Rigveda – Mandala 1, Sukta – 67 & 68

We shall discuss the hymns, Sukta wise & Mandala wise. Our focus is on the implicit meaning of the various hymns instead of literal translations of the hymns. These purported meanings are based primarily on the English translations by Swami Dharmanand Saraswati of the works done by Swami Dayanand Saraswati.
 
Highlights –
One should always enjoy the company of learned and noble persons. Vedic mantras and scientific knowledge sharpen minds and enlightens them. Meditating on God is important as he illuminates the soul, gives desirable objects and protects us. He gives lifeforce by the practice of pranayama.
 
Men cannot get secular and spiritual happiness without the communion with God and obeying His Commands. The learned virtuous and renowned persons by the performance of the righteous austerities and by other virtues, attain divinity. They attain afterwards Truth and immortality. None can be happy without possessing self-control and other virtues.
 
The hymn wise, purported explanations –
 
Mandala 1 – Sukta – 67

1. Men should enjoy bliss by associating themselves with the learned persons.
2. O man, you should always serve a learned leader who is like a conqueror of desirable good objects, who is like a King who chooses an efficient able young man as his adviser or helper, who is kind friend among men, who is auspicious or beneficent like a Sadhu (noble person true in mind, word and deed) is doer of good like a nan of good intellect and actions, good upholder of noble things, prosperous as a performer of good works, kind giver of happiness, conveyor of various objects that are worth taking and giving and propitious.
3. Those leaders enjoy infinite bliss who being endowed with intellect and actions know with wisdom the Vedic Mantras which sharpen or enlighten various sciences and glorify them, who act as a liberal donor giving to deserving persons, all wealth that he has in hand or as God who being seated in the cave of the intellect upholds all or a learned man living in the intellect possessing all knowledge.
4. O men, you should always meditate upon that God only who being omnipresent is within the soul and so instructs men in what is true and what is false. They should also associate themselves with learned teachers and not with ignorant persons.
5. As God sustains the whole universe with His knowledge and Power, as a dear friend causes good happiness to his friend by dis-severing the bond of misery, as God in the form of Antaryami or Indwelling Universal spirit illuminates the soul, by maintaining them, in the same manner, the President of the Assembly maintains or upholds the state by true justice and the Sun upholds the world by attraction and other attributes
6. O learned persons, as un-born eternal God sustains the earth and the heaven with true Supreme wisdom and eternal Laws, gives all dear or desirable objects, protects us from the bondage of the animals being seated in the cave of our intellect and giving abstruse secret knowledge in the same manner, you should protect all people with righteousness and the observance of thy duties all thy life and be like the un-born Eternal God (in purity and benevolence etc.).
7. None can enjoy true happiness without the communion with God and scientific knowledge, without true knowledge and conduct.
8. (1) He who knows the Omniscient God present in the intellect or knowledge, who obtains the speech of absolutely the True Vedas and all those who glorify God and acquire wealth (knowledge and gold etc.), observing truthfulness and Honesty in all dealings and whom God Himself instructs (through the Vedas and Inner Voice of conscience), enjoy all happiness and delight. (2) He who knows a learned righteous person and gets the correct knowledge of water and other elements. The rest as above.
9. Men should enjoy happiness by adoring God who is the Antaryami or Indwelling Universal Spirit pervading and controlling all His subjects and they should utilise electricity in various works. They should get delight as learned people do when sitting at home or as brave persons after defeating their enemies in the battlefields.
10. (1) O men, you should adore that God well whom wise men attain as their Home (Refuge) having shown Him the highest reverence, who upholds all His subjects well according to the Law of cause and effect and whose glory is manifest in the herbs, creepers and plants etc. pervading them all, He is Omniscient and Giver of life to all to be known through the practice of Pranayama or Breath Control. (2) You should know well the properties of electricity which is present inside the herbs, plants and waters etc. and which is known by great scientists and utilised by them for various beneficial purposes.

 
Mandala 1 – Sukta – 68

1. None can accomplish spiritual and secular worldly happiness without worshipping God and without thoroughly knowing and utilising the science of electricity.
2. (1) The person who is sustainer of all and who makes his knowledge mature by practice and experience, worships Refulgent God. He covers (protects) inanimate and animate things that are to be He thus becomes highly respectable by learned persons among the enlightened obtained. (2) He who knows fully the attributes of the electricity that upholds all beings and is very beneficial becomes a renowned scientist among highly intelligent persons.
3. Men cannot get secular and spiritual happiness without the communion with God and obeying His Commands.
4. O God, all those learned virtuous and renowned persons by the performance of the righteous austerities (which are dry like wood) and by other virtues that lead towards Thee, lovingly try to obtain Thy Divinity and Thy famous acts. They attain afterwards Truth and immortality. Every conscious soul should also try to attain this desirable state with great effort and earnestness.
5. Men should know that without God, from inanimate matter nothing can be produced, nothing can stand without a support. No one can remain without any action. Those learned persons who give education and other good virtues to the people and receive knowledge from others, should be respected and not others.
6. Those learned persons who take shelter in God who is embodiment of Truth and gives life to all, by whom all divine virtues and knowledge are attained and do noble deeds are very fortunate. O learned persons who ever gives to thee who art a righteous man and devoted to God perfect knowledge and who ever being wise (Mahatma) gives thee good education, given to him gold and other forms of wealth.
7. Men should enjoy bliss constantly by being friendly to one another and by acquiring the knowledge of all sciences.
8. He should be the Lord of these subjects or people who is engaged in all good works and everywhere the giver of wealth of various kinds to the children of wise learned men. O learned persons, endowed with knowledge. good education, dexterity and other virtues and desiring protective vigour in your own excellent off-spring wish well of him. Learn all sciences.

1. None can enjoy happiness without obeying the commands of God and absolutely truthful enlightened persons. None can be happy without possessing self-control and other virtues. Therefore, men should cultivate these virtues in order to enjoy happiness.
2. May all those persons be always happy who hasten to obey the commands of this Agni (God and a wise learned leader) like sons obedient to the orders of a father. That man is to be served and honoured by all who possessing self-control and peace and having abundant food and materials accepts or acquires wealth with his desirable virtues and attains perfect joy and destroys his violent opponents.