By thee, O Soma Pavamana, our ancient fathers Wisely ordained the offerings; Conquering, untroubled, do thou open the barriers; Be generous to us in heroes and horses [1]. d Thou, O Soma, in accord with the fathers, Hast stretched over sky and earth; To thee, O drop, let us make sacrifice with offering; Let us be lords of wealth. e O fathers, made ready by Agni, come hither; With good leadership sit ye on each seat; Eat ye the offerings set out on the strew; And give us wealth with many heroes. f O fathers that sit on the sacrificial strew, come hither with your aid; We have made these offerings for you; accept them, And then come to us with your most healing aid, Give us [2] health, wealth, and safety! g I have found the kindly fathers, The scion and the step of Visnu; They that sit on the sacrificial strew and enjoy the drink That is pressed for them with the Svadha call are most eager to come h Invoked are the fathers who love the Soma To their dear homes on the sacrificial strew; May they come hither; may they hear us here May they speak for us; and may they aid us. i Let them arise, the lower and the higher And the middle fathers who love the Soma; They who lived their lives [3] in goodness and without sin; May these fathers help us when we call. k Be this homage to-day to the fathers, Who went before and who went after; Who are seated in the earthly region Or who are now in abodes with fair dwellings. l As our fathers before, Of old, O Agni, furthering right, Sought the pure, the devotion, singing hymns Cleaving the earth they disclosed the red ones. m When, O Agni [4], bearer of oblations, Thou sacrificest to the righteous fathers, Thou shalt bear the oblations To the gods and to the fathers. n Thou, O Agni, praised, all-knower, Didst carry the offerings making them fragrant; Thou didst give them to the fathers who ate them at the Svadha call; Eat thou, O god, the offerings set before thee.YV 6.3q · Yajur Veda
YV 6.3q
Yajur Veda · translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith
Themes in this passage
FamilyCharityNatureWealthWorshipDharmaHealingLove
Family in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Islam, Hellenism and Taoism address it.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.Luke 12:53 · Bible · Luke
Unto the men (of a family) belongeth a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, and unto the women a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, whether it be little or much - a legal share.Quran 4:7 · Quran · Women
“O wretched husband of a wretched wife! Born with one fate, to one unhappy life! For sure one star its baneful beam display’d On Priam’s roof, and Hippoplacia’s shade. From different parents, different climes we came. At different periods, yet our fate the same! Why was my birth to great Aëtion owed, And why was all that tender care bestow’d? Would I had never been!—O thou, the ghost Of my dead husband! miserably lost! Thou to the dismal realms for ever gone! And I abandon’d, desolate, alone! An only child, once comfort of my pains, Sad product now of hapless love, remains! No more to smile upon his sire; no friend To help him now! no father to defend! For should he ’scape the sword, the common doom, What wrongs attend him, and what griefs to come! Even from his own paternal roof expell’d, Some stranger ploughs his patrimonial field. The day, that to the shades the father sends, Robs the sad orphan of his father’s friends: He, wretched outcast of mankind! appears For ever sad, for ever bathed in tears; Amongst the happy, unregarded, he Hangs on the robe, or trembles at the knee, While those his father’s former bounty fed Nor reach the goblet, nor divide the bread: The kindest but his present wants allay, To leave him wretched the succeeding day. Frugal compassion! Heedless, they who boast Both parents still, nor feel what he has lost, Shall cry, ‘Begone! thy father feasts not here:’ The wretch obeys, retiring with a tear. Thus wretched, thus retiring all in tears, To my sad soul Astyanax appears! Forced by repeated insults to return, And to his widow’d mother vainly mourn: He, who, with tender delicacy bred, With princes sported, and on dainties fed, And when still evening gave him up to rest, Sunk soft in down upon the nurse’s breast, Must—ah what must he not? Whom Ilion calls Astyanax, from her well-guarded walls,[279] Is now that name no more, unhappy boy! Since now no more thy father guards his Troy.Iliad 22.46a · Iliad · 22
When the mother is found, we know what her children should be. When one knows that he is his mother's child, and proceeds to guard (the qualities of) the mother that belong to him, to the end of his life he will be free from all peril.Tao Te Ching 52.2 · Tao Te Ching
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