Kena and Other Upanishads

Nila Rudra Upanishad

First Part

Translation

ॐ अपश्यं त्वावरोहन्तं दिवितः पृथिवीमवः ।
अपश्यमस्यन्तं रुद्रं नीलग्रीवं शिखण्डिनम् ॥१॥

1) OM. Thee I beheld in thy descending down from the heavens to the earth, I saw Rudra, the Terrible, the azure-throated, the peacock-feathered, as he hurled.

दिव उग्रो अवारुक्षत्प्रत्यष्ठाद् भूम्यामधि ।
जनासः पश्यतेमं नीलग्रीवं विलोहितम् ॥२॥

2) Fierce he came down from the sky, he stood facing me on the earth as its lord,—the people behold a mass of strength, azure-throated, scarlet-hued.

एष एत्यवीरहा रुद्रो जलासभेषजाः ।
यतेऽक्षेममनीनशद् वातीकारोऽप्येतु ते ॥३॥

3) This that cometh is he that destroyeth evil, Rudra the Terrible, born of the tree that dwelleth in the waters; let the globe of the stormwinds come too, that destroyeth for thee all things of evil omen.

नमस्ते भवभावाय नमस्ते भाममन्यवे ।
नमस्ते अस्तु बाहुभ्यामुतो त इषवे नमः ॥४॥

4) Salutation to thee who bringeth the world into being, salutation to thee, the passionate with mighty wrath. Salutation be to thy arms of might, salutation be to thy angry shaft.@290

यामिषुं गिरिशन्त हस्ते बिभर्ष्यस्तवे ।
शिवां गिरित्र तां कृणु मा हिंसीत्पुरुषान् मम ॥५॥

5) The arrow thou bearest in thy hand for the hurling, O thou that liest on the mountains, make an arrow of blessing, O keeper of the hills, let it not slay my armed men.

शिवेन वचसा त्वा गिरिशाच्छावदामसि ।
यथा नः सर्वमिज्जगदयक्ष्मं सुमना असत् ॥६॥

6) With fair speech, O mountain-dweller, we sue to thee in the assembly of the folk, that the whole world may be for us a friendly and sinless place.

या त इषुः शिवतमा शिवं बभूव ते धनुः ।
शिवा शरव्या या तव तया नो मृड जीवसे ॥७॥

7) That thy arrow which is the kindliest of all and thy bow which is well-omened and that thy quiver which beareth blessing, by that thou livest for us, O lord of slaughter.

या ते रुद्र शिवा तनूरघोरा पापकाशिनी ।
तया नस्तन्वा शन्तमया गिरिश त्वाभिचाकशत् ॥८॥

8) That thy body, O Terrible One, which is fair and full of kindness and destroyeth sin, not thy shape of terrors, in that thy body full of peace, O mountaineer, thou art wont to be seen among our folk.

असौ यस्ताम्रो अरुण उत बभ्रुर्विलोहितः ।
ये चेमे अभितो रुद्रा दिक्षु श्रिताः सहस्त्रशो वैषां हेड ईमहे ॥९॥

9) This Aruna of the dawn that is tawny and copper-red and scarlet-hued, and these thy Violent Ones round about that dwell in the regions in their thousands, verily, it is these whom we desire.

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Commentary

1) अपश्यं. I beheld. The speaker is the author of the Upanishad, a prince of the Aryan people, as we see from the fifth verse. He records a vision of Rudra descending from the heavens to the earth. अवः, down, is repeated for the sake of vividness. In the second half of the sloka the murti or image in which he beheld the Divine Manifestation is described, Rudra, the God of might and wrath, the neck and throat blue, a peacock's feather as a crest, in the act of hurling a shaft.

2) He proceeds to describe the descent. He descended fiercely, that is, with wrath in his face, gesture and motion and stood facing the seer, प्रत्यष्ठात्, on the earth, and over it, अधि, in a way expressive of command or control. This image of Divine Power, seen by the prince in Yoga, becomes visible to the people in general as a mass of strength, मह, scarlet in colour, deep blue in the neck and throat. मह is strength, bulk, greatness. The manifestation is that of wrath and might. The people see Rudra as a mass of brilliance, scarlet-ringed and crested with blue, the scarlet in Yoga denoting violent passion of anger or desire, the blue sraddha, bhakti, piety or religion.

3) Rudra, whom we know as the slayer of evil, comes. The Rajarshi describes him as born of the tree that is in the waters. भेष is by philology identical with the Latin ficus or figtree, aswattha. The aswattha is the Yogic emblem of the manifested world, as in the Gita, the tree of the two birds in the Swetaswatara Upanishad, the single tree in the blue expanse of the Song of Liberation. The jala is the apah or waters from which the world rises. The rishi then prays that the वातीकारः, mass of winds of which Rudra is lord and which in the tempest of their course blow away all calamity, such as pestilence etc, may come with him.

4) In the fourth verse he salutes the God. Rudra is the Supreme Ishwara, Creator of the World, He is the dreadful, wrathful and destroying Lord, swift to slay and punish. भाम is passionate

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anger, and the word मन्युः denotes a violent disturbed state of mind, passion, either of grief or of anger. therefore means, one who is full of the passion of violent anger. भाममन्यवे Rudra is being saluted as a God of might and wrath, it is therefore to the arms as the seat of strength and the arrow as the weapon of destruction that salutation is made.

5) Rudra is coming in a new form of wrath and destruction in which the Aryans are not accustomed to see him. Apprehensive of the meaning of this vision, the King summons the people and in assembly prayer is offered to Rudra to avert possible calamity. The shaft is lifted to be hurled from the bow; it is prayed that it may be turned into a shaft of blessing, not of wrath. In this verse the Prince prays the God not to slay his men, meaning evidently, the armed warriors of the clan.

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