The verse and its meaning · Vedas · Vedas — Shri Rudram

Spare Our Children and Herds

Shukla Yajurveda 16.16

मा नस्तोके तनये मा न आयुषि मा नो गोषु मा नो अश्वेषु रीरिषः। मा नो वीरान्रुद्र भामिनो वधीर्हविष्मन्तः सदमित्त्वा हवामहे ॥

Meaning · English

Harm us not in our children or their children, in our life, our cows, our horses. Rudra, strike not our heroes in wrath; bearing offerings, we always call you.

The prayer names what a household lives by and asks Rudra to leave each one unhurt. First come children and grandchildren; Sāyaṇa reads the two words as son and son's son. Then the span of one's own life, the cows and the horses. Then the strong men of the family, who defend it. The word for wrath may describe those men as spirited, or Rudra himself when roused, and readers divide on it. The last line gives the ground of the request: we come with offerings, and we keep calling.

A farmer at dusk, with the sky going dark, walks the yard calling out: the children in from the lane, the cows into the shed, the horses tied. He cannot stop the storm. He counts what is his, one by one. The prayer does the same, naming each thing it hopes the storm's master will pass over.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Weapon at Rest · Shukla Yajurveda 16.14
• Next: Lord of Trees and Roads · Shukla Yajurveda 16.17
• All of Vedas · Ask Krishna about it

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