The man who believes that there is a god or superhuman being of any sort tries to speak to that deity in some fashion. And the prayers of men are always worth careful consideration. Sometimes they are the repetition of conventional formulae, or mantras, believed to be grateful to the Divine.
Thus the mantra of the Bhāgavata worshippers of Krishna is:
Om namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya, ‘Om! reverence to the adorable Vāsudeva (Krishna)’.
Of the early Buddhist:
Om namo Bhagavate, ‘Om! reverence to the Adorable’.
Of the later Buddhist:
Namo Amitābhāya, ‘Reverence to Amitābha’.
Of the Śaiva Siddhantin:
Śivāya nama, ‘Reverence to Śiva’.
Of the followers of Rāmānuja:
Om Rāmāya namah, ‘Om! reverence to Rāma’.
Of the Vallabhāchāris:
Śrī Krishnah saranam mama, ‘Holy Krishna is my refuge’.
But prayer is much more than adoration of this mechanical kind. It is the utterance of the heart’s desire to god. In it may be seen what a man seeks for himself, what he wishes towards others, what he hopes and fears, whether he opens his eyes with gladness and what makes him despair. The prayers of Robert Louis Stevenson at Vailima show us his own brave, bright soul. In the book of Psalms we learn to know the life-history, the penitence, the sense of moral responsibility and the longing after righteousness that mark the pilgrimage of the Hebrew towards God. The prayers in the Vedas became merely formal repetitions in after times. Perhaps they had become so even in the days when they were collected into the Rig-veda. But they had once been the real utterances of the needs of living men in a strange world. They are memorials, to be examined reverently, of the religious emotions of men at the dawning time in Asia. Much more than the scanty records of their gods, and of the sacrifices that they offered to their gods, do these prayers show us what manner of men the Aryans were.
These prayers also manifest what the worshipper conceived the character of his god to be. If he did not think his god to be capable of fierce wrath he would not ask him to hurl his thunderbolts on his enemies. If he did not believe that his god cared to save his worshippers from drought, no prayers would go up to the heavens for rain. In these prayers then we can gather at least the outlines of the disposition and attributes of the Aryan’s gods. These outlines cannot be clear. The confusion of the attributes of one god with those of another, or rather the promiscuous attributing of all qualities to almost every god named prevents us from being able to state definitely how any particular god appeared to his worshippers, and it seems scarcely likely that the early Aryan did discern very carefully between the characters of the various gods to whom he prayed. Speaking generally he seems to have had thoughts about the gods, the Devas, as a class, and to have addressed this or that particular god according to preference rather than for reasons that can be defined.
The prayers in the Vedas naturally contain much adoration. The god addressed is praised for his great deeds, his valour, his beauty, his knowledge.
Adoration
Agni is thus addressed:
Agni I hold as herald, the munificent, the gracious, son of strength, who knoweth all that live, as holy singer, knowing all.
i. 127. 1.
To Agni I present a newer mightier hymn, I bring my words and song unto the son of strength, Who, offspring of the waters, bearing precious things, sits on the earth, in season, dear invoking priest.
i. 143. 1.
Indra is thus addressed:
To Indra Dyaus the Asura hath bowed him down, to Indra mighty earth with wide extending tract, to win the light, with wide spread tracts. All gods of one accord have set Indra in front, pre-eminent.
i. 131. 1.
Thou, god without a second.
i. 32. 12.
Indra is praised for his capacity to drink soma:
Then Indra at a single draught drank the contents of thirty pails, Pails that were filled with soma juice.
vii. 66. 4.
The Maruts are thus addressed:
Come hither Maruts, on your lightning-laden cars, sounding with sweet songs, armed with lances, winged with steeds.
i. 88. 1.
The gods are sometimes praised for their beauty. One of the epithets most commonly applied to Indra, says Muir, is sus’ipra, or s’iprin, in the interpretation of which Sāyana wavers between ’the god with handsome cheeks’ or ‘with handsome nose.’ Agni is called lord of the lovely look.
ii. 1. 8.
