Atharva Veda 16.4.3: Kanda 16, Anuvaka 1, Sukta 4, Mantra 3
Sukta 4
मा मां प्रा॒णो हा॑सी॒न्मो अ॑पा॒नोऽव॒हाय॒ परा॑ गात्
mā́ māṃ prāṇó hāsīn mó u apā́nó ’vahā́ya párā gāt
Let not the Breath forsake me; let not the Out-breath, casting me off, depart away.
मेरा साँस मुझे छोड़ के न जाए। मेरा बाहर निकलने वाला साँस मुझे छोड़ के दूर न जाए।
The meaning
What it says
A direct plea that prāṇa not abandon the speaker and that apāna not depart after casting him off.
The inner meaning
A crisis-formula for moments of panic, faintness, or dissociation: it counters the felt ‘leaving’ of self by commanding continuity of breath and bodily belonging.
The truth in it
Life is maintained by coordinated currents—intake and release. When they desynchronize, the person experiences ‘being cast off.’ Re-integration begins by restoring rhythm and trust in the breath.
What it is for
- Kind of hymn
- Bhaisajya (Healing) / Mrtyu-nivarana (Averting death)
Its aim
To prevent the withdrawal of vital breaths (prāṇa/apāna), averting fainting, wasting, or death; to ‘hold’ life in the body.
Word by Word
Pada patha
मा । माम् । प्राणः । हासीः । मा । उ । अपानः । अवहाय । परा । गात् ।
- मा
- do notdo not; prohibitive particle (apotropaic negation)Indeclinableनिषेध (prohibitive particle)Root मा (निषेधार्थक अव्यय)
- माम्
- meNoun (Pronoun)पुं/स्त्री/नपुं (सर्वनाम), द्वितीया, एकवचनRole KarmaRoot अहम् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
- प्राणः
- the vital breath (prāṇa)in-breath, vital breath; life-force (chief life principle)Nounपुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, एकवचनRole KartāRoot प्राण (प्रातिपदिक)
- हासीः
- (you) should abandon/leavethou shouldst abandon/leave (2nd sg. injunctive/precative sense: ‘forsake not’)Verbलोट् (आज्ञार्थ/प्रार्थनार्थ; prohibitive with मा), मध्यमपुरुष, एकवचन, परस्मैपदRoot हा (धातु; ‘त्यागे/हानौ’)
- मा
- do notIndeclinableनिषेध (prohibitive particle)Root मा (निषेधार्थक अव्यय)
- अपानः
- the downward breath (apāna)out-breath, downward breath (vital function; also linked with excretion and grounding)Nounपुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, एकवचनRole KartāRoot अपान (प्रातिपदिक)
- अवहाय
- having abandoned (me)having cast off, having thrown away (as one discards a burden)Verb (Absolutive)क्त्वा-प्रत्ययान्त अव्यय (ल्यप्/क्त्वान्त), ‘having cast off/abandoned’Root अव + हा (धातु; ‘त्यागे/हानौ’)
- पराः
- awayIndeclinableगत्यर्थे अव्यय (as adverb: ‘away, forth’)Root परा (अव्यय/उपसर्ग-स्वरूप; ‘दूरम्/अपगमे’)
- गात्
- went / may gomay he go; let him depart (precative/optative nuance—here negated by context as feared outcome)Verbलुङ् (अorist), तृतीयपुरुष, एकवचन, परस्मैपदRoot गा (धातु; ‘गतौ/गमने’)
Sandhi Notes
- मा | माम् | प्राणः | हासीः | मा | अपानः | अवहाय | पराः | गात् । Sandhi:
- (1) ‘मो’ = ‘मा + उ’ (उदात्त/स्वर-सन्धि): मा + अपानः → मोऽपानः (आ + अ → ओ, तथा अवग्रह ‘ऽ’)
- (2) ‘अपानोऽवहाय’ = अपानः + अवहाय (विसर्ग-सन्धि: अः + अ → ‘ोऽ’)
Seer, deity and metre
- Rishi
- Atharvanic tradition (requires anukramaṇī collation)
- Devata
- Prāṇa and Apāna (personified vital breaths)
- Chandas
- Anuṣṭubh-like (needs scan; Atharvanic breath-formulas often compress meter)
- Rasa
- Bhayankara and Shanta
Sāyaṇa reads this as direct retention of life: prāṇa and apāna are addressed as quasi-persons whose departure equals death or collapse. ‘Avahāya’ underscores the horror of being ‘discarded’ by one’s own vital functions. The doubled prohibitives are standard Atharvanic warding against imminent loss of life.
Unknown (Anukramaṇī collation required for AVŚ 16.4)
Mṛtyu-nivāraṇa and prāṇa-stambhana (holding breath-life in the body)
Classic Atharvanic ‘do-not-depart’ injunction: speech acts as a tether, binding prāṇa/apāna to the patient at the threshold of collapse.
Prāṇa and Apāna (personified vital breaths)
Microcosmic forms of Vāyu that maintain embodied existence; their withdrawal marks the approach of mṛtyu.
