Prapāṭhaka 6

6.1 Come near to the one just born, swift-moving, purified with the cows' milk; the gods have eagerly approached the drop of Soma.

6.2 Purifying himself, the all-seeing one strides forth against all enemies; they adorn the inspired sage with their thoughts.

6.3 Entering the vessel as he is pressed, streaming forth toward all glories, the drop of Soma is poured out for Indra.

6.4 Like a chariot-horse he has been released; pressed out, he flows through the filter in the two bowls; the steed has strode along the course.

6.5 When, like rushing cows, the swift streams strode forth, striking off the dark skin.

6.6 Driving away enemies as you purify yourself, O Soma, knower of sacred rites, exhilarating one — push away the ungodly people.

6.7 Purify yourself with that stream by which you caused the sun to shine, impelling the waters destined for mankind.

6.8 Purify yourself, you who have aided Indra to smite Vṛtra — him who had enveloped the great waters.

6.9 Flow around with this offering, O drop, you who in your raptures have driven away the ninety and nine.

6.10 Flow, roaring one, through the filter to Bharadvāja — the heaven-dwelling, ever-victorious one — with the Soma draught.

6.11 He flashes together with the sun.

6.12 Today we choose your healing and bliss-bringing power, the carrier much-longed-for, the protector.

6.13 O Adhvaryu, bring the Soma pressed with the stones to the filter; purify it for Indra to drink.

6.14 That gladdening stream of the pressed Soma flows crossing over; that gladdening one flows crossing over.

6.15 Purify yourself, O Soma, flowing toward wealth of a thousandfold, full of heroic might; pour upon us your glories.

6.16 The ancient human sages stepped on the newer path; they generated the sun for its splendor.

6.17 Flow, O Soma, most brilliant, roaring toward the wooden troughs; settle in your proper stations, in the womb places.

6.18 You are a bull, O Soma, luminous; a bull, O god, with a bull's vow; as a bull you have upheld the laws.

6.19 Purify yourself with your stream for refreshment, being cleansed by the wise; O drop, go toward the cows with your radiance.

6.20 O Soma, purify yourself with your exhilarating stream, O bull, seeking the gods, through the wool-filters, longing for us.

6.21 By this, O Soma, protecting good deeds and being great, you have increased yourself; being impelled you indeed pour forth as a bull.

6.22 This all-seeing one is placed in motion; the Pavamāna is alive and aware; being spurred on, he impels the vast watery realm.

6.23 Flow forth for us, O drop, not bearing a great wave against us; you hasten toward the gods.

6.24 Soma drives away the enemies, he flows, washing away the churlish; going to his proper place in Indra.

6.25 O bestower of treasures, take your seat in the womb of the truth; O golden divine spring, flow forth.

6.26 Pour around the pressed Soma, he who is the highest offering; the manly one who has run swiftly, who has pressed Soma with the stones in the midst of the waters.

6.27 O Soma, roaring, pressed with stones, pass through the wool filters of the sheep; like a man entering a stronghold, the tawny one enters the two bowls and takes his seat in the forests.

6.28 Flow forth, O Soma, for the delight of the gods, swelling with flood like a river; the invigorating, wakeful juice of the Soma plant streams toward the honey-dripping vessel.

6.29 Soma, being pressed by the pressers upon the pressing stones from the sheep's wool, goes with a tawny stream like two horses; he goes with an exhilarating stream.

6.30 O Soma, I rejoice in your friendship, O drop, day by day; many things, O tawny one, move against me — protect me from them, going around that boundary, come.

6.31 Being cleansed by the skilled hands, you set speech in motion in the sea; purifying yourself, you flow forward with tawny, abundant, much-desired wealth.

6.32 The human Soma-drops purify themselves, an intoxicating joy; upon the ridge of the ocean, the wise and exhilarating ones, dropping with rapture.

6.33 O Soma, purifying yourself, ever wakeful, beloved as you flow around through the wool filters; you have become the inspired sage, the most like Aṅgiras — sprinkle our sacrifice with honey.

6.34 The rapturous Soma, pressed for Indra accompanied by the Maruts, flows with a thousandfold stream past the wool filter; men cleanse him.

6.35 Purify yourself, O most powerful winner of prizes, flowing toward all desirable things; you are the ocean, O Soma, exhilarating one, the first to spread the laws for the gods.

6.36 The purifying ones have been released, flowing over the filter with their stream; accompanied by the Maruts, exhilarating, belonging to Indra, they hasten toward the sacrifice, toward the oblations and toward wisdom.

6.37 Cleansing you like a prize-winning horse, they lead you with reins toward the sacred grass.

6.38 Speaking forth poetic wisdom like Uśanas, the divine one proclaims the origins of the gods; great in vow, pure in alliance, the purifier, the boar comes forward on foot, roaring.

