How to Read a Hymn

We have learned a great deal about the Veda from the outside — what it is, how it was kept, who made it, what language it sang in. Now let us do something different. Let us step inside one hymn, and learn how to read it for ourselves.

Be honest: a Vedic hymn can feel strange at first. The words are old. The gods are still new to you. Images flash by quickly. It is easy to feel lost. So let me give you a friendly secret, the kind a teacher passes to a student. Most hymns make just a few simple moves. Learn the moves, and the strangeness softens.

Here is the first move. A hymn praises. It chooses a god and tells of that god's power, beauty, and deeds. Listen again to the very first line of the Rigveda.

Hear what it is doing. "I Laud Agni" — that is praise, pure and simple. The singer names the fire and calls him the chosen priest, the giver of wealth. Before asking anything at all, the hymn honours its god. That is almost always how a hymn begins.

Here is the second move. A hymn asks. Once the god has been praised, the singer asks for something good — for light, for strength, for cattle and rain, for long life, sometimes for forgiveness. The hymn to Agni soon asks the fire to bring the gods near and to bless the home.

Do not mistake this asking for greed. Think of it as the warm give-and-take of the rite. The singer offers praise and gifts; the god gives back help and blessing. It is like a guest and a host, each honouring the other. Remember the yajna, the fire-offering? A hymn is the voice of that offering — praise going up, blessing coming down.

And here is the third move, the one that makes the hymns shine. A hymn often opens into a great picture of the world. The sun strides across the whole sky. The dawn throws off her veils like a young woman and walks out in light. The fire leaps up and becomes a messenger running between earth and heaven. The small rite by one family suddenly touches the whole wide world.

So there are your three moves. A hymn praises. A hymn asks. And a hymn paints the world. Not every hymn does all three, and not always in that order. But hold these three in mind and you have a lamp to read by.

One last piece of advice, the gentlest. Go slowly. These hymns were never meant to be rushed. They were sung by a fire, in the cool before dawn, with time to feel each word. Read them that way — unhurried, aloud if you can — and they will begin to speak to you across all the long years.