Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda is the Veda closest to ordinary life: prayers for health, for a happy marriage, for crops and cattle, for peace between neighbours — and the Bhumi Sukta, a hymn to Mother Earth that sounds as if it was written for our times.
The verse
A Veda for the household
Named after the sage Atharvan, the Atharvaveda contains about 730 hymns and 6,000 verses. While the other Vedas centre on the great sacrifices, the Atharvaveda speaks to the home: prayers for healing and long life, for love and marriage, for success in work, for protection, and for harmony in the family and the village.
"The earth is my mother"
Its twelfth book holds the Bhumi Sukta, 63 verses to the Earth. One line from it is quoted wherever Indians speak of the environment: "mātā bhūmiḥ putro'haṃ pṛthivyāḥ" — "The Earth is my mother, and I am her son." But the hymn goes further, asking forgiveness for every wound we cause her…
The journey continues for members
- Asking the earth's forgiveness
- Healing and early medicine
- Three Upanishads
- For life today
Sources
- Atharvaveda — Book 12 (Bhumi Sukta)
- Mundaka Upanishad — 3.1.6