Stabilizes respiration and circulation in weakness, shock, or near-fainting by ‘calling back’ breath.
Averts death-like departure (parā-gamana) and protects against prāṇa-kṣaya (loss of vital force).
Two short cola with imperative/prohibitive framing (mā… mā…); metrical regularity subordinated to urgency.
Breath-formulas often ‘scan by breath’—natural pauses after mā māṃ prāṇo and after apāno’vahāya.
Urgent, restraining; the double mā functions like a verbal clamp.
Creates a ‘hold’—useful in acute episodes; encourages controlled exhale and return of composure.
If the patient is weak or fainting, lay them with head to the east or north.
The priest recites the mantra close to the patient’s mouth/nose, synchronizing with the patient’s inhalation and exhalation.
On ‘prāṇaḥ’ touch the nostrils/upper lip lightly; on ‘apānaḥ’ touch the navel/lower abdomen to ‘anchor’ downward breath.
Repeat until breathing steadies; finish with a sip of water and a sealing silence.
Kauśika Sūtra: life-saving (āyuṣya) recitations for the sick or collapsing, coordinated with breath-control and water-touch (precise kaṇḍikā to be fixed by AVŚ 16.4 concordance).
Atharvan as emergency healer: breath-synchronizing reciter, performing targeted touches (nāsa/nābhi) to retain prāṇa and apāna.
Recite close to the patient’s ear; support with gentle touch at sternum (prāṇa) and navel (apāna).
During faintness, severe weakness, night terrors, or immediately after a collapse episode.
Family member may recite; Atharvanic practitioner in severe cases.
General bhaiṣajya use for recalling prāṇa; exact Kauśika locus requires collation for AVŚ 16.4 breath-series.
Use with paced breathing: inhale silently, exhale with the mantra (or mentally) to avoid strain.
No material pharmaka: the operative substance is breath itself, disciplined by mantra; the ‘tether’ is linguistic and attentional.
Fainting, collapse, severe weakness, breath-loss, near-death states; wasting with breath-instability
Implicit heart (prāṇa) and lower abdomen/pelvis (apāna)
Prohibitive command to prevent prāṇa/apāna dissociation; paired with steady tactile grounding and paced breathing.
Prāṇa-vāta and apāna-vāta coordination; used where vāta derangement causes tremor, syncope, anxiety, or irregular elimination.
Acute panic/hyperventilation management; vasovagal near-syncope support; grounding during dyspnea episodes (with medical evaluation as needed).
Self/patient
To prevent the vital breaths from leaving; to keep the person ‘not cast off’ from embodied life.
Direct address + prohibition (mā) as binding speech; ‘recall and retain’ technique common in Atharvanic healing.
Mṛtyu (death), collapse, prāṇa-withdrawal
- prāṇa
- life’s forward drive, presence, and will-to-live
- apāna
- grounding, elimination, letting-go; also the boundary between life and departure
- hāsiḥ (√hā)
- vitality withdrawing; collapse of coherence
- avahāya
- expulsion from embodied life; severing of attachment to the body
- parā gāt
- crossing toward death/absence; loss of consciousness
Non-abandonment: keeping awareness anchored as breath moves; restoring prāṇa–apāna harmony.
Anāhata + Maṇipūra (interpretive)
Lengthen exhale; feel apāna descend gently while prāṇa remains steady—no force, no retention in weakness.
Two streams of light (gold rising, red-brown descending) meeting and stabilizing at the navel-heart axis.
From scattered to re-integrated; ‘returning to the body’.
Repeat softly with the intention ‘stay’; then sit quietly observing natural breath for a few minutes.
Even tone with emphatic stress on mā; slight lift on prāṇaḥ and apānaḥ.
Split clearly: mā māṃ | prāṇo | hāsīḥ; mā u | apāno’vahāya | parā gāt.
Firm but not loud; ‘commanding’ clarity without strain.
If patient is weak, recite in a whisper or mentally; coordinate with slow exhale to avoid hyperventilation.
27 times
Near-fainting, panic with breath fear, severe weakness, bedside support for the ill/elderly.
At onset of dizziness, breath panic, or during night episodes of fear; also before sleep in convalescence.
Grounding, steadier breathing, reduced fear, sense of ‘returning’ to the body.
Seek urgent care for severe shortness of breath, chest pain, cyanosis, or repeated syncope.
The verse is physiological rather than herbal: it treats breath as the primary ‘medicine.’ In practice, water-touch may accompany it, but the core technology is retention and regulation of prāṇa/apāna through speech and gesture.
It highlights the Atharvan’s distinctive jurisdiction: not public soma-sacrifice but domestic crisis-management—illness, collapse, death-aversion—where specialized mantra-knowledge confers authority.
Direct address to prāṇa/apāna as agents is more developed than in much of the RV. The pragmatic prohibitive style (‘mā…’) is typical of Atharvanic apotropaic diction.
Gopatha’s Atharvanic theology treats life as bound by brahman: speech can ‘hold’ (dhārayati/badhnāti) what would otherwise depart. This mantra is a paradigmatic ‘binding’ of breath.
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