* Ratri Suktam * (Rig Veda Samhita 10,127) *
RATRI SUKTAM
(Rig Veda Samhita 10.127)
The Ratri Suktam of the Rig Veda Samhita is possibly the first hymn or prayer to our eternal Divine Mother Kaali, that was Divinely revealed for the benefit of all humankind, and passed from generation to generation through the oral tradition before being recorded in writing form.
A hymn that readily dissolves all the popular notions of any conflict between the Vedas and the Tantras, that Ratri, invoked in the Vedas, is the very same as Kaali, Who is recognized as being one and the same as the Supreme Absolute Brahman in the Tantras. The Rig Veda is accorded primacy among the four Vedas.
♥ ♥ ♥ Ratri Suktam ♥ ♥ ♥
[om] raatree vyakhyadaayatee purutraa devyakshabhih |
vishvaa adhi shriyo‐dhita || 1 ||
01. [Om.] O Divine Mother Ratri (Kaali), may you, who are the original primordial darkness, both the source and Final destination of all, omnipresent, controller of bondage and liberation alike, come forth to save us — may your presence, effulgent, right within us, be awakened now through spiritual
realization. Auspicious protectress of all, you see and pervade your entire creation, reigning everywhere, over everything, in all your glory.
orvapraa amartyaa nivato devyudvatah |
jyotishaaba adhate tamah || 2 ||
02. Eternal divine mother, you fill the vast celestial regions, and the earth. May you dispel all the ignorance of our embodied souls through your divine effulgence, the light of Truth.
niru svasaaramaskritoshasam devyaayatee |
apedu haasate tamah || 3 ||
03. Divine Mother, you alone can bring forth the dawn of the highest liberating knowledge to dispel all the darkness of our ignorance.
saa no adya yasyaa vayam ni te yaamannavikshmahi |
vrikshe na vasatim vayah || 4 ||
04. May you compassionately give us refuge from your own as‐if‐endless movements, bringing us home instead to rest in you, just as at nigh me, a bird re‐enters its nest upon a tree.
ni graamaaso avikshata ni padvanto ni pakshinah |
ni shyenaasashchidarthinah || 5 ||
05. For all of humankind, for animals who traverse by foot, and for birds who fly in the air — even for the ambitious hawk — your rest, liberation, is the only true object, of our desperate search.
yaavayaa vrikyam vrikam yavaya stenamoormye |
athaa nah sutaraa bhava || 6 ||
06. Drive away the she‐wolves of confusion and the he‐wolves of egotism, the thieves — hunger, thirst, delusion, grief, decay, and death. Then, certainly, we will cross safely, to the other side.
upa maa pepisha amah krishnam vyaktamasthita |
usha rineva yaataya || 7 ||
07. Divine Mother, do not subject us anymore to this dark ignorance that has enveloped us. Please forgive our many debts, and come to us now instead as the dawning light.
upa te gaa ivaakaram vrineeshva duhitardivah |
raatri stomam na jigyushe || 8 ||
08. O Divine Mother Ratri (Kaali), expression of the heavens — you are the milk‐giving cow, the source of Illumination. Please accept this, our prayer to You — and grant us Victory!
Hari Om Tat Sat !
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