The broad-tressed Sinīvālī is thus described:
With lovely fingers, lovely arms, prolific Mother of many sons— Present the sacred gifts to her, to Sinīvali queen of men.
ii. 32. 7.
The student of the Vedic hymns will notice first of all that the majority of the petitions contained in them are not for spiritual blessings, but for the wealth and the welfare that must have seemed most desirable to men settling in a new land, living in new conditions of climate, and face to face with troublesome and dangerous enemies. They ask frankly for cows, for horses, for sons, for long life in the land, for protection from the assaults of their enemies, for victory in their expeditions against those enemies, and for relief in times of drought. It is quite true to say that the things that they could see were what they desired. ‘The things above’, the invisible and the spiritual are not the great objects of those early singers.
Petitions
A brief classified selection of some of the supplications actually uttered by them, by men four thousand years ago, will help to prove this.
It is only natural that there should be many prayers to the gods for help in the long struggle with the races which were in possession of the land before the Aryans entered it. The invasion did not occur all at once, nor was the conquest completed in any brief series of campaigns. For centuries band after band of Aryans made its way into new territory, and where they went they had to encounter their darker-skinned foes, and so, all the time that they were fighting their way into India from the Indus to the Jumna or the Ganges, petitions go up to the gods for the destruction of their enemies, and for the destruction of the demons who are the gods of their enemies.
i. For help
O Agni, radiant one, to whom the holy oil is poured, burn up our enemies whom fiends protect.
i. 12. 5.
Destroy this ass, O Indra, who in tones discordant brays to thee. Slay each reviler, and destroy him who in secret injures us.
i. 29. 5 and 7.
Consume for ever all demons and sorcerers, consume thou each devouring fiend.
i. 36. 20.
Cast thy dart, knowing thunderer, at the Dasyu.
i. 103. 3.
Crunch up on every side the dogs who bark at us: slay ye our foes, O Aśvins.
i. 182. 4.
Drive from us with thy tongue, O god, the man who doeth evil deeds, the mortal who would strike us dead.
vi. 16. 32.
Annihilate the fools, slay them and burn them up; Chase them away from us, pierce the voracious ones. Against the foe of prayer, devourer of raw flesh, the vile fiend, fierce of eye, keep ye perpetual hate. The fiend, O Agni, who designs to injure the essence of our food, kine, steeds, of bodies, May he, the adversary, thief, and robber, sink to destruction, both himself and offspring. May he be swept away, himself and children. May all the three earths press him down beneath them. May his fair glory, O ye gods, be blighted, who in the day or night would fain destroy us.
vii. 104. 1. 2. 10. 11.
Whatever mortal with the power of demons fain would injure us, may he, impetuous, suffer harm by his own deeds.
viii. 18. 13.
With fervent heat exterminate the demons; destroy the fiends with burning flame, O Agni. Destroy with fire the foolish gods’ adorers; blaze and destroy the insatiable monsters.
x. 87. 14.
Besides prayers for deliverance from enemies there are many petitions for preservation from dangers. Among them are supplications for safety from wolves and snakes.
ii. For preservation
In luckless game I call on you for succour: strengthen us also on the field of battle. With undiminished blessings, O ye Aśvins, for evermore both night and day protect us.
i. 112. 24.
Not to the fanged that bites, not to the toothless: give not us up, thou conqueror to the spoiler.
i. 189. 5.
If any wolf or robber fain would harm us, therefrom O Varuna, give thou us protection.
ii. 28. 10.
Savitar, god, send far away all sorrows and calamities. And send us only what is good.
v. 82. 5.
May wealthy Indra as our good protector, lord of all treasures, favour us with succour, Baffle our foes, and give us rest and safety.
vi. 47. 12.
Give us not up to any evil creature, as spoil to wolf or she wolf, O ye holy. For ye are they who guide aright our bodies, ye are the rulers of our speech and vigour.
vi. 51. 6.
