Observations placeholder
Rig veda - Frogs
Identifier
004780
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Frog symbolism isn't universally applicable, but here the frog is a novice on the spiritual path, croaking until they learn to sing! Half in the Water and half out and on Earth, they know about eggs - in fact their eggs are a good symbolic representation for the Egg.
A description of the experience
The Rig Veda [translated by Wendy Doniger]
After lying still for a year, Brahmins keeping their vow, the frogs have raised their voice that Parjanya has inspired
When the heavenly waters came upon him dried out like a leather bag, lying in the pool, then the cries of the frogs joined in chorus like the lowing of cows with calves
As soon as the season of rains has come, and it rains upon them who are longing, thirsting for it, one approaches another who calls him, ‘Akhkhala’, as a son appoaches his father.
One of the two greets the other as they revel in the waters that burst forth, and the frog leaps about under the falling rain, the speckled mingling his voice with the green.
When one of them repeats the speech of the other, as a pupil that of the teacher, every piece of them is in unison, as with fine voices you chant over the waters
One lows like a cow, one bleats like a goat; one is speckled, one is green. They have the same name but they differ in form, and as they speak they ornament their voices in many ways
Like Brahmins at the over night sacrifice who speak around the full bowl of soma, so you frogs around a pool celebrate the day of the year when the rains come
Brahmins with soma raise their voices offering the prayer for the beginning of the year; the officiating priests come forth heated and sweating . None remains hidden
They have kept the order of the twelve month as ordained by the gods; these men do not neglect the season. When the season of rains has come, after a year, the hot fires come to an end
He who lows like a cow has given, he who bleats like a goat has given, the speckled one, the green one has given us riches. By giving hundreds of cows, the frogs have prolonged life in a thousand soma pressings