Rig Veda 1.43.2: Mandala 1, Sukta 43, Mantra 2
Sukta 1.43
- Rishi
- Kutsa Āṅgirasa
- Devata
- Rudra
- Chandas
- Gāyatrī
- Rasa
- Shanta (peace) and Karuna (compassion)
यथा नो अदितिः करत्पश्वे नृभ्यो यथा गवे । यथा तोकाय रुद्रियम् ॥
yáthā no áditiḥ kárat páśve nṛ́-bhyo yáthā gáve | yáthā tokā́ya rudríyam ||
अदिति हमारे लिए अच्छा करे। हमारी जान और लोगों के लिए भला हो। हमारे पशुओं के लिए भी अच्छा हो। बच्चों पर भी रुद्र की कृपा हो।
Word by Word
- यथा
- as, just asIndeclinableसम्बन्ध/उपमानार्थ अव्ययम् (yathā = ‘as, just as’)Root यथा (avyaya-prātipadika)
- नः
- of us, for usPronounषष्ठी बहुवचनम् (enclitic gen. pl.)Role सम्बन्ध (possessor/beneficiary: ‘of us/for us’)Root अस्मद् (sarvanāma-prātipadika)
- अदितिः
- AditiNoun (proper/divine name)स्त्रीलिङ्गः प्रथमा एकवचनम्Role कर्तृRoot अदिति- (prātipadika)
- करत्
- may (she) make/doVerbलोट् (विधिलिङ्/आशीर्लिङ्-प्रयोगः वैदिके) 3पुरुषः एकवचनम्; injunctive/optative-like ‘may she do/make’Role क्रियाRoot कृ (धातु)
- पश्वे
- for cattle, for livestockNounपुंलिङ्गः चतुर्थी एकवचनम् (dat. sg.)Role सम्प्रदानRoot पशु- (prātipadika)
- नृभ्यः
- for menNounपुंलिङ्गः चतुर्थी बहुवचनम् (dat. pl.)Role सम्प्रदानRoot नृ- (prātipadika)
- यथा
- asIndeclinableउपमानार्थ अव्ययम्Root यथा (avyaya-prātipadika)
- गवे
- for the cow (for cattle)Nounस्त्रीलिङ्गः/उभयलिङ्ग-प्रयोगः; चतुर्थी एकवचनम् (dat. sg.)Role सम्प्रदानRoot गो- (prātipadika)
- यथा
- asIndeclinableउपमानार्थ अव्ययम्Root यथा (avyaya-prātipadika)
- तोकाय
- for offspring, for the childNounनपुंसकलिङ्गः चतुर्थी एकवचनम् (dat. sg.)Role सम्प्रदानRoot तोक- (prātipadika)
- रुद्रियम्
- Rudra’s (boon/help/medicine)Adjective (used substantively)नपुंसकलिङ्गः द्वितीया एकवचनम् (acc. sg.)Role कर्मRoot रुद्रिय- (prātipadika; adj. ‘belonging to/coming from Rudra’, also ‘Rudra’s (aid/medicine)’ by context)
Sandhi Notes
- पदच्छेदः: यथा | नः | अदितिः | करत् | पश्वे | नृभ्यः | यथा | गवे | यथा | तोकाय | रुद्रियम् || 1) ‘नो अदि॑तिः’ = नः + अदितिः (enclitic pronoun before vowel; no further change)
- 2) ‘कर॒त्पश्वे’ = करत् + पश्वे (final -t of verb before p- remains; written as करत्पश्वे)
- 3) Accents as in Saṃhitā: यथा॑, अदि॑तिः, कर॒त्, पश्वे॒, नृभ्यो॒, यथा॒, गवे॑, यथा॑, तो॒काय॑, रु॒द्रिय॑म्
The meaning
Outer meaning
May Aditi act for us: well-being for our पशु (paśu) and for men, well-being for cows; and for our offspring may there be Rudra’s healing grace (rudriyam).
Inner meaning
Aditi is the boundless Mother-Principle of wideness and protection; invoked to establish a spacious harmony in which Rudra’s intense force becomes healing rather than harm. ‘Paśu’ and ‘nṛ’ are read psychologically as life-forces and human energies (vital and mental-personal powers). ‘Go’ (cows) are rays of light/knowledge. ‘Tokāya’ (offspring) is our future formation—new states, works, and emergent consciousness. The prayer asks that wideness (Aditi) secure all levels of the being, and that Rudra’s action be ‘rudriyam’—a remedial grace—throughout our present powers and future becoming.
Universal truth
When consciousness widens and becomes inclusive (Aditi), transformative power (Rudra) expresses as healing across all parts of life—energies, knowledge, and future growth.
Themes
healing, wideness and release, protection of energies, continuity/progeny
The seer
- Rishi
- Kutsa Āṅgirasa
- Lineage
- Āṅgirasa
- Other hymns
- RV 1.43.1
Family tradition
Angirasa spirituality often balances intensity (breaking open) with wideness (holding and protecting). Here Aditi is invoked to support Rudra’s healing action.
Significance
The seer shows a subtle inner technology: invoke wideness first (Aditi) so the transformative power (Rudra) can act as medicine across all planes of the being and into the future.
The deity
- Devata
- Rudra (supported by Aditi)
- Epithets
- Rudriya (healing grace of Rudra)
- Related deities
- Ādityas (Mitra-Varuṇa), Agni, Soma
Cosmic role
Rudra heals and protects; Aditi provides the vast law and shelter in which that healing can pervade without disruption.
