Himself] One only: other beings go to question him. 
As [now our] singers [give] of their abundance,
So did the ancient seerstogether offer him wealth:
After the sunless and the sunlit spaces
Had been set down, together they made these beings.
Beyond the heavens, beyond this earth,
Beyond the gods, beyond the Asuras,
What was the first embryo the waters bore
To which all the gods bore witness?
He [Visvakarman] was the first embryo the waters bore
In whom all gods together came,
The One implanted in the Unorn's navel
In which all the worlds abode.
You will not find him who [all] these begat:
Some other things has stepped between you.
Blinded by fog and [ritual] mutterings
Wander the hymn-reciters, robbers of life.

Indra's heroic deeds, indeed, will I proclaim, the first ones which the wielder of the thunderbolt accomplished. He killed the dragon, released the waters, and split open the sides of the mountains.

He killed the dragon lying spread out on the mountain; for him Tvashtar fashioned the roaring thunderbolt. Like bellowing cows, the waters, gliding, have gone down straightway to the ocean.

Showing off his virile power he chose soma; from the three bowls he drank of the extracted soma. The bounteous god took up the missile, the vajra; he killed the firstborn among the dragons.

When you, O Indra, killed the first-born among the dragons and further overpowered the wily tricks (maya) of the tricksters, bringing forth, at that very moment, the sun, the heaven, and the dawn - since then, indeed, have you not come across another enemy.

Indra killed Vritra, the greater enemy, the shoulderless one, with his mighty and fatal weapon, the thunderbolt. Like branches of a tree lopped off with an axe, the dragon lies prostrate upon the earth.

For, like an incapable fighter, in an intoxicated state, he [Vritra] had challenged the great hero [Indra], the mighty overwhelmer, the drinker of soma to the dregs. He did not surmount the onslaught of his fatal weapon. Indra's enemy, broken-nosed, was completely crushed.

Footless and Handless he gave battle to Indra. H [Indra] struck him with the vajra upon the back. The castrated bull, seeking to become a compeer of the virile bull, Vritra lay shattered in many places.

Over him, who lay in that manner like a shattered bull flowed the waters for the sake of man. At the feet of the very waters, which Vritra had once enclosed with his might, the dragon now lay prostrate.

Vritra's mother had her vital energy ebbing out; Indra had hurled his fatal weapon at her. The mother lay above, the son below; Danu, his mother lay down like a cow with her calf.

In the midst of the water-streams, which never stood still nor had any resting place, the body lay. The waters flow in all directions over Vritra's secret place; Indra's enemy lay sunk in long darkness.

With the demon as their lord and with the dragon as their warder, the waters remained imprisoned...Having killed Vritra, [Indra] threw open the cleft of waters which had been closed.

You became the hair of a horse's tail, O Indra, when he [Vritra] struck at your sharp-pointed vajra - the one god though you were. You won the cows, O brave one, you won soma; you released the seven rivers, so that they should flow.

Neither did lightning nor thunder, nor mist nor hailstorm, which he [Vritra] had spread out, prove efficacious when Indra and the dragon fought. And the bounteous god remained victorious for all time to come.

Whom did you see, O Indra, as the avenger of the dragon, that fear entered into your heart, after you had killed the dragon, and frightened, you crossed nine and ninety rivers and the aerial regions like the falcon?

Indra, who wields the thunderbolt in his hand, is the lord of what moves and what remains rested, of what is peaceful and what is horned. He alone rules over the tribes as their king; he encloses them as does a rim the spokes.

(fromRig Veda, I:32)

To Agni

May that Agni, who is to be extoled by ancient and modern seers, conduct the gods here.

Through Agni may one gain day by day wealth and welfare which is glorious and replete with heroic sons.

O Agni, the sacrifice and ritual which you encompass on every side, that indeed goes to the gods.

May Agni, the chief priest, who possesses the insight of a sage, who is truthful, widely renowned, and divine, come here with the gods.

O Agni, O Messenger, whatever prosperity you bring to the pious is indeed in accordance with your true function.

O Agni, illuminator of darkness, day by day we approach you with holy thought bringing homage to you,

Presiding at ritual functions, the brightly shining custodian of the cosmic order (rita), thriving in your own realm.

O Agni, be easy of access to us as a father to his son. Join us for our wellbeing.
(from Rig Veda, I:1)

Unto the sovereign lord sing a sublime and solemn prayer, one dear unto glorious Varuna, who has spread out the earth, as the butcher does the hide, by way of a carpet for the sun.

Varuna has extended the air above the trees; he has put strength in horses, milk in cows, will-power in hearts, fire in waters, the sun in the heaven, and soma upon the mountain.

Varuna poured out the leather-bag, opening downward, upon the heaven and the earth and the mid-region. Thereby does the lord of the whole creation moisten thoroughly the expanse of earth, as rain does the corn.

He moistens the broad earth and the heave. When Varuna would have it milked [i.e., would shower rain] then, indeed, do the mountains clothe themselves with clouds and the heroes, showing off their might, loosen those clothes [i.e., disperse the clouds].

This great magic-work (maya) of renowned spiritual Varuna will I proclaim loudly; of Varuna, who, standing in the mid-region, has measured the earth with the sun as with a measuring rod.

No one, indeed, dare impugn this great magic-work of the wisest god, namely, that the many glistening streams, pouring forth, do not fill up one ocean with water.

If we, O Varuna, have offended against a friend, befriended through Aryaman or through Mitra [i.e., gods of hospitality and friendship], or if we have offended against an all-time comrade or a brother or an inmate - whether belongings to us, O Varuna, or a stranger - do you remove that offense from us.

If we have deceived, like a gamblers in a game of dice, and whether we really know it or not, all that do you unbind from us, like loosened fetters, O god. Thus may we be dear unto you, O Varuna.
(from Rig Veda V:85)

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