May they—Earth, Aditi, Indra, Bhaga, Püshan—increase our lord, increase the fivefold people. Giving good help, good refuge, goodly guidance, be they our good deliverers, good protectors.
vi. 51. 11.
May the foe’s threatening arrow pass us by.
vii. 34. 13.
In thy kind grace and favour may we still be strong: expose us not to foe’s attack. With manifold assistance guard and succour us, and bring us to felicity.
viii. 3. 2.
Do ye, O bounteous gods, protect our dwelling place by day and night: With you for our defenders may we go unharmed.
viii. 25. 11.
Prayers for prosperity, for welfare in the affairs of the homestead and the field, for wealth of cattle and in spoils won from the enemy occur in almost every hymn. The constant references to cattle, as wealth desired or as spoil to be won from the enemy, show that in those early days the Aryans in India were largely a pastoral people, but horses and gold are also among the possessions that they prize.
iii. For welfare
Grant us high fame, O Indra; grant riches; bestowing thousands, those fair fruits of earth borne home in carts.
i. 9. 8.
O soma drinker, ever true, utterly hopeless though we be, Do thou, O Indra, give us hope of beauteous horses and of kine, In thousands, O most wealthy one.
i. 29. 1.
Will ye then, O Maruts, grant us riches, durable, rich in men, defying onslaught. A hundred, thousand-fold, ever increasing?
i. 64. 15.
May thy rich worshippers win food, O Agni, and princes gain long life who bring oblation. May we get booty from our foe in battle.
i. 73. 5.
May I not live, O Varuna, to witness my wealthy liberal, dear friend’s destitution. King, may I never lack well-ordered riches.
ii. 29. 7.
May Indra evermore be our protector, and unimperilled may we win the booty.
i. 102. 11.
Auspicious Sita (the furrow personified) come thou near: we venerate and worship thee. That thou may bless and prosper us and bring us fruits abundantly. May Indra press the furrow down. May Pushani guide its course aright. May she (the sky) rich in milk, be drained for us through each succeeding year. Happily let the shares turn up the ploughland, happily go the ploughers with the oxen.
iv. 57. 6-8.
O Agni, bring hither ample riches to our nobles wherewith we may enjoy ourselves.
vii. 1. 24.
Shall the immortal sit aloof inactive? O wondrous Indra, bring us wondrous riches.
vii. 20. 7.
May the great lords of truth protect and aid us: blest to us be our horses and our cattle.
vii. 35. 12.
O Indu, Soma, send us now great opulence from every side.
ix. 40. 3.
Pour out on us abundant food when thou art pressed, O Indu, wealth In kine and gold and steeds and strength.
ix. 41. 4.
Rain, essential to all pastoral and agricultural prosperity in India, is the subject of many a petition. Indra who slays the demon Vrittra who prevents rain is frequently addressed for his assistance.
iv. For rain
Unclose, our manly hero, thou for ever bounteous, yonder cloud, For us, thou irresistible.
i. 7. 6.
I crave thy powers, I crave thy mighty friendship; full many a team goes to the Vrittra-slayer. Great is the laud; we seek the Prince’s favour. Be thou, O Maghavan, our guard and keeper.
iii. 31. 14.
The rain-god, Parjanya, is thus addressed: Lift up the mighty vessel, pour down water and let the liberated streams rush forward. Saturate both the earth and the heaven with fatness, and for the cows let there be drink abundant.
v. 83. 8.
Health and long life are among of the gifts that all races of men have prized. There are many prayers for these favours in the Vedas:
v. For health
O Indra, son of Kusika, drink our libation with delight. Prolong our life anew, and cause the seer to win a thousand gifts.
i. 10. 11.
The rich, the healer of disease (Brahmanaspati), who giveth wealth, increaseth store, The prompt may he be with us still.
i. 18. 2.
Surya, remove my heart’s disease, take from me this my yellow hue. To parrots and to starlings let us give away my yellowness.
i. 50. 11.
Aided by these, O Agni, may we conquer steeds with steeds, men with men, heroes with heroes, Lords of the wealth transmitted by our fathers: and may our princes live a hundred winters.
i. 73. 9.
