Rig Veda 3.8.2: Mandala 3, Sukta 8, Mantra 2
Sukta 3.8
समिद्धस्य श्रयमाणः पुरस्ताद्ब्रह्म वन्वानो अजरं सुवीरम् । आरे अस्मदमतिं बाधमान उच्छ्रयस्व महते सौभगाय ॥
sam-iddhásya śráyamāṇaḥ purástād bráhma vanvā́nó ajáraṃ su-vī́ram | āré asmád amátiṃ bā́dhamāna ucchrā́yasva mahaté saúbhagāya ||
Leaning forward before the kindled flame, conquering by the Word an undecaying and heroic power, drive far from us the crookedness of mind; rise up for a great good-fortune.
Raising/establishing the yūpa/vanaspati and warding off defects; connected to ensuring faultless performance and auspicious outcome.
brahman as formative word, removal of a-mati (wrong mind), saubhaga (felicity) as inner harmony
Driving away amatí restores right order; rising up signifies alignment with the upward law of ṛta.
Brahman as truth-word creates the ‘ajara’ stability of being.
Formation of an undecaying heroic power as a created inner ‘body’ of strength around the fire.
Mantra-śakti emphasis (Vedic) with psychological reading (Aurobindo/Kashyap): word as formative consciousness-force.
Fire = awakened will; wood/post = structural support of practice; rising = ascent; expelling crookedness = purification of mind.
- What is the primary Vedic 'mythologem' present in this verse?
- The ‘rising of the consecrated support’ and the expulsion of wrong mind: mythic uplift (pillar/axis rising) mirrors inner elevation where brahman (word-power) conquers decay and drives away a-mati.
- How does the linguistic structure reflect Proto-Indo-European roots?
- √idh ‘kindle’ relates to PIE *h₁eydʰ- (burn/kindle; cf. Latin aedēs? not direct; but Indo-Iranian *aidh- is clear). mati ‘thought’ is from √man (PIE *men- ‘think’). su-vīra ‘good-heroic’ uses vīra ‘man/hero’ from PIE *wiHro- (cf. Latin vir).
- What is the relationship between the Rishi and the Devata here?
- The rishi approaches the kindled power with brahman and asks for an inner correction: the Devata’s ‘rising’ is both ritual (post) and psychological (elevation of being), granting saubhaga by removing a-mati.
Straighten the mind: identify one ‘amatí’ (distortion) and offer it into the kindled will; rise into clarity.
Maṇipūra (heroic force) and Ājñā (right thought).
Kapalabhāti light (30–60 strokes) if suitable, then slow breathing; chant to seal clarity.
Active purification leading to luminous determination.
Chant once slowly, then again with firmer intention on ‘āre asmad amatim’; sit and watch for the first clear directive that arises—act on it simply.
Tri-svara; emphasize imperative contours—slight lift on ‘uc chrayasva’.
Keep consonant clusters clean: ‘śrayamāṇaḥ’, ‘bādhamānaḥ’, ‘saubhagāya’.
samiddhasya: double ‘ddh’ articulated, not simplified, śrayamāṇaḥ: ‘śr’ cluster; long ā in māṇaḥ, brahma: aspirate ‘bh’ gently, ajaraṃ: soft ‘j’, short a-j-a, ucchrayasva: ‘cchr’ cluster; do not insert vowel between cch and r
Firm, upright, slightly louder on the third and fourth pādas.
5
Ask anything about this verse
Answers come straight from the texts, with the shlokas they draw on. Ask in your own words.
A free sign-in with Google or Apple keeps your chat saved across web and the app.
Read Rig Veda in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with word-by-word meanings, Sanskrit recitation where available, and more.
