The verse and its meaning · Vedas · Vedas — Mantras You Know

Night, Dawn, Earth, Sky

Rig Veda 1.90.7

मधु नक्तमुतोषसो मधुमत्पार्थिवं रजः। मधु द्यौरस्तु नः पिता

Meaning · English

Let the night be sweet for us, and the dawns. Let the realm of earth be full of sweetness. Let the Sky, our father, be sweet.

The prayer moves through time, then space. Night and dawn come first: the dark hours, and the days each dawn opens. The 14th-century commentator Sāyaṇa reads the dawns as the days themselves. Then comes the earthly realm, the wide world people live in. Then the sky, called father. Sweetness is asked of each in turn. Sāyaṇa takes it as a plea that each one bring good and pleasing results. He calls the sky father because it sends rain and so keeps every living thing alive.

A spoon of honey stirred into warm milk does not stay where it fell. In a moment every sip tastes of it, top to bottom. The prayer asks for that kind of sweetness: not one good thing set apart, but night, day, the ground underfoot and the sky above all carrying it through.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Honey in Wind and Water · Rig Veda 1.90.6
• Next: Tree, Sun and Cows · Rig Veda 1.90.8
• All of Vedas · Ask Krishna about it

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