ATHARBA VEDA 01.34

Kanda 1/Sukta 34 (Life’s Honey)

Madhu Vanaspatih Devata, Atharva Rshi

1.     Iyam virunmadhujåtå madhunå två khanåmasi.

Madhoradhi prajåtåsi så no madhumataskrdhi.

This herb is born of the honey sweets of earth. O sweet herb, we take you up with the honey sweet of love and gratitude. You are grown and matured by the honeyed efficacy of life and nature’s evolution. Such as you are, pray sweeten our life with the honey sweet of joy and graces of culture.

(Honey, Madhu, has been interpreted as metaphor of the sweetness of existence in life, knowledge, divine awareness, indeed the soul itself. All

verses of this hymn can be interpreted in this perspective. Reference may also be made to Brihadaranyakopanishad 2, 5, in which it is said that this earth and all her creatures, the waters, heat and light, wind and all other kinds of energy, the sun, the quarters of space, the moon, thunder and lightning, clouds and the sky, all space, Dharma, truth, humanity the soul and the cosmic soul, all is the honeyed expression and manifestation of divinity. And this knowledge, madhu vidya, was given by the sage Dadhyang of the Atharva tradition.)

2.     Jihvåyå agre madhu me jihvåmule madhulakam.

Mamedaha kratåvaso mama cittamupåyasi.

Let there be honey sweetness at the tip of my tongue. Let there be honey sweetness at the root of my tongue. O honey sweetness of divinity, always stay in my thought and will in action, and ever abide at the depth of my mind and soul.

3.     Madhumanme nikramanam madhumanme paråyanam.

Våcå vadåmi madhumadbhuyåsam madhu-sandrsah.

Let my coming, going forth and going out be full of honey sweetness. Let my final exit and ultimate resort be full of honey sweet Ananda. Let me speak and express the honey sweets of love and reverence with my words, and let me share the honey sweets of divinity in my vision and response to life’s experience.

4.     Madhorasmi madhutaro madughånmadhu- mattarah.

Måmitkila tvam vanåh såkhåm madhu- matimiva.

I am sweeter than honey itself, sweeter than the treasure holds of honey in plants and man. O man, O sage, O divine, O love, accept me, O life, like a lovely branch bearing the honey suckle.

5.     Pari två paritatnuneksunågåmavidvise.

Yathå måm kåminyaso yathå mannåpagå asah.

O love, O honeyed sweetness of life, with open expanding arms of honey sweets of love and faith I come to embrace you never to allow jealousy, bitterness or enmity to come in and vitiate our love so that you too ever abide with me in love and never forsake me.