Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

PERCEPTIONS

SOMA (MOON - LOVE & HAPPINESS)

SOMA PLANT The Soma plant of the Rig Veda is a creeper (Asclepius acida), almost destitute of leaves, which had small, white fragrant flowers around the ex- tremities of the branches. The plant yielded a milky juice which extracted and fermented formed

Soma, the moon god, who performed the Rajasuya sacrifice and acquired a vast dominion. He is believed to have carried off Tara, wife of Brihaspati. His son was Budha (planet mercury)

a beverage offered in libations to the deities and drunk by the Brahmans. It had exhila- rating qualities. The gods were represented as being equally fond of it. When Soma was brought to the gods, a dispute arose as to who should have the first draught. At length, this was decided by a race. Vayu first reached the goal, Indra being second. Indra tried hard to win, and when near the winning post proposed that they should reach it together, Vayu taking two-thirds of the drink. Vayu said, "Not so! I will be the winner alone." Then Indra said, "Let us come in together, and give me one-fourth of the draught divine!" Vayu consented to this, and so the juice was shared between them. Soma was personified as a god who rep- resented and animated the soma juice. All the 114 hymns of the ninth book of the Rig Veda are dedicated to him. In later years the name Soma was, and still is, given to the moon. In the verses descriptive and songs in praise of Soma, the actual juice, and the god supposed to dwell in and manifested by it, are not at all distinct. All the gods drink of it; and Soma, the god in the juice, is said to clothe the naked and heal the sick. Many divine attributes are ascribed to him "This Soma is a god; he cures

The Sanskrit verse and its translation reflecting the ancient Hindus' knowledge of astronomy is similar to the modern scientific explanation of the waxing and waning of the moon. The moon has no light of its own and shines by reflecting the light of the sun. The new moon occurs when the moon on its revolution round the earth passes below the sun as seen from the earth. Then its entire dark hemisphere faces the earth and it is therefore invisible. As the moon moves away from the sun, from east to west, part of the sunlit hemisphere becomes visible. This increases in size till the full moon is visible. After full moon less and less of the sunlit hemisphere becomes visible till the new moon is reached. The growth of plants was connected with the moon with which Soma, the King of plants, was later identified. Soma was the god who represented-the potent Soma juice, which had exhilarating qualities. In later times the name Soma was given to the moon. The waning and waxing of the moon is explained as due to a curse of the Rishi Daksha, whose twenty-seven daughters he had married. These daughters are really personifications of the twenty-seven lunar asterisms. He paid so much attention to Rohini, the fourth of them, that the others became jealous and appealed to their father. Daksha’s intervention made no difference. He cursed his son-in-law so that he re- mained childless and became affected with consumption. This moved his wives to pity and they interceded with their father. He could not recall his curse but he modified it so that the decay became peri- odical not permanent. Hence the waning and waxing of the moon.

Names : Indu, Shashi (marked like a hare); Mrigaanka (marked like a deer), Soma : (Moon) produced from the churning of the oceans. Nishaakara (maker of night). Nakshatra-Nautha (Lord of the scintillation), Sheeta-Marichi (Having cool rays), Sheethaanshu (possessing white rays), Shiva-Shekhara (Crest of Shiva). Somanaatha (Someswara), 'Lord of the moon' Chandra-Vamsha (Lunar race) Yadavas and Pauravas claim descent from moon. Chandra-Kaantha (the moon stone) gem supposed to be formed by the concen- tration of the moon’s rays and has a cooling influence. Eclipses are caused by Asura Rahu (Svarbhaanu) seeking to seize Sun and Moon. The sage Atri speaks : ‘O Surya, when the asura's descendant, Svarbhaanu, pierced thee through and through with darkness, All creatures looked like one who is bewildered, who knoweth not the place where he is standing. What time thou smotest down Svarbhaanu's magic that spread itself beneath the sky, O Indra, by his fourth sacred-prayer Atri discovered Surya concealed in gloom that stayed his function.’ — A.C. Clayton

The sharpest ills that man endures. He heals the sick, the sad he cheers, He nerves the weak, dispels their fears; The faint with martial ardour fires, with lofty thoughts the bard inspires; The soul from earth to heaven he lifts; So great and wondrous are his gifts, Men feel the god within their veins, And cry in loud exulting strains;

'We've quaffed the Soma bright And are immortal grown: We've entered into light, And all the gods have known. What mortal now can harm, Or foeman vex us more? Through thee, beyond alarm, Immortal god, we soar.'

- W. J. Wilkins