6.39 The carrier stirs three utterances, the thought of truth, the wisdom of sacred prayer; the cows go seeking the lord of cows, the inspired thoughts go, longing, toward Soma.

6.40 Impelled by his impulse and drive, being purified, this god has mingled his essence with the gods; pressed and roaring, he goes around the filter like a friend, a hotar with cattle, going about his dwelling.

6.41 Soma purifies himself, the begetter of inspired thoughts, the begetter of heaven, the begetter of earth; the begetter of fire, the begetter of the sun, the begetter of Indra, and the begetter of Viṣṇu.

6.42 The voices have called out to the three-ridged, bull-like bestower of sustenance, the resounding one; clothed in the forest plants, like Varuṇa among rivers, the bestower of treasures distributes desirable things.

6.43 The ocean has strode first over the spreading ordinance, generating progeny, the guardian of the world; the bull upon the ridge, on the sheep's filter, the great Soma has grown, roaring like a pressing stone.

6.44 The tawny one, roaring as he is poured out, settling purified in the belly of the wood; directed by men, he strips the hide from the cow, and from there, with his natural powers, he generates inspired thought.

6.45 This is the honey-sweet Soma of yours, O Indra, the bull belonging to the bull — he has flowed around the filter; the giver of thousands, the giver of hundreds, the great giver, has repeatedly taken his stand at the sacred grass as the prize-winner.

6.46 Purify yourself, O Soma, honey-sweet, rich in truth, clothed in the waters upon the woolly ridge; descend into the ghee-filled troughs, most inebriating, exhilarating, drunk by Indra.

6.47 Making good things for his friends who call upon Indra, Soma puts on his impetuous garments.

6.48 Your honey-sweet streams have been released, having passed through the barrier when purified, past the wool; O Pavamāna, you purify yourself as you generate the station of the cows, and you have swelled the sun with your rays.

6.49 Sing forth, let us praise the gods; urge Soma on for great riches; may the sweet one purify himself past the woolen filter, may the divine drop take his seat in the vessel.

6.50 Pressing forward, the begetter of heaven and earth, like a chariot, has gone forward to win the prize; going to Indra, sharpening his weapons, he has placed all good things in his hands.

6.51 When the speech of the mind's beloved, foremost in excellence, fashions the law on the shining front, then the eager cows, longing, come along to the bowl, to Soma their beloved lord.

6.52 Together the ten sisters, the thoughts of the wise one, cleanse the bull as they flow onward. The golden one ran around, the offspring of the Sun; like a swift steed he entered the trough.

6.53 When upon him, gleaming like a prize-winning mare, the inspired thoughts contend as peoples around the sun, he flows choosing the waters, seeking wisdom, for a thought that enlarges the herd like an enclosure.

6.54 The swift Indu flows, the flood that yields the cow; Soma exhilarates Indra together for rapture. He slays the demon, drives away all hostility, creating wide space — he is the king of the stronghold.

6.55 With this purifying stream, flow, bringing these treasures; Indra has drunk deeply and sped to the lake. Even the tawny one, whose impulse is like the wind, the much-wise one places a man for the discerning.

6.56 Great is what Soma the mighty buffalo did when, the embryo of the waters, he chose the gods. The purifying Indu placed might in Indra; he begot light in the Sun.

6.57 He was released, the eloquent one, like a chariot-horse in battle — the foremost wisdom shaped by thought and mind. The ten sisters on the back of the sheep cleanse the carrier toward the seats.

6.58 Like the surging waves of the waters rushing forward, the inspired thoughts set Soma in motion. Reverently they approach him, come together and enter — the longing ones entering him who longs.

6.59 As forerunners for your pressed drink, the inebriating Soma, O friends, pierce and drive away the long-tongued dog.

6.60 This Soma, Pūṣan, wealth, and Bhaga, flows along purifying himself. Lord of all existence, he looks out upon both worlds.

6.61 The pressed Somas, most full of sweetness, gladdening for Indra, flow purified through the filter. May your ecstasies go to the gods.

6.62 The Somas, the drops, flow purified for us, most knowing of the path. Friendly, well-pressed, unblemished, sweetly meditating, finding the sun.

6.63 Flow toward us the most prize-winning wealth, coveted by hundreds, O Indu — of a thousand forms, of mighty splendor, overpowering with brilliance.

6.64 They celebrate the beloved, the desired of Indra, who does no harm. As mothers lick a newborn calf in its first life, so they tend him.

6.65 For the beloved bold one they stretch out manhood like a bow. The bright ones go forth for the mighty lord's gleaming robe, the great ones honoring the sage foremost.

6.66 They purify with the fleece that beloved, tawny, brown Soma, who goes around all the gods together with his rapture.