Inner power
Rudra: purifying remedy; Aditi: expansive containment that prevents contraction, fear, and fragmentation.
In ritual
Where it is used
Well-being and healing prayer; suitable in protective rites and daily recitation for family/community welfare.
यथा॑ नो॒ अदि॑ति॒: कर॒त्पश्वे॒ नृभ्यो॒ यथा॒ गवे॑ । यथा॑ तो॒काय॑ रु॒द्रिय॑म् ॥
यथा॑ । नः॒ । अदि॑तिः । कर॑त् । पश्वे॑ । नृऽभ्यः॑ । यथा॑ । गवे॑ । यथा॑ । तो॒काय॑ । रु॒द्रिय॑म् ॥
yathā | naḥ | aditiḥ | karat | paśve | nṛ-bhyaḥ | yathā | gave | yathā | tokāya | rudriyam
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3 × 8
Even, blessing-like repetition (‘yathā… yathā… yathā…’) creating a protective cadence.
Soothing and stabilizing; the repeated structure induces a sense of encompassing well-being.
- Aditiḥ
- Literal: the Infinite, the unbound. Symbolic: wideness that protects; spacious consciousness preventing constriction and fear
- karat
- Literal: may she do/make. Symbolic: effective working of wideness in life
- paśu
- Literal: cattle/animals. Symbolic: life-forces, instinctive-vital energies to be protected and harmonized
- nṛbhyaḥ
- Literal: for men. Symbolic: human mental-vital powers, personality energies
- go (gave)
- Literal: cow. Symbolic: rays of light/knowledge, illuminations to be safeguarded
- tokāya
- Literal: offspring, children. Symbolic: future formations—new growth in consciousness, works, and embodied results
- rudriyam
- Literal: of Rudra; Rudra’s grace/medicine. Symbolic: healing force of purification and protection
Well-being and healing prayer; integrates Aditi’s wideness with Rudra’s remedial power for protection of energies, knowledge, and progeny.
During illness recovery, before sleep, or when seeking protection for one’s energies and future undertakings.
Recite as a blessing over oneself/children; optionally sprinkle water as symbol of Aditi’s wide protection and Rudra’s healing.
Use as a ‘whole-being’ protection mantra: for vitality (paśu), human functioning (nṛ), illumination (go), and future growth (toka).
Aditi (a-diti ‘non-divided’, from √dā/di ‘to bind/divide’ in semantic contrast) symbolizes wideness and release from constraint; she ‘makes’ well-being across levels: paśu (vital energies), nṛ (human powers), go (rays of knowledge), toka (future continuity). rudriya- indicates Rudra’s specific gift: not terror but healing grace—his force transmuted into remedy.
Aditi as Infinity/wideness (release from limitation), integration of vital, mental, and future continuity, R̥ta as harmonized well-being across planes
Aditi embodies the law of wideness that sustains ṛta; Rudra restores ṛta by remedial purification.
Healing is the return to truth of being—each part placed in right relation.
Protection and continuity of becoming (toka) under the infinite; healing as evolutionary maintenance of the path.
Early Vedāntic wideness (Aditi as infinite) combined with transformative grace (Rudra) in a yogic synthesis.
Sky = spacious consciousness; herds = energies and illuminations that must be tended; offspring = future realizations and embodied results.
- What is the primary Vedic 'mythologem' present in this verse?
- The mythologem of ‘universal well-being through wideness’: Aditi’s infinity establishes protection and increase across the whole being, while Rudra supplies the specific healing potency (rudriyam). Innerly, it is the widening that allows intense force (Rudra) to become medicine rather than injury.
- How does the linguistic structure reflect Proto-Indo-European roots?
- Aditi’s formation with privative a- reflects inherited Indo-European negation morphology. √kṛ ‘make/do’ is Indo-Iranian core. go- ‘cow’ has PIE *gʷōus (cf. Greek bous, Latin bōs), and its Vedic symbolic extension to ‘light/ray’ shows a culturally specific semantic elevation built on inherited pastoral vocabulary.
- What is the relationship between the Rishi and the Devata here?
- The Rishi seeks a harmonized economy of forces: Aditi provides wideness (the condition), Rudra provides healing force (the operative remedy). The reciprocity is the seeker’s aspiration for integral well-being—vital energies, human faculties, illuminations, and future continuity—answered by the gods as coordinated inner powers.
Widen the field (Aditi) and invite healing purification (Rudra) to pervade all energies, illuminations, and future growth.
anāhata (wideness/embrace)
expansive breathing: inhale imagining space in all directions; exhale releasing contraction; chant on the exhale with the repeated ‘yathā’.
Spacious protection; integrative wholeness.
Begin with a felt sense of wideness around the body; chant 3 or 9 times, each time placing the blessing sequentially: vitality (paśu), human energies (nṛ), illuminations (go), future becoming (toka). End with quiet receptivity to healing.
Gāyatrī with tri-svara; the repeated ‘yathā’ phrases should keep consistent accent contours to preserve the blessing cadence.
Maintain sameness across the three ‘yathā’ openings; let ‘rudriyam’ be voiced as the culminating healing seal.
aditiḥ: short a, dental d, short i; final visarga light., paśve: ś as palatal; ‘śv’ cluster clear., nṛbhyaḥ: vocalic ṛ; ‘bhyaḥ’ with aspirated bh and light visarga., gave: hard g; short a; v soft., tokāya: long ā; keep ‘kā’ open., rudriyam: ‘dr’ cluster clear; short i; ‘yam’ nasal.
soothing, blessing-like, even volume.
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