Thou over all, O Varuna, art sovran, be they gods, immortal, or be they mortals. Grant unto us to see a hundred autumns: ours be the happy lives of our forefathers.
ii. 27. 10.
Long let our life, O Agni, be extended.
iv. 12. 6.
Accept, O Maruts, graciously this hymn of mine that we may live a hundred winters through its power.
v. 54. 15.
Be gracious, Indra, let my days be lengthened: sharpen my thought as ’twere a blade of iron.
vi. 47. 10.
Come willingly to our doors that gladly welcome thee, and heal all sickness, Rudra, in our families. May thy bright arrow which, shot down by thee from heaven, flieth upon the earth, pass us uninjured by. Thou, very gracious god, hast thousand medicines: inflict no evil on our sons or progeny.
vii. 46. 2-3.
Guard to old age, thy friend, O friend, eternal: O Agni, as immortal guard us mortals.
x. 87. 21.
To invaders and colonists a goodly family of sons was the best of body-guards, and men who believed that it was by their pious offerings that the spirits of their forefathers, the pitris, prospered in the heavenly realms would most earnestly desire that they might themselves have sons to render to them the same services. There are, therefore, many petitions for children, especially for sons, in the hymns of the Rig-veda.
vi. For sons
May we foster well, during a hundred winters, son and progeny.
i. 64. 14.
May the wealth-giver (Agni) grant us conquering riches; may the wealth-giver grant us wealth with heroes. May the wealth-giver grant us food with offspring, and length of days may the wealth-giver send us. Help us to wealth exceeding good and glorious, abundant, rich in children and their progeny.
ii. 2. 12.
To us be born a son and spreading offspring, Agni, be this thy gracious will to us-ward.
iii. 6. 11.
Brihaspati, may we be lords of riches, with noble progeny and store of heroes.
iv. 50. 6.
May he, deft-handed Tvastar, give us hero sons.
vii. 34. 20.
So far these prayers are distinctly materialistic. The outlook of the worshipper is limited to the things of this life, and to a welfare relating to this life only. There is little of that fervent devotion that rings through the verses of the poets of the later sects whose religion from beginning to end is characterized by devotion (bhakti). In this sense the hymns of the Rig-veda do not reach the heart as do the poems of Tükäräm the Mahratta, or Paddanattu Pillaiyär or Manikka Vasaka the Tamils. This is the impression generally left after the careful reading of Vedic hymns, and to this extent the Rig-veda is a disappointment. There is little in it that speaks of the quest for purity. It is seldom, very seldom that the singers express penitence that is not merely a fear of punishment or longing after other than cattle and horses and long life. The prayer of the Hebrew psalmist ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me’ appeals to every true seeker after God, but even in the most beautiful of the hymns to Varuna or the Adityas there is scarcely more than an echo of it. To the early Aryan sin is error in conduct or worship which makes his god angry with his worshipper and therefore unwilling to protect or prosper him. The idea of sin as that which ought not to be in life or character, apart altogether from any question of prosperity, or as disobedience to the holy will of a holy god, has scarcely dawned on the Aryan’s mind as seen in the hymns. If he wishes to be good, it is because he believes that he will then be prosperous. If he prays that his sins may be forgiven, it is because he fears the punishment of misdoing. He may call his gods holy, but the hymns about his gods show that he believed them to be capable of deeds contrary to the most elementary righteousness and purity. But though few there are some earnest prayers for spiritual health.
vii. For forgiveness
With bending down, oblations, sacrifices, O Varuna, we deprecate thine anger: Wise immortal, thou king of wide dominion, loosen the bonds of sin by us committed. Loosen the bonds, O Varuna, that hold me, loosen the bonds above, between, and under. So in thy holy law may we made sinless belong to Aditi, O thou Aditya.
i. 24. 14-15.