6.67 Of the one being pressed, of his drink, no mortal craves that speech. Drive away the ungrateful dog; smite the arrogant one as the Bhṛgus did.

6.68 Upon the great chariot of the great Sun, the all-seeing one mounted, spreading in all directions.

6.69 May the drops, the Indus, urged onward press forward for us; the tawny ones, well-pressed, lofty among the gods. Let the eager energies conquer even the hostile ones; may they be friendly to us and win our inspired thoughts.

6.70 This sweet one roars forward in the bowl, Indra's thunderbolt, most wondrous of wonders. The good milch-cows, dripping with ghee, flowing for him who is approaching, roar and rush with their milk.

6.71 Indu has gone forth to Indra's appointed place; as a friend to a friend he does not diminish their shared speech. Like a young man with maidens, Soma flows together in the bowl by the hundredfold-traveled path.

6.72 The supporter of heaven flows, the active essence, the power to be celebrated by men among the gods. Released, the tawny one like a swift horse among heroes freely makes his displays in the rivers.

6.73 The all-seeing bull of inspired thoughts, Soma, flows purified — the extender of days, of dawns, of heaven. He has roared into the bowls, the breath of the rivers, entering into Indra's heart with the wise ones.

6.74 Three times the seven cows milked for him the true mixture in the highest heaven. Four other worlds he fashioned for his gleaming robe when he grew great with the rites.

6.75 O Soma, well-pressed, flow all around for Indra; let disease be gone, together with the demon. May the deceitful ones not enjoy your essence; let the drops be here for the wealthy devotees.

6.76 Soma the ruddy bull, the tawny pair, has been pressed; like a skillful king he has roared toward the cows. Purifying himself, he will pass through the eternal fleece; like a falcon he has sat in the ghee-rich womb.

6.77 The sweet drops have flowed toward the god, they have flowed like milch-cows to a gathering. Seated on the sacred grass, the divine cows with their udders, they assumed the garment of the flowing dawn-cow.

6.78 They anoint, they anoint distinctly, they anoint together; they lick the will; they anoint with richness. Those with golden purifiers seize the bull flying in the swelling breath of the river, the animal in the waters.

6.79 Your filter is spread out, O Lord of Prayer; mighty, you encompass the limbs from all sides. One whose body has not been heated, the raw one, does not attain that — only the well-cooked who carry it fully reach that.

6.80 Born to be heard, the drops, the Indus, are finders of the sun.

6.81 Speed forward, O Soma, wakeful; O Indu, flow all around for Indra. Bring the brilliant vital force, the finder of the sun.

6.82 Friends, sit down; sing forth for the purifying one. Adorn him like a child with sacrificial rites for splendor.

6.83 Friends, sing toward him, the purifying one, for your rapture. Sweetening him like a child with oblations and with praises.

6.84 The child of the great ones breathes, urging forward the shining thought of Order. He became beloved of all, then twofold.

6.85 Flow pure for the pleasure of the gods, O Indu, with your streams of might. Fill the bowl, O sweet Soma, our seat.

6.86 Soma, purifying himself with his wave, courses through the woolen filter. The purifying one, roaring aloud, goes at the forefront of speech.

6.87 Speech is uttered forth for the purifying, wise Soma. Like one bringing a burden, he delights with inspired thoughts.

6.88 Like one rich in cattle and horses, O Indu, pressed forth, O skillful one, like a bowman — sustain your pure bright hue among the cows.

6.89 The voices have sounded toward you for us, the finder of wealth. We clothe your bright hue with the cows' streams.

6.90 The beloved tawny one flows, moving swiftly past the crooked places with speed. Flow toward the praisers, glory rich in heroes.

6.91 Soma flows purifying himself around the honey-dripping bowl. The seven voices of the seers have sounded toward him.

6.92 Great is the most heavenly rapture.

6.93 Shine forth, O lord of impulses, of great fame and splendor, O god, god-seeking. Split open the middle bowl, O young one.

6.94 Let the pressers pour around, like a swift horse, the praise that is nimble, crossing the atmosphere, dripping through the wood, swelling with the waters.

6.95 This one, who causes rapture to flow, with a thousand streams, the bull that milks heaven, bearing all good things.

6.96 He is pressed who is the bringer of riches, of wealth, of refreshments — the Soma who belongs to those who dwell well.

6.97 For you indeed, O purifying one, are the most brilliant of divine births, proclaiming for the sake of immortality.

6.98 This one, pressed forth, flows most intoxicating with the streams, through the woolen filters, playing like a wave of the waters.

6.99 He who with his might cut free the dawn-cows and those hidden within the rock. You have stretched toward the enclosure rich in cattle and horses — break it boldly like armor. Oṃ — break it boldly like armor.