Hymn to Soma
Rigveda V.21 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 5 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
O Agni, thou art joined with soma in the sacred rite! Where fire meets the wine of the heavens, there is born the supreme intoxication, the ecstasy that bindeth mortal consciousness to immortal awareness.
We crush the soma plant; we pour its precious juice into the vessels of stone. The priests sing over it; the chants grow louder. And then, O Agni, we pour the soma into thy flames! The moment of contact is the moment of transformation. The mortal drink becomes the divine elixir. What was earthly becometh celestial.
Thy flames leap higher when the soma toucheth thee, O fire-god. The smoke that riseth becometh visible to the immortals. They smell the sweetness of the offering; they hear the mingled cry of gratitude and ecstasy that riseth from our assembled voices. They bend their attention downward to our humble place upon the earth.
In this sacred fusion of fire and soma, the boundaries between above and below, between human and divine, grow thin and permeable. We who have drunk the soma feel thy heat within our bodies, O Agni. Thy flames burn in our chests; thy light burneth in our eyes. For a brief and glorious moment, we are no longer merely mortal.
The soma dances in the fire. The fire dances in the soma. The two are inseparable, neither complete without the other. As the soma giveth ecstasy to the soma-drinker, so doth it give power to thy flames, O Agni. Together, ye two accomplish what neither could achieve alone.
We thank thee for this marriage of fire and plant, of heat and coolness, of the earthly sacrifice and the heavenly gift. Let them remain ever united. Let thy flames forever consume the soma. Let the soma forever illuminate thy flames. In this eternal dance, we mortals find our glimpse of heaven.
Colophon
This hymn is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation are to be documented during audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda V.21
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
manuṣvat tvā ni dhīmahi manuṣvat sam idhīmahi |
agne manuṣvad aṅgiro devān devayate yaja || 1 ||
tvaṁ hi mānuṣe jane 'gne suprīta idhyase |
srucas tvā yanty ānuṣak sujāta sarpirāsute || 2 ||
tvāṁ viśve sajoṣaso devāso dūtam akrata |
saparyantas tvā kave yajñeṣu devam īḻate || 3 ||
devaṁ vo devayajyayāgnim īḻīta martyaḥ |
samiddhaḥ śukra dīdihy ṛtasya yonim āsadaḥ sasasya yonim āsadaḥ || 4 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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