Bring hither nourishment for us, ye Asvins twain; sprinkle us with your whip that drops with honey-dew. Prolong our days, wipe out our trespasses; destroy our foes, be our companions and our friends.
i. 157. 4.
Aditi, Mitra, Varuna, forgive us however we have erred and sinned against you. May I obtain the broad light free from peril: O Indra, let not during darkness seize us.
ii. 27. 14.
Most youthful god (Agni) whatever sin, through folly, here in the world of men we have committed, Before great Aditi make thou us sinless: remit entirely, Agni, our offences. Even in the presence of great sin, O Agni, free us from prison of the gods or mortals. Never may we who are thy friends be injured: grant health and wealth unto our seed and offspring.
iv. 12. 4-5.
If we have sinned against the man who loves us, have ever wronged a brother, friend, or comrade, The neighbour ever with us, or a stranger, O Varuna, remove from us this trespass. If we, as gamesters cheat at play, have cheated, done wrong unwittingly or sinned of purpose, Cast all these sins away like loosened fetters, and, Varuna, let us be thine own beloved.
v. 85. 7-8.
Let us not suffer for the sins of others, nor do the deed which ye, O Vasus, punish. Ye, universal gods, are all-controllers: may he do harm unto himself who hates me.
vi. 51. 7.
I call, as such, the sons of bounteous Rudra: will not the Maruts turn again to us-ward? What secret sin or open stirs their anger, that we implore the swift ones to forgive us.
vii. 58. 5.
We crave the heavenly grace of gods to guard us—so may Brihaspati, O friends, exalt us— That he the bounteous god may find us sinless, who giveth from a distance like a father.
vii. 97. 2.
Wise deities, who have dominion o’er the world, ye thinkers over all that moves not and that moves, Save us from uncommitted and committed sin, preserve us from all sin to-day for happiness.
x. 63. 8.
Best worth notice of these prayers is a psalm to Varuna the eighty-sixth hymn in the seventh book of the Rig-veda. It ends with a petition for prosperity, but in spite of this it is one of the most beautiful, and perhaps the most spiritually minded utterance in the Rig-veda.
The tribes of men have wisdom through his greatness who stayed even spacious heaven and earth asunder; Who urged the high and mighty sky to motion, and stars of old, and spread the earth before him.
With mine own heart I commune on the question how Varuna and I may be united. What gift of mine will he accept unangered? When may I calmly look and find him gracious?
Fain to know this my sin I question others: I seek the wise, O Varuna, and ask them. This one same answer even the sages gave me, Surely this Varuna is angry with thee.
What, Varuna, hath been my chief transgression, that thou shouldst slay the friend who sings thy praises? Tell me, unconquerable lord, and quickly sinless will I approach thee with mine homage.
Loose us from sins committed by our fathers, from those wherein we have ourselves offended. O king, loose, like a thief who feeds the cattle, as from the cord a calf, set free Vasista.
Not our own will betrayed us, but seduction, thoughtlessness, Varuna! wine, dice, or anger. The old is near to lead astray the younger; even slumber leadeth men to evil-doing.
Slavelike may I do service to the bounteous, serve, free from sin, the god inclined to anger. This gentle lord gives wisdom to the simple; the wiser god leads on the wise to riches.
O lord, O Varuna, may this laudation come close to thee, and lie within thy spirit. May it be well with us in rest and labour. Preserve us evermore, ye gods, with blessings.
vii. 86.
Prayers for life in the world beyond are not unusual. They show that the Aryan sought a heaven of happiness and immortality with the gods that corresponding with Svarga, the heaven of delights, of later Hinduism.
viii. For future life
The givers of rich meeds are made immortal; the givers of rich fees prolong their life time.
i. 125. 6.
May I attain to that his well loved mansion where men devoted to the gods are happy.
i. 154. 5.
We pray for rain, your boon (Mitra-Varuna) and immortality.
v. 63. 2.
We have drunk soma and became immortal; we have attained the light, the gods discovered.
viii. 48. 3.
High up in heaven abide the guerdon-givers; they who give steeds dwell with the Sun for ever.