The verse and its meaning · Vedas · Vedas — Time

Time the Tireless Horse

Atharva Veda 19.53.1

कालो अश्वो वहति सप्तरश्मिः सहस्राक्षो अजरो भूरिरेताः। तमा रोहन्ति कवयो विपश्चितस्तस्य चक्रा भुवनानि विश्वा

Meaning · English

Time, the horse, pulls on, seven-reined, thousand-eyed, never aging, full of seed. The poets, the wise, climb onto him; all the worlds are his wheels.

Time is pictured as a horse that never stops pulling. It has seven reins; older readers take these as the sun's seven rays, others as the seasons. It is thousand-eyed, because nothing anywhere happens outside its sight. It does not age, though it ages everything else. It is full of seed, because whatever is born comes out of it. The worlds are its wheels: they turn only because Time moves. Only the seers, those who understand, climb up and ride.

Picture a bullock cart on a village road. The animal pulls, the wheels go round in the dust, and the driver sits up on the seat watching the road ahead. The wheels only turn; the driver knows where the cart is going. Time is the animal, the worlds are the wheels, and the wise are on the seat.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Hymn to Time, whole · Atharva Veda 19.53
• Next: Seven Wheels, Deathless Axle · Atharva Veda 19.53.2
• All of Vedas · Ask Krishna about it

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