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VIII.
CHARMS IN EXPIATION OF SIN AND DEFILEMENT.
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VI, 45. Prayer against mental delinquency.
1. Pass far away, O sin of the mind! Why dost thou utter things not to be
uttered? Pass away, I love thee not! To the trees, the forests go on! With the
house, the cattle, is my mind.
2. What wrongs we have committed through imprecation, calumny, and false
speech, either awake, or asleep — Agni shall put far away from us all
offensive evil deeds!
3. What, O Indra Brahmaṇaspati, we do falsely — may Praketas ('care-taker')
Āṅgirasa protect us from misfortune, and from evil!
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VI, 26. Charm to avert evil.
1. Let me go, O evil; being powerful, take thou pity on us! Set me, O evil,
unharmed, into the world of happiness!
2. If, O evil, thou dost not abandon us, then do we abandon thee at the fork
of the road. May evil follow after another (man)!
3. Away from us may thousand-eyed, immortal (evil) dwell! Him whom we hate may
it strike, and him whom we hate do thou surely smite!
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VI, 114. Expiatory formula for imperfections in the sacrifice.
1. The god-angering (deed), O ye gods, that we, the (Brahman) gods, have
committed, from that do ye, O Ādityas, release us, by virtue of the order of
the universe!
2. By virtue of the order of the universe do ye, O reverend Ādityas, release
us here, if, O ye carriers of the sacrifice, though desirous of accomplishing
(the sacrifice), we did not accomplish (it)! —
3. (If), when sacrificing with the fat (animal), when offering oblations of
ghee with the spoon, when desiring to benefit you, O all ye gods, we have,
contrary to desire, not succeeded!
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VI, 115. Expiatory formulas for sins.
1. From the sins which knowingly or unknowingly we have committed, do ye, all
gods, of one accord, release us!
2. If awake, or if asleep, to sin inclined, I have committed a sin, may what
has been, and what shall be, as if from a wooden post, release me!
3. As one released from a wooden post, as one in a sweat by bathing (is
cleansed) of filth, as ghee is clarified by the sieve, may all (the gods)
clear me from sin!
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VI, 112. Expiation for the precedence of a younger brother over an older.
1. May this (younger brother) not slay the oldest one of them, O Agni; protect
him that he be not torn out by the root! Do thou here cunningly loosen the
fetter of Grāhi (attack of disease); may all the gods give thee leave!
2. Free these three, O Agni, from the three fetters with which they have been
shackled! Do thou cunningly loosen the fetters of Grāhi; release them all,
father, sons, and mother!
3. The fetters with which the older brother, whose younger brother has married
before him, has been bound, with which he has been encumbered and shackled
limb by limb, may they be loosened; since fit for loosening they are! Wipe
off, O Pūṣan, the misdeeds upon him that practiseth abortion!
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VI, 113. Expiation for certain heinous crimes.
1. On Trita the gods wiped off this sin, Trita wiped it off on human beings;
hence if Grāhi (attack of disease) has seized thee, may these gods remove her
by means of their charm!
2. Enter into the rays, into smoke, O sin; go into the vapours, and into the
fog! Lose thyself on the foam of the river! Wipe off, O Pūṣan, the misdeeds
upon him that practiseth abortion!
3. Deposited in twelve places is that which has been wiped off Trita, the sins
belonging to humanity. Hence if Grāhi has seized thee, may these gods remove
her by means of their charm!
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VI, 120. Prayer for heaven after remission of sins.
1. If air, or earth and heaven, if mother or father, we have injured, may this
Agni Gārhapatya (household fire) without fail lead us out from this (crime) to
the world of well-doing!
2. The earth is our mother, Aditi (the universe) our kin, the air our
protector from hostile schemes. May father sky bring prosperity to us from the
world of the Fathers; may I come to my (departed) kin, and not lose heaven!
3. In that bright world where our pious friends live in joy, having cast aside
the ailments of their own bodies, free from lameness, not deformed in limb,
there may we behold our parents and our children!
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VI, 27. Charm against pigeons regarded as ominous birds.
1. O ye gods, if the pigeon, despatched as the messenger of Nirṛti (the
goddess of destruction), hath come here seeking (us out), we shall sing his
praises, and prepare (our) ransom. May our two-footed and four-footed
creatures be prosperous!
2. Auspicious to us shall be the pigeon that has been despatched; harmless, ye
gods, the bird shall be to our house! The sage Agni shall verily take pleasure
in our oblation; the winged missile shall avoid us!
3. The winged missile shall not do us injury: upon our hearth, our fireplace
he (the pigeon) takes his steps! Propitious he shall be to our cattle and our
domestics; may not, ye gods, the pigeon here do harm to us!
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VI, 29. Charm against ominous pigeons and owls.
1. Upon those persons yonder the winged missile shall fall! If the owl
shrieks, futile shall this be, or if the pigeon takes his steps upon the fire!
2. To thy two messengers, O Nirṛti, who come here, despatched or not
despatched, to our house, to the pigeon and to the owl, this shall be no place
to step upon!
3. He shall not fly hither to slaughter (our) men; to keep (our) men sound he
shall settle here! Charm him very far away unto a distant region, that
(people) shall behold you (i.e., him) in Yama's house devoid of strength, that
they shall behold you bereft of power!
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VII, 64. Expiation when one is defiled by a black bird of omen.
1. What this black bird flying forth towards (me) has dropped here — may the
waters protect me from all that misfortune and evil!
2. What this black bird has brushed here with thy mouth, O Nirṛti (goddess of
misfortune) — may Agni Gārhapatya (the god of the household fire) free me from
this sin!
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VI, 46. Exorcism of evil dreams.
1. Thou who art neither alive nor dead, the immortal child of the gods art
thou, O Sleep! Varuṇānī is thy mother, Yama (death) thy father, Araru is thy
name.
2. We know, O Sleep, thy birth, thou art the son of the divine women-folk, the
instrument of Yama (death)! Thou art the ender, thou art death! Thus do we
know thee, O Sleep: do thou, O Sleep, protect us from evil dreams!
3. As one pays off a sixteenth, an eighth, or an (entire) debt, thus do we
transfer every evil dream upon our enemy.
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VII, 115. Charm for the removal of evil characteristics, and the acquisition
of auspicious ones.
1. Fly forth from here, O evil mark, vanish from here, fly forth to yonder
place! Upon him that hates us do we fasten thee with a brazen hook.
2. The unsavoury mark which flying has alighted upon me, as a creeper upon a
tree, that mayest thou put away from us, away from here, O golden-handed
(golden-rayed) Savitar (the sun), bestowing goods upon us!
3. Together with the body of the mortal, from his birth, one and a hundred
marks are born. Those that are most foul do we drive away from here; the
auspicious ones, O Jātavedas (Agni), do thou hold fast for us!
4. These (marks) here I have separated, as cows scattered upon the heather.
The pure marks shall remain, the foul ones I have made to disappear!
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