Sukta 186
Sukta 10.186
Vāta (Wind as life-force and healer)
This brief three-verse hymn invokes Vāta (Wind) as a benevolent healer who brings peace and delight into the heart and carries the life-breath forward into fullness of life. It deepens the relationship by addressing Vāta as father, brother, and friend, and finally asks for a share of the “treasure of immortality” believed to be stored in Vāta’s own abode—i.e., a sustaining, deathless vitality for continued living.
Mantras
Mantra 1
वात आ वातु भेषजं शम्भु मयोभु नो हृदे । प्र ण आयूंषि तारिषत् ॥
Let Vāta blow to us as a healing force, bringing peace and delight into our heart; may he carry our life-breaths forward and across—beyond diminishment—into a fuller term of being.
Mantra 2
उत वात पितासि न उत भ्रातोत नः सखा । स नो जीवातवे कृधि ॥
And you, O Vāta, are our father; and our brother; and our friend. Therefore fashion us for living—set our being in the right condition to endure and grow.
Mantra 3
यददो वात ते गृहेऽमृतस्य निधिर्हितः । ततो नो देहि जीवसे ॥
If there, O Vāta, in your home a treasure of immortality is laid up, then from that store give to us for living—let the deathless portion enter our breath and sustain our journey.
Frequently Asked Questions
Vāta is the wind as a divine power—both the outer moving air and the inner life-breath (prāṇa). The hymn treats him as a healer who supports calmness, vitality, and longevity.
The hymn asks Vāta to come as a remedy, bring peace and joy into the heart, and carry the worshipper’s life-breaths forward into a fuller, protected life-term.
It is an image for a deathless store of vitality (amṛta) associated with Vāta. The prayer asks that some of this sustaining, undiminishing life-power be granted ‘for living’—to strengthen and preserve life.