आपः वाव अन्नाद् भूयस्यः तस्मात् यदा सुवृष्टिः न भवति व्याधीयन्ते प्राणाः अन्नम् कनीयः भविष्यति इति अथ यदा सुवृष्टिः भवति आनन्दिनः प्राणाः भवन्ति अन्नम् बहु भविष्यति इति आपः एव इमाः मूर्ताः या इयम् पृथिवी यत् अन्तरिक्षम् यत् द्यौः यत् पर्वताः यत् देवमनुष्याः यत् पशवः च वयांसि च तृणवनस्पतयः श्वापदानि आकीटपतङ्गपिपीलकम् आपः एव इमाः मूर्ताः अपः उपास्स्व इति
āpaḥ vāva annād bhūyasyaḥ tasmāt yadā suvṛṣṭiḥ na bhavati vyādhīyante prāṇāḥ annam kanīyaḥ bhaviṣyati iti atha yadā suvṛṣṭiḥ bhavati ānandinaḥ prāṇāḥ bhavanti annam bahu bhaviṣyati iti āpaḥ eva imāḥ mūrtāḥ yā iyam pṛthivī yat antarikṣam yat dyauḥ yat parvatāḥ yat devamanuṣyāḥ yat paśavaḥ ca vayāṃsi ca tṛṇavanaspatayaḥ śvāpadāni ākīṭapataṅgapipīlakam āpaḥ eva imāḥ mūrtāḥ apaḥ upāssva iti
"The waters are greater than food. Therefore, when there is no good rain, the vital breaths languish: 'there will be little food'; but when the rain is good, they rejoice: 'there will be much food'. The waters, having taken form, are this earth, this space, this heaven, the mountains, gods and men, beasts and birds, grasses and trees, all that lives down to worm and ant. All this is the waters, having taken form. Venerate the waters."
69ef719cb00e · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:45:28 PM UTC
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The tenth rung: āpaḥ, the waters. The argument begins with a farmer's anxiety — "will there be rain?" — humanity's oldest prayer, in which the vital breaths of all that lives "languish" and "rejoice" together. And it ends with a cosmic sweep: āpa evemā mūrtāḥ — "all this is the waters, having taken form": earth, mountains, gods, an ant are congealed, shaped waters.
Vedic memory here runs deep: in the beginning "there was only water" (cf. Bṛhadāraṇyaka 5.5.1); the waters are the first medium of creation, the substance of plasticity out of which forms are moulded. And every spring repeats this before our eyes: where water has passed, there is form, greenery, a body. To venerate the waters is to remember that every form in the world is the bounty of moisture, and moisture, as the next rung will show, is the bounty of heat, and so on up to the First Bountiful.