Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment
Parāśara’s Instruction
हायिहायिहुवाहायिहाबुहायि तथा5सकृत् । गायन्ति त्वां सुरश्रेष्ठ सामगा ब्रह्म॒वादिन:
hāyihāyihuvāhāyihābuhāyi tathā sakṛt | gāyanti tvāṃ suraśreṣṭha sāmāgā brahmavādinaḥ ||
Disse Bhīṣma: «Ó melhor entre os deuses! Os cantores do Sāma—conhecedores do Veda, devotados à enunciação sagrada—entoam repetidamente as sílabas rituais “hāyi hāyi, huvā hāyi, habu hāyi” e, por meio dessas melodias do Sāman, cantam continuamente a tua glória.»
भीष्म उवाच
The verse highlights the dharmic power of sacred sound: learned Vedic chanters use Sāman melodies and ritual vocables to sustain continuous praise of the supreme divine, implying that disciplined recitation and devotion are themselves a form of worship.
Bhīṣma addresses the supreme deity as ‘best of the gods’ and describes how Sāma-chanters and Veda-scholars repeatedly intone characteristic Sāman syllables and thereby sing the deity’s greatness without interruption.