इदम् वै तन् मधु दध्यङ्ङ् आथर्वणः अश्विभ्याम् उवाच तद् एतद् ऋषिः पश्यन् अवोचत् रूपम् रूपम् प्रतिरूपः बभूव तद् अस्य रूपम् प्रतिचक्षणाय इन्द्रः मायाभिः पुरुरूपः ईयते युक्ताः हि अस्य हरयः शता दश इति अयम् वै हरयः अयम् वै दश च सहस्रणि बहूनि च अनन्तानि च तद् एतद् ब्रह्म अपूर्वम् अनपरम् अनन्तरम् अबाह्यम् अयम् आत्मा ब्रह्म सर्वानुभूः इति अनुशासनम्
idam vai tan madhu dadhyaṅṅ ātharvaṇaḥ aśvibhyām uvāca tad etad ṛṣiḥ paśyan avocat rūpam rūpam pratirūpaḥ babhūva tad asya rūpam praticakṣaṇāya indraḥ māyābhiḥ pururūpaḥ īyate yuktāḥ hi asya harayaḥ śatā daśa iti ayam vai harayaḥ ayam vai daśa ca sahasraṇi bahūni ca anantāni ca tad etad brahma apūrvam anaparam anantaram abāhyam ayam ātmā brahma sarvānubhūḥ iti anuśāsanam
This is that honey which Dadhyañc Ātharvaṇa told to the Aśvins. Seeing this, the ṛṣi said: "To every form he became the corresponding form — that his form might be revealed. Indra by his māyās moves about manifold: yoked indeed are his horses, a hundred and ten." He is the horses; he is the tens, the thousands, the many, the infinite. This Brahman is without anything before or after, without inside or outside; this ātman is Brahman, the all-perceiving. Such is the instruction.
bc14ae98f545 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:57:10 AM UTC
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The final honey verse (RV 6.47.18, word for word) is about the manifoldness of the One: rūpaṁ rūpaṁ pratirūpo babhūva — "to every form he became the corresponding form", and the purpose is named: tad asya rūpaṁ praticakṣaṇāya — "that his form might be revealed"! The forms of the world are not veils but mirrors: He multiplies himself in order to be seen. "Indra by his māyās moves about manifold": māyā here is no deception but a sovereign power of transformation; his horses are "a hundred and ten", and the Upaniṣad at once turns it round: "he is the horses" — himself the driver, the harness, the endless powers.
Gauḍīya Vedānta treasures this verse as the Vedic root of the teaching on the Lord's eternal forms: the One takes a "corresponding form" to meet each one — not out of need but for the sake of praticakṣaṇa, mutual beholding; the māyā-śakti serves love by multiplying the faces of the Beloved. And the close of the vidyā sets the last seal: ayam ātmā brahma sarvānubhūḥ — "this ātman is Brahman, the all-perceiving": not an insensible absolute but the All-holder and All-feeler, who undergoes every experience of every heart. Such is the anuśāsanam, the instruction; the Veda knows none sweeter.